Personal Evaluation of the Canon EOS 7D - Performance at High ISO

[caribsurf]

<p>I have owned Canon camera bodies and lenses since ~ 1980. I currently use a Canon EOS 5D Mk.1 with a number of lenses. I am considering the purchase of a second body and would find a Crop Sensor body to be a useful addition. I visited my local Canon Dealership yesterday and used a Canon EOS 7D body with my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II USM to evaluate this latest camera's performance at High ISO. In my experience, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II USM lens produces Tack Sharp images of excellent IQ with my Canon EOS 5D i.e. it is an excellent lens when used at an Aperture of f/8. My findings can be viewed at:<br>

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=945419<br>

They are not necessairly what I might have expected. The test conditions are shown below each frame. The use of the in-store artificial lighting is not a bad one in my opinion as the light on offer is identical and constant with no interference from wind i.e. no movement. What do you make of it?</p>

<p>Stephen</p>

[angel_bocanegra]

<p>Are theses straight out of the camera JPEGS, Raw, which SW did you use and if you used adobe, did you use the latest Beta ACR?</p>

[caribsurf]

<p>I used the RAW frames and the very latest version of Canon' DPP to make the 16-Bit TIFF files. My understanding is that Canon's own software offers the best Noise Reduction going. I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to sharpen the frames and to downsize them for Web posting. No other alterations were made for Colour Balance, Brightness, Contrast, Curves etc. When using Canon DPP, ALL settings were at zero with the exception of applying Digital Noise Reduction. as I have said, a small but reasonable degree of Sharpening was applied in CS3. The identical settings for USM was applied to all eight frames. I was more interested in the appearance of Noise than Colour Balance or Sharpness. Regards Stephen</p>

[keith reeder]

<blockquote>

<p>My understanding is that Canon's own software offers the best Noise Reduction going</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Not by a long stretch - I've had <em>very obviously</em> better results on 7D files from Capture One 4 (CR2s converted to DNG first) and LR3 Beta than from DPP.</p>

[KenPapai]

<p><em>"My understanding is that Canon's own software offers the best Noise Reduction going"</em></p>

<p>For FREE, yes; otherwise no. <br>

Noise Ninja and other packages, including the MANY controls built into Photoshop give you ample control over sensor noise.</p>

[model mayhem gallery]

<p>I try to keep my photography as simple as possible and for that reason don't even shoot RAW with my 5D Mark II. I have been very successful shooting large JPG and giving my clients a disk right after shooting with no complaints. It would be easier If I could compare those shots taken with the 7d against your 5D. To me the noise looks normal at those ISO settings, but again only a side by side comparison againg a 5D or 5D Mark II would really tell me anything.</p>

[allardk]

<p>I haven't used a 7D but I think your findings are similar from what I see posted elsewhere on the web . My general impression is roughly that the 7D delivers similar per-pixel noise at ISO 3200 as my 40D at 1600. Given that it has 1.8 times smaller pixels I find that pretty impressive. How far is it off your expectations?</p>

[15sunrises]

<p>Looks pretty good to me compared to my 40D.</p>

[caribsurf]

<p>UPDATE and Good News:<br>

Although Adobe do not say so, their DNG Converter Vs. 5.5 WILL convert RAW files from the Canon EOS 7D. I have gone back and made DNG conversions of the frames taken at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 and then fully processed the 16-Bit TIFF's in Adobe Photoshop CS3. The results are very good. Looking at the two processed conversions:<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/10318590<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/10318597</p>

<p>I am certain that this camera can be used up to ISO 1600 with no trouble at all and ISO 3200 is also possible. This is an excellent performance as far as I am concerned and 1-2 stops better than my 40D. My next step will be to rent a camera body for a weekend to try it in the "Real World" with birds in flight at ISO 1600. It will be interesting to see how hard I can crop a bird in flight without loosing too much of the detail. Looks exciting Guys. I print to 483x329 mm and I can see that the ISO 1600 frame will make the grade.<br>

Stephen</p>

<p> </p>