Low light performance: 40D vs 650D

[hector_evans]

<p>It has been a few years since my 40D was introduced. My only complain with it is its low light performace - it is unusable even at ISO 800. Just for this reason, I am thinking of getting a 650D. Anything more expensive is out of the question. Is low light performance and overall image quality better with the 650D? Sample images on the Internet indicate so, but I would like some user opinion. Thanks!</p>

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>Almost certainly. It has the same sensor as the 7D.</p>

[vbi]

<p>The noise is about 1 stop less than the 40D but appears more as a fine grain than the perceptable noise on the 40D. I can get away with using up to ISO 3200 in a pinch.<br>

Check out <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/studiocompare.asp#baseDir=%2Freviews_data&cameraDataSubdir=boxshot&indexFileName=boxshotindex.xml&presetsFileName=boxshotpresets.xml&showDescriptions=false&headerTitle=Studio%20scene&headerSubTitle=Standard%20studio%20scene%20comparison&masterCamera=canon_eos650d&masterSample=img_1020.acr&slotsCount=4&slot0Camera=canon_eos650d&slot0Sample=img_1020.acr&slot0DisableCameraSelection=true&slot0DisableSampleSelection=true&slot0LinkWithMaster=true&slot1Camera=canon_eos50d&slot1Sample=canon50d_iso1600.acr&x=-0.30187770823302834&y=0.25257142857142844">http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/studiocompare.asp#baseDir=%2Freviews_data&cameraDataSubdir=boxshot&indexFileName=boxshotindex.xml&presetsFileName=boxshotpresets.xml&showDescriptions=false&headerTitle=Studio%20scene&headerSubTitle=Standard%20studio%20scene%20comparison&masterCamera=canon_eos650d&masterSample=img_1020.acr&slotsCount=4&slot0Camera=canon_eos650d&slot0Sample=img_1020.acr&slot0DisableCameraSelection=true&slot0DisableSampleSelection=true&slot0LinkWithMaster=true&slot1Camera=canon_eos50d&slot1Sample=canon50d_iso1600.acr&x=-0.30187770823302834&y=0.25257142857142844</a><br>

Unfortunately the 40D is no longer listed.</p>

[Marcus Ian]

<p>The 650 also has 18mp, allowing much more effective NR. If you shoot JPEGs, you'll see the difference immediately (as the camera has built in NR which automatically applies it to JPEGs written to the card). This will give you a tangible improvement in high ISO imagery.</p>

 

[PuppyDigs]

<p>I went from a 40D to 7D in 2009 and the CMOS was a big notch up in terms of rez and a wee bump in terms of high ISO performance. I found 40D ISO 640 and 1250 to be okay with careful application of Topaz Denoise to the file after conversion to TIFF. I was not too fond of ISO 800 or 1600 as they are pretty dad burn noisy. The 7D CMOS is similar to the one in the 650D and, for my taste, is about one stop better than the 40D if I use NR selectively on the worse low mids and shadows. The improvement in high ISO is not earth shattering but is real. A used/closeout 5D2 is a better choice if you need significant improvement in high ISO performance.</p>