John Sheehy
New member
Hi folks,
I am really starting to enjoy my new 5D Mk II. I was in Rotterdam this evening and I took a few shots using ISO 6400 and ISO 12800. To my surprise, they are very usable. Take the following picture for instance. This was a reflection of a building in the canal.
Canon 5D Mk II, EF 70-200L f2.8 IS, f3.2, 1/25, ISO 12800, handheld. C&C is welcome.
Very nice. This is one of my favorite types of photography. In NYC, we don't have much in the way of canals (the few that exist are either inaccessible due to private property, or are out in the open with nothing to reflect), so I have to settle for puddles after the rain (after kicking out the cigarette butts and comedy club brochures).
As for the high ISO, it seems that noise issues tend to be greatest when you have extensive areas that are flat and dark, but not quite near black. The converters tend to pull those up and give the zones full color saturation, emphasizing the noise. When you have an image that is either high key or high contrast, it's not really much of an issue, as the blacks are rendered close to black, and the SNR in the brighter areas is not particularly offensive.
However, if you're shooting RAW, nothing over ISO 3200 is actually using any extra real sensitivity; an under-exposed 3200 has everything 25600 has, plus 4 stops of extra highlights, with smaller files to boot. These are a big trade-in for accurate EC and FEC, and a bright review image and bright embedded JPEG.
Canon is just so slow and conservative with ideas; they could have implemented all ISOs above 3200 (or any user-set ISO level) with HTP automatically, with zero compromise, and many gains (smaller RAWs, more headroom, and accurate EC and FEC).