7D High ISO noise, not too bad

7D is reasonable new to me, being my second body to my 5d2. although the high iso of 5d2 is definitely better, I was surprised at how well 7d does with some noise reduction.

here is a dog shot with 7d, 100-400 IS, at iso 3200, and then pushed 0.6 stops, to about iso 4800, with topaz noise reduction applied. shot in raw.
original

I agree...the 7D is actually pretty good at high ISO. As you noted, not like the 5DII or I would add, like the MK IV, but the more I use this camera, the more I like it.
This is from last Friday, HS football game.
7D, 200 f28L ..ISO 6400. I did use some NR in Lightroom 3, but I thought it cleaned up nicely.
I was shooting in AV, and just noticed the SS was 1/800. Which means..I could have gotten even better shot, at a lower SS.
Still as far a noise goes, I've been pleased.

I agree with noise on the 7D. Shoot a lot at night with the 7D and high iso. No complaints. Here's a few shot at night, higher iso, no flash, hand held. I think the 7D is fabulous.

These were shot with the 28-135m kit lens. I think the lens is superb.

Photorebel wrote in post #13074006
I agree...the 7D is actually pretty good at high ISO. As you noted, not like the 5DII or I would add, like the MK IV, but the more I use this camera, the more I like it.
This is from last Friday, HS football game.
7D, 200 f28L ..ISO 6400. I did use some NR in Lightroom 3, but I thought it cleaned up nicely.
I was shooting in AV, and just noticed the SS was 1/800. Which means..I could have gotten even better shot, at a lower SS.
Still as far a noise goes, I've been pleased.

Looking good Jeff, just keep playing with the 7D settings, try different NR techniques, etc. Please feel free to add to my "Getting the best out of the 7D High ISO" thread I started some time ago (click mini-reviews link in my signature to quickly get to it). Have fun with the decision to keep the 5D2, 1D4 and 7D, quite a stable of equipment.

I will be shooting a band display this evening, along with high school football/homecoming. However I will be using the 1D4 (all I have at this point).

7D is quite capable at higher ISOs. I use it at 3200, when needed, without much concern. It's even better if you don't have to push the shot at all. Try to avoid any sort of underexposure, if you can.

Oddly, with 7D some noise sneaks in at low ISOs. It's not objectionable or even all that noticeable, but straight from the camera it's just not as "clean" a low ISO shots as with some other cameras (50D for example).

Exactly my experience Alan not only about high but low ISO as well which not many agreed with in a similar discussion some time ago. Anyway, here are some I took a few days ago with my old Tamron 200-400 f/5.6 at the park not so well lit. This ended up a bit underexposed due to the need to not let shutter speeds go slower than 1/160-1/200 and yet whatever little noise I had wasn't that bad at all.

I was surprised at how well the 7d shoots at ISO 3200. Some slight NR in photoshop cleans them right up.

Great dog shot

Yup. No worries about high ISO. I admit I use my 1d III more often in these situations but I have no problem using my 7d for the second body..

Canon EOS 7D ,Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM
1/800s f/2.0 at 135.0mm iso6400
NR with Noiseware Pro plugin in CS5