Canon EOS 1D Mark IV Hands on Review- Part II- Intermediate ISOs

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV - Hands on - Part II - Intermediate ISOs

I have been carefully monitoring the noise characteristics in my Mark IV. I noticed that though my images created with ISO 1250 has more noise than the ISO 1600 ISO images.

I decided to check the noise at all the ISOs. Since I couldn't find birds posing long enough for all the ISO settings, I decided to test it the frames without a subject. :-)

With the lens cap on, camera in aperture priority with aperture set at f4, using a remote timer, I clicked frames at all the ISOs. The viewfinder was shut to prevent light entering through it.

Processing:
The frames were processed in lightroom 2.6 (my normal software). I decided to pull up the exposure by 4 stops. That means, I opened up the images by four stops, further accentuating the noise. Since this is the same for all the images, it ceases to be a variable.

I decided to keep the noise reduction at default for all (Luminance 0, Colour 25). It doesn't matter, as it is same for all.

Sharpening: Again it is at default (Amount 25, Radius 0, Detail 25, Masking 0). I decided to keep it as it is, as that is how I process my images. Hardly any extra sharpening I do for my images. Also, sharpening has the potential to sharpen the noise and make it more prominent. Anyway, it is a default for all, and hence ceases to be a variable.

Crop: The images were cropped to 796x530. That means, these are what you find at 100% viewing size, popularly referred as 100% crop.

The images were not resized while converting.

I have uploaded images one in each thread, starting from ISO 100 till ISO 12800. The initial threads starting with ISO 100 will appear plain black. Only at later ISOs, the nosie starts showing up. So don't wonder what's happening here. Now, over to you all for your conclusions. As far as I am concerned, my camera will be off for intermediate ISOs.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Same settings. ISO 125.

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Same settings. ISO 160.

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Mark IV. Same settings. ISO 200.

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Same settings. Mark IV . ISO 250

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Same settings. Mark IV. ISO 320

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Mark IV. ISO 400.

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Mark IV ISO test. Same set up. ISO 500

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Same setup. ISO 640

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Same setup. ISO 800.

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Same setup. ISO 1000.

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Same setup. ISO 1250

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Same setup. ISO 1600

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Same setup. ISO 2000

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Same setup. ISO 2500

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Same setup. ISO 3200

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Same setup. ISO 4000

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Same setup. ISO 5000

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Same setup. ISO 6400

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Same setup. ISO 8000

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Same setup. ISO 10,000 (Ten thousand).

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Same setup. ISO 12,800 (Twelve thousand eight hundred).

[Jitendra Katre]

Hi Sabyasachi, Something wrong here? You say that all images are opened up by four stops, means the 100 % crops shown here actually represent four stop highr ISO. I mean, for example, at ISO 1000, opened by four stops, the image seen here is as if shot with four stop higher ISO, i.e. ISO 16,000. But this image here shot at ISO 1000 is exceptionally clean. Very clean... isn't it unusual?

[Sabyasachi Patra]

If I remember right it was clean. I don't remember the specifics. And I couldn't find the files so can't recheck as well. So can't check and conclusively answer your question.

Also remember that the cameras do different types of in camera noise reduction processing even to the RAW files. So Raw is not raw in the real sense. There is processing applied.

Increasing the exposure in post is not the same as setting it in camera.

My current stills camera is the 1DXII and I don't have any issues with the noise. So never thought of testing the intermediate ISOs with it.

[Jitendra Katre]

Thanks Sabyasachi for clarification.