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Canon EOS 1D IV High ISO night images and letter readability test

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Per Inge Oestmoen

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Hello!

I am a sports photographer who want to try my hands at more serious landscapes and macro work too. Having the lenses I need, I decided that the EOS 1D IV might be a good choice to increase my capabilities since in the digital age the camera definitely plays a role. The same might be true for others who are interested in this fine camera.

I have made two tests which should give some indications of what can be expected from the 1D IV in available light and how detail is preserved at high ISO. The results should be relevant to many types of photography. In my opinion, the 1D IV is suitable for all sorts of nature photography including landscape, birds and animals, macro and what you can imagine. That is, it has the same characteristics as the 1D III but due to its greater number of pixels it should do even better with landscapes and its high ISO performance is desirable for animal photography during dusk and dawn and for all sorts of photojournalism.

So, let us see the pictures.

Number 1, the Canon EOS 1D IV High ISO letter readability test:

http://www.coldsiberia.net/1d4/images.html

Number 2, the Canon EOS 1D IV High ISO night test:

http://www.coldsiberia.net/1d4_night/images_night.html

Per Inge Oestmoen, Norway
 
Thanks for the tests, it was well controlled. If you have a chance can you please put sharpness on highest level on JPEG and take a daylight photo of nature (grass / trees) and post the original, this will allow to check out how well JPEG is made to handle small detail.

--
http://www.itanas.com
 
Per Inge Oestmoen said:
In my opinion, the 1D IV is suitable for all sorts of nature photography including landscape, birds and animals, macro and what you can imagine. That is, it has the same characteristics as the 1D III but due to its greater number of pixels it should do even better with landscapes and its high ISO performance is desirable for animal photography during dusk and dawn and for all sorts of photojournalism.
Click to expand...
From what I can see, it looks like the per-pixel noise is about the same as the Mark III. That's fine with me because all I wanted was decent ISO 3200 and the extra pixels should help.

Those who must have the highest ISO performance at the moment should probably start unloading their Canon equipment. Please let me know what you're selling. ;)
 
Scott Larson said:
From what I can see, it looks like the per-pixel noise is about the same as the Mark III. That's fine with me because all I wanted was decent ISO 3200 and the extra pixels should help.
Click to expand...
Scott Larson said:
Those who must have the highest ISO performance at the moment should probably start unloading their Canon equipment. Please let me know what you're selling. ;)
Click to expand...
  • If the 1D IV has the same pixel noise as the 1D III but also higher pixel count, the net result will be improved performance because there will be no more noise but more information. In this case however, the noise is lower. It looks the same on-screen because a much larger image is being projected from a screen with much lower resolution than a print. If one prints the same images from the two cameras the superiority of the 1D IV would become apparent, and the same is the case with downscaled images on screen. It would have been impossible to have the 1D III preserving that much detail and color at these ultra high ISO's.
For this reason, the choice of the Canon 1D IV for those who want the very best high ISO performance seems a wise one.

Per Inge Oestmoen, Norway
 
Hi Per,

Thanks for all the work you did in posting these.

Would you be kind enough to elaborate somewhat on the light conditions under which you photographed the outdoor shots. Would you describe them as
-dark (could hardly see anything with naked eye)
-deep twilight (could see for a good distance but everything is dim)

-light with darkness just beginning (could see far and available light allows one discern details at a distance)

If my categories don't work for you, please use your own descriptors.

Thanks,

--
Mike S
 
Thank you so very much for the posting and explanations! This helps so much. Feel much better about my impending purchase! Great so see some high ISO images properly exposed in moderate light!

Enjoy!
 
Mike Stratil said:
Hi Per,
Thanks for all the work you did in posting these.

Would you be kind enough to elaborate somewhat on the light conditions under which you photographed the outdoor shots. Would you describe them as
-dark (could hardly see anything with naked eye)
-deep twilight (could see for a good distance but everything is dim)

-light with darkness just beginning (could see far and available light allows one discern details at a distance)
Click to expand...
Fairly dark; the ISO 200 images needed as you have read 30 sec. exposure - but even that gave underexposure so I had to use Curves in order to lighten the images up a bit.

I could see but definitely not far ahead in the terrain.

Per Inge Oestmoen, Norway
 
I believe that no one who takes a large number of pictures of many different subjects in many different environments and in all sorts of weather will deplore the purchase of a Canon EOS 1D IV.

Per Inge Oestmoen, Norway
 
Can you give us a 3200 iso raw file to play with our Photoshop. I wanna see how the mark IV is doing in post producdion.

Thx in Advance
SBuisson
 
First of all, thank you very much for your work and the kindness of posting this test !

However, I'm not sure if it's just my screen, but it looks to me that there's some mazing visible in parts of the sky rather than discrete noise - starting from ISO 3200 and more evident @ ISO 6400 and above (viewing the photos at 100 %, of course) See i.e. in the upper left (a bit darker) part of the sky



Maybe I'm wrong, - but hopefully it's not the same green chanel imbalance as it was discussed with the 7D

Regards

Wolfgang
http://www.wjaekel-foto.de
 
Thanks for these tests Per. Noise seems good, but I do notice chroma noise even at ISO 3200. It seems that ISO 3200 is about as far as I'd push the camera, ISO 6400 is usable, but noise is still (for my tastes) a bit worrisome. ISO 12800 is usable for b/w photo journalistic shots imho, but I'd be not really too keen on using it for colour high quality shots. Just my 2c based on your test images.

Dave

PS Everyone will be different in their thoughts, depending on how they view high quality high ISO shots. Even though I am a Canon user, I make no secret of it that I prefer Nikon's approach, and their high ISO performance is far better than the Canon Mark IV's imho.
 
David Pastern said:
PS Everyone will be different in their thoughts, depending on how they view high quality high ISO shots. Even though I am a Canon user, I make no secret of it that I prefer Nikon's approach, and their high ISO performance is far better than the Canon Mark IV's imho.
Click to expand...
What approach yields the more image detail?

I do not know, I have not studied Nikon files since D300 - and then I saw that when noise was reduced image detail suffered greatly. I doubt that anything is gained by having "noise free" images where detail is eroded away.

Per Inge Oestmoen, Norway
 
To be honest, I haven't noticed any of this losing details to gain high ISO performance in the D3 or D3s files that I've seen to date. I can't speak for the D300, but it is well known that it's not in the same league as the D700 or D3, let alone the newer generation D3s.

I think the 1D Mark IV will suit my needs/wants as is, which is good news. I'll wait Six months though, and then hound a local camera store and test it to bits before making a final decision.

Dave
 
David Pastern said:
To be honest, I haven't noticed any of this losing details to gain high ISO performance in the D3 or D3s files that I've seen to date. I can't speak for the D300, but it is well known that it's not in the same league as the D700 or D3, let alone the newer generation D3s.
Click to expand...
--Perhaps you haven't been to Nikon's own website, so here you go...



All kinds of detail robbing NR applied in this Nikon sanctioned D3s ISO 12800 image. Void of any high resolution and replete with mushy details and banding...

Please, don't shoot the messenger...

Regards,

Russ



Greater is He that is within me, than he who is in this world...
 
LarzL said:
Happy for you Russ and all your Nikon buddies. Why don't you go back to your own forum? You can all have a big hugfest.
Click to expand...
--Ahhemm...

Go back and read the sequence more carefully... :)

Russ



Greater is He that is within me, than he who is in this world...
 
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