Noise test with 1/3 ISO settings on Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III & 1D Mark IV
07/05/10 12:45 Filed in: Technical stuff
Do you use 1/3 ISO settings on your Canon EOS body? On the new 1D Mark IV you should because that means less noise!
After reading this very informative article at Northlight Images I took myself some shots with incremental ISO settings with the Canon 1Ds Mark III & 1D Mark IV side by side. The camera was set to manual, with a lens cap on and the viewfinder shutter closed. RAW images were taken and processed in Adobe Camera RAW with no noise reduction and everything set to zero (except exposure compensation was set to +4 to really show up the noise).
Here are the different shots exaggerated in ACR to bring out the details:
In Photoshop, I’ve added a little bit of “Levels Adjustment” to see the difference between each ISO setting even better:
Conclusion
On the “Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III” turn OFF the 1/3 ISO settings! Use only the full stops ISOs 100, 400, 800, ...
The full stop ISOs ( ISO 100, 200, 400 and 800 ) are implemented with hardware gain settings (in the sensor). But the ones in-between and 50/1600/3200 are implemented through software. The full stop ISO has lower noise than the in-between ones.
The new “Canon EOS 1D Mark IV” is completely different and therefore you should turn ON the 1/3 ISO settings!
The cleanest image is at ISO 160. Multiple of ISO 160 are better than multiples of ISO 100.
That means less noise with ISO 160, 320, 640, 1250 and 2500. This is also true when shooting videos!
Same applies to the Canon EOS 7D (watch this video) & 5D Mark II.
After reading this very informative article at Northlight Images I took myself some shots with incremental ISO settings with the Canon 1Ds Mark III & 1D Mark IV side by side. The camera was set to manual, with a lens cap on and the viewfinder shutter closed. RAW images were taken and processed in Adobe Camera RAW with no noise reduction and everything set to zero (except exposure compensation was set to +4 to really show up the noise).
Here are the different shots exaggerated in ACR to bring out the details:
In Photoshop, I’ve added a little bit of “Levels Adjustment” to see the difference between each ISO setting even better:
Conclusion
On the “Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III” turn OFF the 1/3 ISO settings! Use only the full stops ISOs 100, 400, 800, ...
The full stop ISOs ( ISO 100, 200, 400 and 800 ) are implemented with hardware gain settings (in the sensor). But the ones in-between and 50/1600/3200 are implemented through software. The full stop ISO has lower noise than the in-between ones.
The new “Canon EOS 1D Mark IV” is completely different and therefore you should turn ON the 1/3 ISO settings!
The cleanest image is at ISO 160. Multiple of ISO 160 are better than multiples of ISO 100.
That means less noise with ISO 160, 320, 640, 1250 and 2500. This is also true when shooting videos!
Same applies to the Canon EOS 7D (watch this video) & 5D Mark II.
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