5DM3 ISO 1600/3200 bad technique, or broken camera?

[photokid]

I've had my 5D3 since April, but haven't had much time to shoot it at high ISO, last night i took it to my daughters skating practice, used mainly with 70-200II and 35L, pictures are blotchy and lack definition.

I don't normally shoot indoors, but the last time i did in similar light i used my 5D2 with 70-200II and shot some martial arts at ISO 5000 and the images were sharper and cleaner.

As you can see these are blotchy, not in focus and have terrible noise, i tried with/without IS, i tried it with Various focus modes, the results below are typical.

Is it my poor technique, or should i be onto Canon for a fix/replacement.

 

[photokid]

heres another

 

[photokid]

74 views and no reply, thanks guys, perhaps i should have put D800 in the title, FWIW it's not a camera bash i actually love the thing, but i was a bit disappointed with these images, especially sharpness, and i wondered if i had done anything glaringly obvious, guess it's the bear pit at DP review or FM forums then ciao!!!

 

[Chris Geiger]

You can't just point the camera at something and expect it to know what to do. Overall the exposure looks correct but the point of the photo is the face. I would have lowered the exposure on the background and added diffused light with off camera flash to the face. I understand you can't always do that, but without light control, you end up with just a snapshot.

The results you are showing are normal and typical.

 

[SteenerMe]

Looks underexposed to me which will show the noise. Did you use al servo? Cause at 2.8 its tough with that shallow depth of field to hit focus on a moving target..esp in lower light.

 

[mitchell3417]

On the first one her face is not properly exposed which contributes to the noise. It also seems like the first one is a touch out of focus. I would personally dial up the ISO 2 stops and the aperture a stop. This gives you a better exposure on her face, which you seem concerned about, and it gives you more depth of field for more sharpness.

The camera might be front or back focusing slightly. Did you micro adjust your lenses.

 

[photokid]

thanks for your replies

I did use AIServo, I also tried various AF settings, including single point, expansion etc, I could use flash, but even at +3 FEC it wasn't enough given where i was standing, my daughter had to do the move where she could, we had little control over that, due to the fact that there were every level and she skates clockwise, most others are anti clockwise. I didn;t just point the camera and expect it to know what to do, as you'll see it was used in manual mode I tried to use 6400 but that was even worse, but the results were typical no matter what focus mode i used, and it was easier to keep her in the focus points when using expansion, zone etc. it's the noise that i'm concerned about, the lighting wasn't great but i was expecting better. Perhaps i need to increase my tracking technique, as keeping focus on her face was nigh on impossible and i suppose it does;t help that she was wearing black, i did ask her to wear brighter colours but teenage girls.....

I only took the shots as she asked me to take some of her airborne, and to be honest they have cleaned up not bad in post, and she is delighted with the results, but i was a little concerned about the noise levels, thanks for your help.

 

[photokid]

On the first one her face is not properly exposed which contributes to the noise. It also seems like the first one is a touch out of focus. I would personally dial up the ISO 2 stops and the aperture a stop. This gives you a better exposure on her face, which you seem concerned about, and it gives you more depth of field for more sharpness.

The camera might be front or back focusing slightly. Did you micro adjust your lenses.

i'll try that next time, but at ISO 6400 it looked worse when chimping. Things looked better at 1/640 but there was too much motion blur, I also experimented with IS mode 1, mode 2 and off but it made little difference.

So far with the 70-200 i haven't need to use micro adjust, i did need a little on the 5D2 but not so on the MKIII, the 35L has around +5 or +7 from memory, but it seems to be inconstant depending on wether you are focusing on a near or far point, I have a shipping voucher to send the camera back to Canon for the light leak (non) Issue so i may send the 35L in at the same time for calibration.

 

[wockawocka]

It's underexposed.

F/1.6 on a 35L is going to be risky, moreover risky on any lens at that aperture.

If noise is magnified by a lot if you don't get the exposure right and the subject matter is low contrast.

The first image is down to too wide an aperture.

The second is still a telephoto lens wide open at 2.8, did you have the IR focus assist enabled on the flash? If so turn the assist light off (camera menu) as it wouldn't of fired until the light gave it a lock but by that time the subject had skated past the AF point.

Turn the AF Microadjust off, it's junk and anything moving use AI servo.

To get the correct exposure meter off the ICE and overexpose by 1.5-2 stops.

 

[photokid]

It's underexposed.

F/1.6 on a 35L is going to be risky, moreover risky on any lens at that aperture.

If noise is magnified by a lot if you don't get the exposure right and the subject matter is low contrast.

The first image is down to too wide an aperture.

The second is still a telephoto lens wide open at 2.8, did you have the IR focus assist enabled on the flash? If so turn the assist light off (camera menu) as it wouldn't of fired until the light gave it a lock but by that time the subject had skated past the AF point.

Turn the AF Microadjust off, it's junk and anything moving use AI servo.

To get the correct exposure meter off the ICE and overexpose by 1.5-2 stops.

Thanks, that's helpful, it's what I deep down suspected. I wasn't using focus assist, and I use back button focus, to be honest I never used ICE I just set it until it looked fine on camera screen, i should use histogram much more

 

[Radiating]

Part of what you're complaining seems to me to be about low contrast, the situation you're shooting in doesn't have very good contrast so it won't show detail. The other issue is your images don't seem to be perfectly in focus. Have you tried micro adjusting your lenses? The focus should really be better than that.

 

[photokid]

Part of what you're complaining seems to me to be about low contrast, the situation you're shooting in doesn't have very good contrast so it won't show detail. The other issue is your images don't seem to be perfectly in focus. Have you tried micro adjusting your lenses? The focus should really be better than that.

I think the 70-200 one is misfocussed due to operator error, and the low contrast makes it worse, the 35L will be going back with te camera for calibration.

 

[daniel-barton]

It's underexposed.

....

To get the correct exposure meter off the ICE and overexpose by 1.5-2 stops.

This. I think it's 2 stops unless your subject is real white/pale/reflective. I learned this the hard way shooting hockey. Do this first. Then worry about what your shots look like due to focus etc. Your AF probably just sucks due to the environment too, not necessarily the camera/lens combo. Crummy light, fast-moving subject, oddly reflective background bouncing light every which way, etc.

 

[wockawocka]

Thanks, that's helpful, it's what I deep down suspected. I wasn't using focus assist, and I use back button focus, to be honest I never used ICE I just set it until it looked fine on camera screen, i should use histogram much more

Yeah, trust the Histogram over anything else but regardless if you are using the back button to focus or not I saw that flash had been used. If the flash was on a at such a high ISO the IR searchlight will of came on. This can actually hinder your AF precision.

 

[photokid]

Thanks guys, this is good info, not used to shooting in such a challenging environment.

To be honest I never even considered the focus assist light, initially I wasn't using flash but I thought I'd try it for a couple of wide shots as a little fill, I tend not to use flash much.

Again thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated.

 

[wockawocka]

The way focus assist works is the light shoots at the subject, the camera focuses but then a second light is fired to check the focus. This checking is what can really mess things up on moving objects.

However if in AI servo mode it won't come on because it will give you an out of focus subject when your subject is moving

 

[Matthew19]

Doesn't auto exposure want to set the average exposer fore the scene to 18% grey? That would definitely cause this scene to be underexposed, same with snow. +2 stops

 

[cpsico]

The white of the ice has you off by about a stop, I would only overexposed by one stop to give a bit more shutter speed and a bit of a safety cushion in regards to possibly blown out high lights

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

heres another

The meter is getting tricked by all the white into under-exposing and you probably need to do a little micro-focus adjustment. The exposures do look dark, there is no need to save the highlights of the spot lights on the walls, just let those blow out.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Thanks guys, this is good info, not used to shooting in such a challenging environment.

To be honest I never even considered the focus assist light, initially I wasn't using flash but I thought I'd try it for a couple of wide shots as a little fill, I tend not to use flash much.

Again thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated.

focus assist would be rough for action shots I'd think