Bruce Hinton
New member
Hello,
I have been reading, while waiting for my registration and forum permissions. A most interesting group, and I suspect my very best wool will not obscure anyone's vision here...
I have been into film, from Minox to Linhoff 4x5s since the early 70's, latitude, tonal gradation, and grain were the challenges for us that "noise" and dynamics are for you today. I mixed chemicals from scratch to hopefully rise above the usual off-the-shelf mixes.
My first digital body, obtained just a few months ago, was a used 1DsMkII, and I bought it because my current stash of lenses were for my film EOS A2, and a FF made sense to me.
I am not a pixel-count fanatic, at least within reasonable comparison numbers; I think in terms of camera usability etc., and thought to help my physical back problems by lightening my load. A new Ti1 had 15.1 Mp and I was then only slightly above that with 16.7 or whatever. The lighter and less costly lenses had my attention too.
I made the switch and am now troubled by things of knowledge and experience in which I was not up to speed.
I had experimented with high ISOs with that 1D, and mostly come away with a curiosity as to why it seemed an issue at all.
Now that it's gone and I look at some T1i images, (no controls here, just my growing impressions from varied shooting), I am shocked to find high-ISO noise has become a problem I had not even suspected! I feel again like I did when chemically abusing silver crystals, in search of speed. The grain was inevitable.
I now suspect I must go back to a FF sensor, but as before, I am not knowledgeable enough to choose between perhaps a nearly new 5DMkII, or go find another 1DsMkII. The current top dog III is simply out of my financial reach.
SO!!
Is the sensor size or price alone the major factor in this newly-prioritized pursuit of low noise, or is it the pure processing power and software/firmware sophistication of the true pro cameras that have the biggest influence?
BTW, I will finish reading the tech treatise I just found in this forum, I have already started it, and in several months of new readings, and hands-on experience, I will no doubt be catching up.
But I am hoping to get some starting-point sense of direction from those of you with several cameras, and the various tiered levels of sensor design capability.
Forgive my current lack of savvy, and know that I will get back to searching and reading this forum thoroughly.
Bruce
I have been reading, while waiting for my registration and forum permissions. A most interesting group, and I suspect my very best wool will not obscure anyone's vision here...
I have been into film, from Minox to Linhoff 4x5s since the early 70's, latitude, tonal gradation, and grain were the challenges for us that "noise" and dynamics are for you today. I mixed chemicals from scratch to hopefully rise above the usual off-the-shelf mixes.
My first digital body, obtained just a few months ago, was a used 1DsMkII, and I bought it because my current stash of lenses were for my film EOS A2, and a FF made sense to me.
I am not a pixel-count fanatic, at least within reasonable comparison numbers; I think in terms of camera usability etc., and thought to help my physical back problems by lightening my load. A new Ti1 had 15.1 Mp and I was then only slightly above that with 16.7 or whatever. The lighter and less costly lenses had my attention too.
I made the switch and am now troubled by things of knowledge and experience in which I was not up to speed.
I had experimented with high ISOs with that 1D, and mostly come away with a curiosity as to why it seemed an issue at all.
Now that it's gone and I look at some T1i images, (no controls here, just my growing impressions from varied shooting), I am shocked to find high-ISO noise has become a problem I had not even suspected! I feel again like I did when chemically abusing silver crystals, in search of speed. The grain was inevitable.
I now suspect I must go back to a FF sensor, but as before, I am not knowledgeable enough to choose between perhaps a nearly new 5DMkII, or go find another 1DsMkII. The current top dog III is simply out of my financial reach.
SO!!
Is the sensor size or price alone the major factor in this newly-prioritized pursuit of low noise, or is it the pure processing power and software/firmware sophistication of the true pro cameras that have the biggest influence?
BTW, I will finish reading the tech treatise I just found in this forum, I have already started it, and in several months of new readings, and hands-on experience, I will no doubt be catching up.
But I am hoping to get some starting-point sense of direction from those of you with several cameras, and the various tiered levels of sensor design capability.
Forgive my current lack of savvy, and know that I will get back to searching and reading this forum thoroughly.
Bruce