ISO Comparison - 30D, 40D, 50D, Raw, sRaw, sRaw1, sRaw2, DPP, LR.

Started Nov 5, 2008 | Discussions
Tiny Tim Regular Member • Posts: 229
ISO Comparison - 30D, 40D, 50D, Raw, sRaw, sRaw1, sRaw2, DPP, LR.

I have assembled an album of ISO test shots covering the complete range of full stop ISOs from my 30D, 40D, 50D in all variations of raw formats and each processed through DPP and Lightroom.

In DPP the picture style was Standard with sharpening = 3 and the NR settings were as set by default within the DPP software (a new feature in the latest release).

In Lightroom I used the Camera Standard Beta 2 camera profile and left all sharpening and NR settings at defaults.

Lighting was from 2 X 150W Halogen worklights place approx 18" from the target at a diagonal either side of it.

The backdrop was my LCD TV, which makes a useful subject to judge noise in the transition zone from black to mid-grey, based on feathering of the light from the lamps.

Here is the album, containing 84 full resolution images. The album website will reduce the files dynamically to fit your screen, but you can click the magnifying glass icon to zoom in or download individual files or the whole album if you have Google's Picasaweb software installed. EXIF data accompanies each file and the file name is a dead giveaway for the camera body, resolution and ISO.

http://picasaweb.google.com/EezyTiger/30D40D50DRawSRawSRaw1SRaw2ISO10012800TestShots?authkey=7KDmp1s3qLg#

Here is a thumbnail image taken from the album of the 50D 100 ISO and 12,800 ISO images processed in DPP, just so you can see what the test target looks like.

100 ISO

12,800 ISO

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Canon PowerShot G7 X
XeroJay Senior Member • Posts: 2,341
30D is the cleanest...

...and by quite a margin. The 30D @3200 looks better than the 50D @1600! And no one can use the "you have to down-size" excuse for the 50D on this one...

Any conclusions of yourown?

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XeroJay Senior Member • Posts: 2,341
Then again...

I was only looking at LR results...The DPP results have the 50D looking better.
Canon's pulled some serious voodoo with this cam.

XeroJay wrote:

...and by quite a margin. The 30D @3200 looks better than the 50D
@1600! And no one can use the "you have to down-size" excuse for the
50D on this one...

Any conclusions of yourown?
--

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Pastynator Contributing Member • Posts: 925
Re: ISO Comparison - 30D, 40D, 50D, Raw, sRaw, sRaw1, sRaw2, DPP, LR.

These aren't full resolution?
When i press the magnifying glass they're all 1600 x 1067

I was hoping to be able to check an actual 100% view comparisons of iso 200-400 between the 30D and 50D.
Could you upload a few full size files?

OP Tiny Tim Regular Member • Posts: 229
Re: 30D is the cleanest...

XeroJay wrote:

...and by quite a margin. The 30D @3200 looks better than the 50D
@1600! And no one can use the "you have to down-size" excuse for the
50D on this one...

Any conclusions of yourown?

I haven't picked through the images in detail yet but my very quick impression is that all the cameras are remarkably good, even up to 3200 ISO. Beyond that perhaps things get a little shakey but none of these images has had any fine tuning for noise or sharpness so I suspect there is room to achieve better results with some effort or after market NR software.

Viewing the original raw files at "fit to screen" sizing in Lightroom (17" 1920 X 1200 display viewed from 18") the noise is completely inoffensive - barely visible - up to and including 1600 ISO, from any of the cameras at any format of (s)raw. It starts to become clearly visible at 3200 ISO but, once again, barely detracts from the image. A pixel peeping tog may spot the noise but your average bride and groom would be oblivious to the "problem", in my opinion. Going beyond 3200 does take noise to a whole new level, and one which I'd prefer to avoid.

At 6400 ISO I'd say the sRaw1 images look neatest, with least banding and finest noise grain, even when all three formats are resized to "fit to screen".

At 12800 ISO there is a visible diffeerence between sRaw1 and sRaw2 but I am undecided which is the more pleasing. Full size raw just looks horrible, with a significant amount of chroma noise. I'm not sure what part the ACR algorithms play in these differences and what part the camera's own performance plays but on this evidence I would not want to shoot 12800 ISO to full size raw.

By the way, if anyone wants to judge sharpness I focused using Live View with the 40D and 50D on the right hand black eye of the snowman thingy (the eye that is on the left in the picture). For the 30D I'm afraid focus was impossible to determine precisely while shooting so there are no guarantees there. At 85mm and f/3.5 and a subject distance of around 7' (estimate) the DOF is only 3", which does not cover the whole scene from front to back and, of course, will not bare scrutiny at 100% magnification.

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Canon PowerShot G7 X
OP Tiny Tim Regular Member • Posts: 229
Re: ISO Comparison - 30D, 40D, 50D, Raw, sRaw, sRaw1, sRaw2, DPP, LR.

The files are all uploaded as full resolution files - check the file properties by clicking "more info" on the right hand side of the screen and you will see the pixel dimensions and file sizes. If you use the links from the website you will be able to download the original full size images.

I can't host full size images myself as I have little webspace and next to no daily bandwidth. My Flickr account is equally limited in available space. I can upload some files to Rapidshare but the full 84 images is 265 MB. I can upload the entire lot but I'm not sure how many people would want the entire 265 MB package.

I may just create packages for 30D, 40D sRaw, 40D Raw, 50D sRaw2, 50D sRaw1 and 50D sRaw to Rapidshare and then people can download what they want. Alternatively I could upload a 1600 ISO set and a 3200 ISO set, for example.

What do people want?

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Canon PowerShot G7 X
jman32 Regular Member • Posts: 277
100% zoom

would be nice
--
jeremy
there is no such thing as a stupid question
only stupid people asking questions

Pastynator Contributing Member • Posts: 925
Re: ISO Comparison - 30D, 40D, 50D, Raw, sRaw, sRaw1, sRaw2, DPP, LR.

I've tried the links and the magnified view where you can drag it around. But all the images in that state are 1600 pixels wide. I'm wondering if the site has resized them?

I was just trying to compare proper 100% view between 30D and 50D at lower isos (200-400) as everyone seems to be posting high iso comparisons.

OP Tiny Tim Regular Member • Posts: 229
Re: 100% zoom

I've decided to upload sets of full resolution JPEGS grouped by ISO. Each group will include all three cameras and raw formats. The first is uploading now (1600 ISO set). It will take a while to get them all up. I'll post URLs back here as they complete uploading.

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Pastynator Contributing Member • Posts: 925
Re: ISO Comparison - 30D, 40D, 50D, Raw, sRaw, sRaw1, sRaw2, DPP, LR.

All full size raw comparisons i was meaning above.

Blue II
Blue II Veteran Member • Posts: 3,898
White balance way off

The white balance between DPP and LR is no where close (DPP is warmer), at least on the 50D sRAW2 3200 and 6400 shots. Very easy to see when you use the arrows to navigate between them. Since these were shot in RAW, you should be able to set them all to the same temperature easily before uploading them.

-- hide signature --

Steve

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OP Tiny Tim Regular Member • Posts: 229
Re: ISO Comparison - 30D, 40D, 50D, Raw, sRaw, sRaw1, sRaw2, DPP, LR.

Do you mean you want the original raw files? That's 489MB of data.

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Canon PowerShot G7 X
OP Tiny Tim Regular Member • Posts: 229
Re: White balance way off

For the 40D and 50D I set the camera to use its tungsten preset when capturing the images. For the 30D I forgot to do that and had to apply a tungsten preset in post within both DPP and Lightoom.

Within DPP the colour may be a little off but it is consistent throughout all bodies, ISOs and file formats. I'm afraid in Lightroom it is another story. The colour changes noticeably between Raw vs sRaw variants.

The full raw files look warmer in Lightroom than their sRaw counterparts. This applies to both 40D and 50D files.

I could have set WB accurately but it was my deliberate intention not to interfere with the software doing whatever it was going to do to the files. So please don't blame me for WB inconsistency. That is down to the software and further goes to illustrate the lack of polish in the Lightroom ACR (and/or beta camera profile) processing.

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OP Tiny Tim Regular Member • Posts: 229
Re: 100% zoom
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Canon PowerShot G7 X
OP Tiny Tim Regular Member • Posts: 229
Re: 100% zoom
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Canon PowerShot G7 X
davenfl Regular Member • Posts: 142
Many Thanks

A lot of work and certainly enlightening in answering the questions a lot of people are asking. Thanks much for your efforts.

Pastynator Contributing Member • Posts: 925
Re: ISO Comparison - 30D, 40D, 50D, Raw, sRaw, sRaw1, sRaw2, DPP, LR.

Oops no i just meant converted from a full size raw, not a small raw

OP Tiny Tim Regular Member • Posts: 229
Re: Many Thanks

No problem I wanted the answers for my own purposes and have no problem sharing.

I started shooting weddings this summer and have my next wedding later this month. I want to know exactly where I stand regarding HQ when pushing the ISO in dim winter lighting. From the results I've obtained I am happy that I can use 1600 ISO with any of my bodies without any real concerns, 3200 ISO with care and to drop into sRaw1 mode if I have to push the ISO beyond 3200 on the 50D.

That's information I'd far rather have before shooting the wedding than after it.

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Canon PowerShot G7 X
ezradja Forum Member • Posts: 61
very informative, thank you... nt
n/t
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