5D Mark II vs 1D Mark III – ISO

Canon Rumors
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From Dave Jackson
Dave sent over this comparison of the two cameras and their ISO performance.

http://www.davidejackson.com/blog/

Check out Dave’s work as well, very good photographer.

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14 Comments
  • Even though I guess that the noise is not really effected, it is sad that the 5D2 shots looked very blurry.

    Still worth a peak…

    M

  • I was trying to figure out why the 5D2 shots weren’t as sharp. Is it focus? Is it noise reduction? I’m not sure.

  • It is the focus. The tablecloth in the 5D2 picture is sharper than in the 1D3 picture – the main subject is not in focus…

  • man… you think for something like this that you post you can at least get the focus right… I mean you have live view to confirm the focus now so there should be no excuse (just got my 50D, and man did I underestimate the usefulness of that feature… coming from a 20D).

  • I was trying to figure out the same thing. and worked it out to misfocusing. Try not to compare the clarity of details, but the noise levels in each image.

  • Umm, err, okay.

    I thought that the difference in noise would be more dramatic, but they´re almost the same to me at 3200. 6400 is a different story, but then I personally dont need 6400 that much.

    I think I´ll plunk down a few euros more and get myself a 1D3 this month, with decent sealing, more fps and all that stuff. Even 21MP aren´t worth sacrificing all of the above, at least for what I do.

    There´s no better wedding/cheap(ish) studio/portrait Cam than the 5D2 I think, but for what I do, the 1D3 goes first in line.

  • Don Komarechka said “Try not to compare the clarity of details, but the noise levels in each image.”

    Yeah, but if main subject is out of focus, blur is giveing you additional “noise reduction”.

  • Interesting, but the test was done using ACR 5.2 and not with the Canon’s Digital Photo Professional! Until Adobe fixes the crappy 5DM2 ACR module, high ISO comparisons using it will never show the full potential of the camera. Yes, Canon’s software is not that good, but it does a heck of a lot better on the high ISO noise, color, and shadow rendition. With the highlight optimizer thingy on, it even recovers highlights (though not with the ability of ACR). If Mr. Jackson had used the Canon software for the color/exposure test, he would have been much more impressed. For 6400 ISO and higher, DPP is necessary evil.

  • Probably done with the old bios version for the camera.

    Trying to use the camera’s video features like a camcorder won’t work either. You can’t swing it around from near focus to far focus. Trying to use autofocus lenses for manual focus will not work well, they are to sensitive to fine tune the focus manually is quick order.

    Use autofocus tthen record a scene, then refocus to get something at a different distance and restart the video, or use a full manual lens that was intended for manual focusing, like a Nikon D series. You can focus very smoothly with one. Another option is the tilt-shift lenses. They also manual focus very smoothly.

  • First question: what can I expect of a person that failed in focusing like the example of 5DMKII?… even worse because of the crap test…

    Second question: could the person that made the test fail focusing with a point and shoot either?… ;)

    Third question: Is there anyone interested in do good photography with this monster cameras?

  • I don’t know if I’m the only one here who came to the conclusion that the enlarged area of the photo is supposed to NOT be in focus, as it want’s to show the ammount of noise in out-of-focus parts of a photo. As we all can se in the large photo focus in way of to the left. For me this show quite well how both cameras handle noise in out-of-focus parts of a photo. Remember that noise isn’t only visible in the sharp part of a photo…

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