Noise/ISO.... What's acceptable In your opinion?

oO Stevie Oo · 30 Jan 2012 at 00:13

As above, I've personally turned into a noise perv, I hate it, but I'm finding in these low light days that I have no other option other than to crank up the iso.
I'm using the f4L 70-200mm and concidered going for the f2.8 but for what I use it for even f4 is too shallow a depth of field, so i I don't see any benefit from faster glass.

I shoot at around 1/50th for panning and it seems the slower I go, the more noise is being produced. The only other option I can think of is a body upgrade but the only crop body worth concidering is the 7D (currently using a 550D) but the ISO tests show the quality and noise through out the iso's of the 7D vs the 550D show next to zero difference and the other features of the 7D are no benefit to me for what I use it for... So what's the crack with the overall view on noise? LR noise reduction can only do so much before ruining tye image, do I just grin and bare it or what? Lol

Cheers

(this was ment to be a quick question lol)

oO Stevie Oo · 30 Jan 2012 at 17:10

Cheers all
I tend to shoot at the lowest ISO I can to be honest but after my last outing I noticed even shooting at ISO 200 is noticibly noiser than shooting at 100, unless I'm shooting at a night event I generally try to stay below 400, at night 800 to 1600 ISO purely because it's a night event that can't be avoided.

Shutter speeds I usually use from 1/30 - 1/160 depending on where I am (down to 1/15 sometimes on a night) but its seems to me the slower I go the more noise I get, not massively but noticable,
I'll give the above suggestions a go so cheers for them

(the 7D sensor is similar but slightly larger than the 550D/600D/60D sensor so it is a different sensor, but quality tests show their outcome is almost identical)

oO Stevie Oo · 30 Jan 2012 at 17:34

Depends what im shooting in mate,
In Tv with evaluative metering sometimes the exposure needs adjusting (which is understandable shooting cars of different colours etc), but if the lighting is consistent and I'm shooting in manual it's usually spot on after a few test shots

I know knocking up the exposure adds to the noise though so I usually play with contrast, brightness etc

oO Stevie Oo · 30 Jan 2012 at 19:14

I read there different as in deeper and the chips on the back are different, just what i read before I bought my current setup

oO Stevie Oo · 30 Jan 2012 at 19:22

That's what i thought too, that's why I went for the 550 and the L glass over a 7D with a kit lens

oO Stevie Oo · 30 Jan 2012 at 19:35

I moved to canon only a couple months ago, all new gear.
I've also got a Nikon D80 which until this point has out performed the 550 at low ISO's :/
Although I've yet to get some decent weather, thought canon bodies were supposed to be better for low noise and I really wanted the F4L lol

oO Stevie Oo · 30 Jan 2012 at 20:00

Yeah but as I was on a budget (student lol) I couldn't afford to replace to more modern Nikon gear so went to canon for a more modern body to get better iso quality, and I wanted the F4L, the canon seems easier to use and better to hold ergonomicly compared to a few nikons I looked at.