20D, Noise and Nik Dfine

[margiewi]

With the Canon 20D and the 70-200 lens with the 1.4 extender, that's approximately 480mm. Depending on the light, if shoot handheld or on monopod, I was thinking that I should have at least a 1/500 seconds shutter speed. How high can we push the ISO on Canon 20D and not get much digital noise? I just purchased nik multimedia Dfine with the Canon 20D plug in and thought I could use it in processing. Comments on this approach would be appreciated.

[margiewi]

My reasoning on the effective range of this lens combination is this:
200 mm x 1.6 = 320mm
320 x 1.4 = 448mm

[davidwegs]

I use this combo and frequently shoot at 1/125th handheld and the results are sharp.

[Bsmooth]

I'd say your reasoning is about on the money Margei,as far as shutter speed goes.Not sure If its a F2.8 or 4 but you can push the ISO up around 400 and not see too much noise at all.I've seen some shots at 800 too that look really good. I have the same combo and I wouldn't shoot below 1/500 either.Never used Nik dfine so I can't comment on that.One thing ,you should try and use a tripod whenever you can.there a pain to carry around some time but the extra sharpness you get usually makes up for that. Good luck!

[Streetshooter]

Noise is an arbitrary thing...I often shoot at 3200, 1600- and the noise doesn't bother me at all....selling alot of work so I guess it's ok with my clients too....don