Canon 1DMKIII: The new low light champ?

[jonj]

I was amazed by my Nikon D80 in low light. I took this with a 85mm f1.8 iso 1600 no flash...<div></div>

[rtrace]

We'll wait to see your images Marc.

 

Even at ISO 100 the colors have to be better. If not, Canon messed up big time in their 14bit A/D converter - or the world is not so colorful LOL ;)

 

Bogdan

[jmichaelc]

"while there is noise it' seems even distributed with no "clumps"

 

And this is where the true performance shows, regardless of the 12Bit 14Bit etc, when talking about Hi-ISO's. I've read many reviews on this camera now and all seem to agree that this system has almost a 2 stop advantage in ISO performance over any generation before it. I've been tossing the idea of this camera around for sometime now and use 3200 on my current MII quite often. The MII produces non-clumpy images compared to the XXD series and that makes a huge difference when processing the images. I couldn't imagine a nearly two stop difference in noise performance. The MIII will probably be in my future before the end of the year. Luminious landscape has a pretty good review of the noise levels of the MIII. The Live feature will be benificial as well. Many times now, when i can't get into proper positons such as dance floor actions....i do a lot of hail marry's with a wide angle. It will actually be nice to be able to extend your arms with a good idea of frame compositions. Or with those nighttime/twilight shots with your subjects....it will be nice not having to turn your panel light on to see your settings and bent over your tripod eye to the viewfinder framing your composition.

[jmichaelc]

Marc...how do you find the new navigational controls to work in comparison with those of the previous MII's? I wish Canon would somewhat standardize on navigation....seems to change dramatically with each new system.

[fotografz]

Hey guys, I've only had the camera for one day, and in that time was able to

confirm that the low light performance is promising. If you don't shoot that way

then the camera's not your cup of tea. But I know there are those that do, like

Jammey who has done wonders with high ISO images.

 

Bogdan, yes from preliminary shooting the colors are very very nice at higher

ISOs as well as lower ones like 500. I noticed that right away. But it's usually

the high ISO colors that get flat and muddy which this camera seems to do

better at. But I'd have to admit that the 5D was no slouch at this either.

 

Jammy, I don't think the live preview will aid in "Hail Mary" shots ... it's not a

swivel screen that you can tilt down, and (i think) it requires manual focusing,

but haven't gotten into that feature very deeply yet.

 

Yep, they moved a few controls around again, but many of the key ones are in

the same place.

 

BTW, it appears to have a custom function to automatically alter ISO when

shooting manually like the Pentax DSLR has. I'll get back to you on that after

confirming and experimenting ... THAT could be pretty cool for moving from

the church to outside and stuff like that.

[fourfa]

"This is the first DSLR that captures at 14bit!"

 

not quite, the Leica DMR digital back for the R-series SLRs captures at 16 bits.

 

and the mere presence of bits doesn't mean they capture anything meaningful - remember the film scanner bit depth wars? scanner specs quickly went from 8 bits to 10 to 12 to 14, yet noise and dense film detail hardly changed at all. Those extra bits were pure marketing spec, filled with data captured below the noise threshold and therefore useless.

 

Not saying the 1D3 is the same, just saying wait until the detailed tests before getting too excited. sorry, I know this isn't a tech forum...

[rtrace]

"I know this isn't a tech forum..."

 

LOL - all Internet forums are tech forums! More than needed!

 

Bogdan

[osfania]

Glad to see Canon is paying attention to the bit rate capture on their jpegs. Nikon has been doing the 12-bit capture, then output at 8-bit for most of their stuff (D2Hs was the first, I think). Nikons have always been the low-light metering and focusing champs - what could Canon/Nikon do if they combined forces? I shutter to think!

[alec_myers]

"If the color and gradations are NOT better, then it's an implementation issue - and it should be at all ISOs, my question wasn't at high ones I don't use."

 

Put your engineer's cap on for a second and it's fairly clear that you can't possibly expect get 14 bit resolution at the highest ISO's. Why? because if you could, Canon could push the exposure another couple of stops and give you respectable 12 bit resolution at two stops more sensitivity instead. You can trade dynamic range for sensitivity - just double each recorded value to lose one stop of the former and gain one stop of the latter - and can keep doing this until the rising noise in the black areas means you have too little d/r to be useful. I would be very surprised if the extra two bits sampling (14 vs. 12 previously) was valuable at anything higher than halfway up the ISO range of the camera.

[mikestryinagain]

I love it when you get things going Marc! Cant wait to see some pictures out of the MKIII. I have been loving the capability of the 5D, which was the most bang for the buck for me, but Ill be interested to see how the MKIII takes on the night at hi-ISO!

[primeimages]

As far as my books are concerned, Marc Williams has CREDIBILITY. If he says it's good, then it's gotta be good. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with my Nikon equipment and still have noise issues.

[rtrace]

"Put your engineer's cap on for a second.."

 

I say take your engineer's cap OFF and take pictures and stop with mathematics and pixelpeeping! Marc and Rob Galbraith have already said the colors are better - so there!

 

Live life at 100%, not 300%! :)

 

Bogdan

[eddy_perry]

Hey Mark,

did you use the new Mark III at a wedding yet? I am dying to see pictures and also you comments on how the camera handled.

 

Ed