Since there seems to be quite a bit of interest in the high ISO capability of the camera, I've done some shots of the bookcase in my office (please no comments on the choice of reading matter). I use this as a test subject because the lighting is mixed and difficult, there are lots of shadows which exacerbate the visibility of any noise, and the wood tone in my experience really looks terrible once there is a lot of noise. (I returned my G10 because it was just too bad!)
The shots were taken on a tripod using my 85mm 1.2 L lens at 2.8 using one shot focus on the spine of the book dead center. (As a side note, one feature on the 1D Mk III series, and recently added to the 50D and present here on the 5D Mk II that is often overlooked is the microfocus adjustment. I shoot indoor sports and am often wide open or close to it. The ability to get the focus spot on for each lens is a real plus. I did it on the 85mm before taking the shots, and it took 9 units forward, which translates into about 1/2" at 5 feet which is worth doing if you care about focusing on exactly what you want to.)
I shot jpeg because Aperture doesn't yet support raw, sorry.
Camera settings were, Standard for the image, High ISO noise reduction was turned OFF completely. Other than adding the logo and exporting from Aperture as quality 12 full size jpegs, I've done nothing to them.
Make your own judgement, but it looks to me as though everything up to 12800 is pretty good. 25600 looks like it has been "pushed", but would serve in a pinch, and would probably benefit from the ministrations of "Noise Ninja".
You can download the files here.
Index of /5D_Mk_II_ISO_Examples
The shots are for the personal use of the readers of this forum, and are not to be republished in any way. I retain full rights to them.
I have to get ready for an overseas assignment, so won't be doing any more in the way of reviews of the camera, but will post some reflections when I return having used it as my second camera to my 1Ds Mk III.
Hope the shots help everyone.
David.
P.S. When I was a Nikon shooter fighting poor high ISO performance, I heard a suggestion that noise was worse at non integral ISO settings (ie not the full stop 100/200/400 series) and my empirical experience from trying it was that there was truth in it. Since then, I have always selected the custom option for full stop, not 1/3 stop, ISO adjustment. I haven't done any testing on the Canons, but it makes some logical sense to me that non integral steps are more difficult to compute. Shutter and aperture still go by thirds, so I don't see any downside to sticking to full stops on the ISO.
Linear Mode
