Every day there seems to be a thread concerning the noise / high ISO capabilities of the 7D. Some hate it, others think it is fine, so such threads usually turn into useless rants where nothing of great usefulness is disclosed. Let's change that...
Premise... A 7D has more noise than a Nikon D3s. A 7D has way less noise than Ektrachrome 400 pushed two stops. A 5DMkII has less noise than a 7D. The 7D has a different feature set that might make it more useful in some situations. Cameras are all different (big surprise) and noise isn't the only purchase / use consideration.
So we aren't dealing with a" better or worse than X" situation. All this thread is trying to show is whether the 7D is "good enough" for the viewers intended purpose - and that will vary from person to person.
Please post your 7D high ISO pics and list the ISO they were shot at and how big a print you would be comfortable making from it. Obviously, this last one is a judgement call so just think in terms of professional level output that wouldn't embrasses you.
Please no pissing on other people's boots. Let's just see what the 7D can do.
Different people have different standards and each will have to try the camera to see if it's acceptable to them or not. It all depends on how much PP one feels is acceptable to clean up the noise. Some people like clean images straight out of the camera and those are the ones who will not like the 7D. Others prefer to accept the noisy output and do more PP/NR than you would with other bodies, this is the camp who will be posting their 7D images.
Photography is about creating good light, not throwing money on marginally better camera bodies. I understand creating good light isn't always the case but I just felt it was important to mention since many seem to have forgotten.
dwweiche wrote:
Those are quite amazing. Can I buy a can of whatever you're using?
Thank you!
I have added my 1D4 actions to the same set, and I have sold this to others. If you are curious, please visit my smugmug page that gives some of the details.
I blew the exposure on this (quickly fading evening light, manual mode) by a full stop...shot at ISO 5000 with the 7D, pushed a full stop in LR3 (effective ISO 10000)...
ISO 6400. Some grain when viewed large on a monitor in the shadow areas, but I bet it would print nice up to a decent size. Probably 8X10 for professional use, but I'd print it larger since the detail is there where it counts and a little shadow noise doesn't bother me at appropriate viewing distances. I think that the main advantage of the 7D over the 40D is the amount of detail still available at higher ISO's. I never thought the detail was really there on the 40D over ISO 800. I would say that the 7D is at least a stop better at high ISO in my real world experience.
Your first shot at ISO 6400 is about 1 stop underexposed which is a recipe for noise on an APS-C body. When I shoot at ISO 6400 or 12800, I will always shoot at least +1/3, and alot of times +2/3 to the right. Also, what is your high ISO NR set to? It appears to be either Low or Disabled, since the NR stored in the raw are lower values.
I have processed your image using DPP and then CS3, would you mind if I post them?
