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Aqua (and the 5D Mark II)

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Jeanne Gang's towering Aqua project nearing top-off here in Chicago. This is actually a fascinating and enormous condo project, particularly for such a relatively small and young architectural firm. (The famed Trump Tower Chicago, topped but still under construction, stands in the background.)

More interesting, at least to me, is that this was one of my first shots with the new Canon 5D Mark II, and not even terribly carefully captured. This was handheld at 1/8 sec (!) with the EF 35mm f/1.4L lens at f/2.8, ISO 4000! (I don't recall ever using an ISO higher than 1500.) I performed no noise reduction on this image whatsoever, and very moderate tonality adjustments and just slight sharpening (for this tiny image).

Honestly, the 5D Mark II is really knocking my socks off.

107362077.jpg
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
..Honestly, the 5D Mark II is really knocking my socks off.
Hi Ken,

This sounds very promising, since -as an ex 5D user- I have already decided to buy the camera when I can get the budget part together. Now go and start looking for some black dots in there (joke!).

Cheers,
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Congrats with your new "toy" Ken!

Could you post a crop at 100% of resolution so we can see the real IQ?

ISO 4000 is really intriguing!

Thanks in advance!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Ken,

Thanks for bringing these files too us. I'm beyond impressed at ISO 4,000. So we don't need to switch to Nikon just yet!

This is a very important camera bringing such high resolution and light sensitivity (or call it high gain, low noise mathematics) at a low price. What's amazing is the low noise evident in the shot you have shown. Is this from jpg with Canon's noise reduction already performed in the camera? How did you process the pics. With the New Sony 24MP camera it seems that the choice of RAW developer is very important. Aperture appears to do better than C1 and than Lightroom or Sony's software.

I think it will be really worthwhile if you might be able to test RAW development of several pictures in the various RAW processors to see if there are any special secrets out there for us!

Like Nicolas I'd love to see 100% crops. The areas of special interest to me are

  1. Highlights: what sort of roll off is there. Can one get subtle whites
  2. Continuous uniform materials like aluminum, steel or blue sky: how is that treated
  3. Shadow
  4. Fine detail in clothes- tendency for Moiré

I also would like to see what happens to image quality at tiny apertures, ie f> 5.6. Ideally, the camera should be kept in the region of f2-5.6. I imagine that by f11 the image should show degradation in apparent detail because of resolving the diffraction at the aperture with the small pixels. It might be paradoxically, skin looks better at f11!

So thanks again for giving is this tasty introduction!

Asher

Asher
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Congrats with your new "toy" Ken!

Could you post a crop at 100% of resolution so we can see the real IQ?

ISO 4000 is really intriguing!

Thanks in advance!

Sure Nicolas.

Here is a 100% crop from approximately the middle of the Aqua tower.
107363637.jpg


This is from the office buildings in the lower right of the image.
107363638.jpg


And this is the top of Trump Tower in the distance.
107363642.jpg


The full-sized raw image file is just over 25 Mb. (The 5D Mark II also introduces two smaller raw file sizes which I've found handy, too.)

Once again, this is a handheld 1/8 sec f/2.8 shot. Also note that it was taken at a slightly oblique angle through a double-glazed window!
 

Rachel Foster

New member
I'm still waiting for my 5d II to arrive! The ISO will be a godsend to me with my camera shake issues and love of low-light shots.
 

Kathy Rappaport

pro member
I'm in line too

I thing these are wonderful. My plan is to get one this summer when my 5d is 3years old and I can relegate it to backup status. Please send me a few weddings and I can get it sooner.
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Here's the same scene, with the same lens, today:
107375378.jpg


And here's a 100% crop:
107375727.jpg


Kinda makes you folks in reptile-friendly climates chilly?

Most awesomest snowstorm camera ever! (Tongue planted firmly in cheek.)
 
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