5D Mark III & More Information [CR1]

[dwward]

Serious question.

Of what practical purpose are these very high ISOs?  Who used them and for what purpose?

[Bob Howland]

Serious question.

Of what practical purpose are these very high ISOs?  Who used them and for what purpose?

Serious answer: to take pictures of Yuletide re-enactors in a room lit by three candles, located in a 19th century historical village or to take pictures of musicians in a very dim jazz club. In both cases, the exposure was 1/15 sec, f/1.4, ISO3200. I want 4 stops improvement, to ISO 51,200, 2 stops to get the shutter speed to 1/60 sec and 2 stops to allow me to use f/2.8 zooms.

[dr croubie]

Another serious answer:
Taking photos of a party at my salsa school, darkened room with a few coloured spots on a mirrorball, mostly full-body portraits if i could get the room

Just a selection of EXIFs from that night:
7D, EF-50 f/1.8 @ f/1.8, ISO5000, 1/50s, -2/3EV for Sassy doing a speech on stage with lights on him.
ISO 5000, 1/13s, -2/3EV for dancers with the lights on.
ISO5000, 1/100s, -8/3EV with the lights off and just the mirrorball.
or ISO3200, 1/50s, -1EV with a bit more lighting.

all in Av mode, lighting changing too rapidly for M, -EV exposure comp was to try to keep the noise down and not blow out the lights (didn't help most people were wearing black), couldn't use a flash (a: don't have one, b: can't piss off the dancers). too much motion blur in most of them, the others too dark, the rest too noisy even RAW-processed and shrunk to 1/4 original dimensions. sometimes even f/1.8 was not enough DOF to keep the entire subject in focus, so going f/1.4 or f/1.2 was out of the question, especially as they were dancing back and forward unpredictably.

yes, 7D and 50/1.8, best i had at the time (i even bought the 50/1.8 for shits and giggles just to try it for this event).
(yes, I would have taken a 5D2, or a 50/1.2, but i don't have them).
If i could have used even ISO16,000 with the same noise as a 7D's ISO3200 i would have loved the faster shutter, more DOF, and 0EV.

[UncleFester]

Another serious answer:
Taking photos of a party at my salsa school, darkened room with a few coloured spots on a mirrorball, mostly full-body portraits if i could get the room

Just a selection of EXIFs from that night:
7D, EF-50 f/1.8 @ f/1.8, ISO5000, 1/50s, -2/3EV for Sassy doing a speech on stage with lights on him.
ISO 5000, 1/13s, -2/3EV for dancers with the lights on.
ISO5000, 1/100s, -8/3EV with the lights off and just the mirrorball.
or ISO3200, 1/50s, -1EV with a bit more lighting.

all in Av mode, lighting changing too rapidly for M, -EV exposure comp was to try to keep the noise down and not blow out the lights (didn't help most people were wearing black), couldn't use a flash (a: don't have one, b: can't piss off the dancers). too much motion blur in most of them, the others too dark, the rest too noisy even RAW-processed and shrunk to 1/4 original dimensions. sometimes even f/1.8 was not enough DOF to keep the entire subject in focus, so going f/1.4 or f/1.2 was out of the question, especially as they were dancing back and forward unpredictably.

yes, 7D and 50/1.8, best i had at the time (i even bought the 50/1.8 for S___s and giggles just to try it for this event).
(yes, I would have taken a 5D2, or a 50/1.2, but i don't have them).
If i could have used even ISO16,000 with the same noise as a 7D's ISO3200 i would have loved the faster shutter, more DOF, and 0EV.

If you ever get a flash for your 7D you could try a soft bounce with gel (so inconspicuous nobody will even notice ) and rear curtain syn to enhance the motion of the dancers. A good flash really compliments the 7D's higher ISOs.