This is the hardest I've had to push the ISO on the 5D3 so far, and I'm pleasantly impressed. This isn't meant to inspire pixel peeping (sorry, no 100% crops 
), but rather to show what's possible with clean ISO 3200-6400 images. I know that's not that high by today's standards, but suffice it to say that I would have never attempted shots like this prior to picking up a 5D3. I f'd up and underexposed the images by 1/2 to 1 stops, but the images cleaned up nicely in Lightroom, and noise wise, are plenty nice enough for a two-page magazine spread.
ISO 3200, exposure pulled 1 stop
ISO 6400, exposure pulled 1/2 stop. Not enough motion blur in this one for my liking. I really didn't notice much difference in noise between ISO 3200 and 6400.
ISO 3200, exposure pulled 1/2 stop. Good sense of motion, but too soft to run large in print. Oh well, maybe next time.
A few notes:
1) The AF system is a beast. It was very dark, and the AF locked on effortlessly in AI Servo. On the other hand, the the black AF points are invisible at night when locked onto a black subject. I had to keep hitting the AF selection button to turn the points red in order to ensure they were positioned on the subject correctly.
2) For this set, the in-camera jpeg processing was quite lacking. I shot both raw and jpeg, and the jpegs yielded more noise and less detail than the raws. That's no surprise, but it becomes very evident at 3200-plus ISO. In better-lit scenes, IMHO, the jpegs render adequate detail and quality for my needs up to 3200. For stuff like this, it's raw all the way.
), but rather to show what's possible with clean ISO 3200-6400 images. I know that's not that high by today's standards, but suffice it to say that I would have never attempted shots like this prior to picking up a 5D3. I f'd up and underexposed the images by 1/2 to 1 stops, but the images cleaned up nicely in Lightroom, and noise wise, are plenty nice enough for a two-page magazine spread. ISO 3200, exposure pulled 1 stop
ISO 6400, exposure pulled 1/2 stop. Not enough motion blur in this one for my liking. I really didn't notice much difference in noise between ISO 3200 and 6400.
ISO 3200, exposure pulled 1/2 stop. Good sense of motion, but too soft to run large in print. Oh well, maybe next time.
A few notes:
1) The AF system is a beast. It was very dark, and the AF locked on effortlessly in AI Servo. On the other hand, the the black AF points are invisible at night when locked onto a black subject. I had to keep hitting the AF selection button to turn the points red in order to ensure they were positioned on the subject correctly.
2) For this set, the in-camera jpeg processing was quite lacking. I shot both raw and jpeg, and the jpegs yielded more noise and less detail than the raws. That's no surprise, but it becomes very evident at 3200-plus ISO. In better-lit scenes, IMHO, the jpegs render adequate detail and quality for my needs up to 3200. For stuff like this, it's raw all the way.
