50D revelation + questions

I've been pondering what I want as a backup camera to my 5D. I intend to buy used, and not anytime in the near future. I thought about a 1DIIN, a 40D, a 20D, another 5D, and even a 1DIII. I had never once given the 50D any thought. Why?

When the 50D came out, I gave it a lot of grief for its pixel count. I said I would never even consider buying the camera because of the file sizes, and I said that there was no way it could perform well at high ISOs because of the pixel density, which initial reviews substantiated.

But after the recent threads about sRAW1, and how high ISO performance is much better, I realized that this feature is potentially freakin' awesome. It gets round both my file size complaints (sRAW1 files seem just a tad smaller than 5D RAWs from what I've read, and I can handle that) and my high ISO performance compaints. Add to that the 9 cross type sensors, improved LCD, and other new features, and it all makes for quite an attractive package. And for low ISO, serious work, the high res option is always there!

So now I'm looking at the 50D as a sweet 7.1MP body with the OPTION to shoot at 15MP. If the price of used bodies drops like the 40D did, suddenly it looks like quite an attractive package! $800 for one of these in less than a year? Seems like a bargain. Thoughts?

So I also have two questions for you 50D users out there:

a) How's ISO6400 and 12800 at sRAW1? Any samples?

b) How weather sealed is the body?

Don't know about the weather sealing...

Here's a couple of shots taken by the light of a 25 watt incandescent bulb.

iso6400, PP'd

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif'

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif'

Thanks Ian. Even at sRAW1 in those shots, the chroma noise and banding looks pretty awful, but the detail is there, which is good. Having said that, the NIK software cleaned that up really nicely. I've never liked noise ninja and the way it makes everything look splotchy, the NIK did a great job though.

I agree about the NIK software handling the 12800 sRAW file very well. I was actually starting to regret paying for the NIK software until this. I got for its "debanding" feature and it definitely works.

Is the NIK software not compatible with CS3? I looked at their website and they don't specify CS3 for the Mac as being compatible...

Edit: nvm, downloaded the demos, they work.

Dang, I just hijacked my own thread.

twoshadows wrote in post #6841714
Don't know about the weather sealing...

Here's a couple of shots taken by the light of a 25 watt incandescent bulb.

iso6400, PP'd

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif'

iso6400, converted from sRAW with zero sharpening and zero NR:
http://www.pbase.com …otography/image​/106861768

iso6400 w/Noise Ninja applied (still no sharpening):
http://www.pbase.com …otography/image​/106861769

iso12800, PP'd:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif'

iso12800, converted from sRAW with zero sharpening and zero NR:
http://www.pbase.com …otography/image​/106861771

iso12800 w/NIK Define applied (still no sharpening):
http://www.pbase.com …otography/image​/106861773

WOW, those cleaned up really nice. I saw that you used 2 different Noise Reduction programs. Can I ask why? Which one do you feel is better.

Perry,
....so far, so good....

george w

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BigBlueDodge wrote in post #6841988
WOW, those cleaned up really nice. I saw that you used 2 different Noise Reduction programs. Can I ask why? Which one do you feel is better.

I never liked noise ninja, but I just downloaded trials of the whole NIK software package, and I must say, they are AWESOME. Their output sharpening software is out of this world. From Ian's shots, clearly the NIK does a much better job than Noise Ninja. I have NN and it's really not very good, way overrated.

george m w wrote in post #6841996
Perry,
....so far, so good....

george w

Niiiiiiiice.

17-40L with alternative hood?

btw Perry,

I recently picked up a 50D to complement my 5D, and I got to tell ya it's a really nice camera. It's one weakness is the high ISO (and I'm talking about ISO 3200 and above) in native raw. It's not up to 5D standards, but using sRaw does help out quite a bit if you need to shoot at ISO 3200 and above. You should also be aware that sRAW files upsize quite well. I upsized my 7.1MP sRaw files to 11.2MP (next step up in Adobe ACR) and the resulting image was very clean. Using the "shoot in sRaw, and upsize to 11.2MP in ACR" approach gives me same as, if not slightly better results than shooting at ISO 3200 on my 40D. Plus I get all of the additional features included in 50D. I'm happy with the purchase, and will use it to add "length" to my existing lens where my 5D just didn't provide enough reach, or in situations where I need faster AF and FPS.

Personally, I thought those ISO 6400 shots above without NR still looked good to me, all considering. I hated using ISO 3200 in my 20D and always tried to stay at 1600 or less.

My full RAW files at 15MP are around 18MB.The sRaw files at 71.MP are around 11-12MB.

....yeah it was a bit wet last saturday evening while I was trying to get this shot of a bridge.

Yes....the 17-40 is one of my favorites. That's a EW83J hood, which is standard on the 17-55 f/2.8 EF-S. Works great on this lens on a crop cam.

george w

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....actually....I take that back....the night it was wet was this photo....
( ooops ! )

george w

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BigBlueDodge wrote in post #6841988
WOW, those cleaned up really nice. I saw that you used 2 different Noise Reduction programs. Can I ask why? Which one do you feel is better.

I thought they cleaned up nicely as well, especially with the NIK software.

I've been using NN for a few years now. It's good for quick NR and especially batch processing. But it's turning out that NIK Define 2 is a very good NR program. I got it for the debanding feature and on the hopes that it would be better overall. Looks like it is better (although i was starting to doubt that I'd really get a lot of use out of it, lol).

I guess for batch processing a couple hundred shots its still going to be NN, but when I'm asked to print them large (or for any fine art stuff), I'll use NIK define.

Btw, your dissertation on the costs associated with the 5DmkII (in part)convinced me that the 5D was more than enough camera for me. So I pulled the trigger on a lightly used 5D yesterday afternoon. Thanks, Big Blue Dodge .

BigBlueDodge wrote in post #6842005
btw Perry,
It's not up to 5D standards, but using sRaw does help out quite a bit if you need to shoot at ISO 3200 and above. You should also be aware that sRAW files upsize quite well. I upsized my 7.1MP sRaw files to 11.2MP (next step up in Adobe ACR) and the resulting image was very clean. Using the "shoot in sRaw, and upsize to 11.2MP in ACR" approach gives me same as, if not slightly better results than shooting at ISO 3200 on my 40D. Plus I get all of the additional features included in 50D. I'm happy with the purchase, and will use it to add "length" to my existing lens where my 5D just didn't provide enough reach, or in situations where I need faster AF and FPS.

I use Apple Aperture and unfortunately it doesn't support sRAW. I think that is one of my biggest stumbling blocks in deciding between the 40D and 50D.

I don't want to add to my workflow by using a separate program to work w/ sRAW, convert it, then import into Aperture

Does anyone else use Aperture?

Really? It doesn't? I guess you could do the RAW conversion in DPP first, but that seems less than ideal.