50D and my own ISO Tests

Well I took the plunge and purchased a 50D. I decided to play with HI ISO to see if its really as bad as most of the reviews I've read. To my surprise, the 50D did better in my opinion than I had expected. I took 3 shots on .jpg at ISO 3200, 6400 and 12800 and here are the results. ALO was turned off. Picture profile was set to standard.

ISO 3200. NR Standard in camera, 35% Luminance and 89% Color NR Applied in LR2. No Sharpening in LR2.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/markwphoto/3078​295507

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/markwphoto/3079​128094

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/markwphoto/3078​295567

I just bought a 50d and also agree that its noise levels were great considering the mp's

It's a well light subject. Turn the lights off and let's see what happens

Mr. Clean wrote in post #6801875
It's a well light subject. Turn the lights off and let's see what happens

+1

Mr. Clean wrote in post #6801875
It's a well light subject. Turn the lights off and let's see what happens

Actually it really wasn't well lit... it was well exposed. The room was only lit but a lamp and some of the light light on the mask was being blocked by a speaker. I purposely overexposed by 1 and 1/3 stop to compensate for the camera turning the whites to grey.

Better test would have been to shoot 1 to 2 stops under and pull the exposure up.
Then you'll see what the noise floor does.

I have been wanting to purchase this camera as well but worried about noise levels, i shoot outside usally and stay under 400iso so im diving in as well purchasing the 50D.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #6801961
Better test would have been to shoot 1 to 2 stops under and pull the exposure up.
Then you'll see what the noise floor does.

That's going to make any camera including the much acclaimed 5D look bad. Evaluating noise on a properly exposed shot seems the right thing to do.

Yes... underexposing something is the fastest way to get every speck of grain to show through, even with film.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #6801961
Better test would have been to shoot 1 to 2 stops under and pull the exposure up.
Then you'll see what the noise floor does.

Of course, the whole point of having these super-high ISOs is so you don't have to do that...

I just bought a 50D also and i've tested the noise levels out, not as bad as i thought it would be, although your shots have light, it might not be a great deal but it is light. I find that the camera does well in the noise department considering all the criticism reviews i've read.

This is a very high key shot.. I think if you shot something with more dark/shadow areas, you would start to have more issues with noise. Also, the whole shot doesn't really have much sharp detail, so you won't notice the detail being lost to NR as readily.

I say this from personal experience with a 50D. It's the staff camera at my college paper and I use it frequently to shoot indoor sports. I would use 6400 in an emergency, but I don't think I'd ever shoot 12800 unless somebody was literally forcing me.

These pictures are worthless for judging high ISO noise.
Try again with low key scene, with lots of shadows and you’ll see the difference.

...and include some fine detail in the shot too.

We have all seen many photos of the 50Ds high ISO noise with dark areas and shadows speckled like multi-colored Christmas tree lights. That horse has been beaten many times. What I like about Markhyos shots are that he is showing a way we can use the higher ISOs without bringing out the gremlins.

We can take photographs in a museum where flash is prohibitied. Yes, we could drop down in ISO but might have trouble with camera shake. These shots show that it can be OK to go to H1 or H2 to get a faster shutter speed and possibly get a shot that might have otherwise been lost.