Limited dynamic range with 5d?

[PhotoMan187881]

I find that in bright sunlight, my 5D renders some highlights white rather than having detail. I understand that a DSLR does not have the same DR as the eye, but I found that my 10D seemed to do well in bright sunlight, and not the 5D. Any comments? Thanks. Photo Man.

 

[Petteri Sulonen]

JPEG or RAW? If JPEG, which mode are you using? "Standard" is rather contrasty and does tend to blow out the higlights easily; "Faithful" is a great deal more forgiving (and looks more like the 10D).

In my experience the 5D has at least as much, if not a bit more, DR as the 10D.

Petteri
--
[ http://www.prime-junta.net/ ]
[ http://p-on-p.blogspot.com/ ]

 

[AperturePro]

I find that in bright sunlight, my 5D renders some highlights white
rather than having detail. I understand that a DSLR does not have
the same DR as the eye, but I found that my 10D seemed to do well
in bright sunlight, and not the 5D. Any comments? Thanks. Photo
Man.

That is a good amount for a mid range camera. Not quite the 12 stops touted
by digital backs, but enough if you meter carefully.

You have to meter for the highlights. That might mean you have to under
expose some mid/darker tones, but it works well with the 5D.

Where is this white occuring? Sky, specular highlights on cars, or white areas
in general?

I find that the 5D can take some amazing pictures in mid day sun. You can

either spot meter the highs and use the meter to the right for proper aperture, or
use an evaluative metering and slightly under expose to preserve the highlights.

It is not necessarily the camera, but the way you expose.

 

[Jim F.]

JPEG or RAW? If JPEG, which mode are you using? "Standard" is
rather contrasty and does tend to blow out the higlights easily;
"Faithful" is a great deal more forgiving (and looks more like the
10D).

In my experience the 5D has at least as much, if not a bit more, DR
as the 10D.

I played with picture styles a little and quickly lost interest. Perhaps you're correct that there is a little more forgiveness in the "faithful" setting. I'll have to try it again with that in mind and see what happens.

I've found that almost all Canon DSLRs have a tendency to "over expose" though and I think it may be because the ISO settings are really higher than reported. I've found this in the studio and in the field when compared to film (1VHS and Provia, which is "contrasty"). What I think it "middle" toned is a lot "lighter/brighter" to Canon DSLRs. I find my self stopping down 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop frequently.

 

[astefot]

I find that in bright sunlight, my 5D renders some highlights white
rather than having detail.

This can happen easily, especially with a digital camera. Most digital cameras have a rather limited dynamic range (especially when comparing it to what most people used before - negative film).

I understand that a DSLR does not have
the same DR as the eye,

No recoding media does. The eye automatically and continsouly "exposure compensates".

but I found that my 10D seemed to do well
in bright sunlight, and not the 5D. Any comments?

Dynamic range of the 5D should be a bit better than the one of the 10D. Can you reproduce this result? Maybe you are comparing apple an oranges (=scenes with very difference subject contrast, pictures taken with very different settings etc.)

 

[astefot]

I find that in bright sunlight, my 5D renders some highlights white
rather than having detail. I understand that a DSLR does not have
the same DR as the eye, but I found that my 10D seemed to do well
in bright sunlight, and not the 5D. Any comments? Thanks. Photo
Man.

That is a good amount for a mid range camera. Not quite the 12
stops touted
by digital backs, but enough if you meter carefully.

You have to meter for the highlights. That might mean you have to
under
expose some mid/darker tones, but it works well with the 5D.

Where is this white occuring? Sky, specular highlights on cars, or
white areas
in general?

I find that the 5D can take some amazing pictures in mid day sun.
You can
either spot meter the highs and use the meter to the right for
proper aperture, or
use an evaluative metering and slightly under expose to preserve
the highlights.

It is not necessarily the camera, but the way you expose.

 

[Barugon]

http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail/dynamicrange2/

--
Whoever said 'a picture is worth a thousand words' was a cheapskate.

http://www.pbase.com/dot_borg

 

[PIXSurgeon]

...The 5D (and other EOS cameras) output MORE than 8.2 f/stops.

NOWHERE on that number is the characterization of total Dynamic Range, as a function of signal-to-noise ratio. That in simple terms means that there is no indication of what kind of noise levels are you getting.

You will get more dynamic range than that, for SURE.

Happy shooting!

 

[Hellashot]

..I think you need to learn how it meters and exposes and learn to adjust your exposure accordingly. Some cameras meter differently than others.

My Drebel underexposed just about everything by 2/3 stop when EC set to zero. Shoot and learn off your camera. Use your histogram to just exposure in the field.

 

[Hellashot]

(nt)

 

[Joe Sesto]

accuracy to Nikons and as I recall he found it was consistently 1/3 stop overexposing. I found the same to be true of the 20D.

I think my EC is frozen at -1/3 on my 5D for most average daylight shots.
--
Joe Sesto

 

[Duwane Huffaker]

For a serious image I do three (evaluative metering) shots. I set my 5D to aperture priority, select the f stop, then shoot at the camera's shutter speed. I then turn my 5D to manual. I set the aperture the same as at AV. I set the shutter speed one stop above the camera's then shoot. I then set the speed one stop below the camera's then shoot. It is the exposure with shutter speed one stop below that I often select for further work. Yes, this does fill my CF card. I shoot this way because I view digital dynamic range as similar to slide film's. Slide filim has limited latitude.

Shooting this way guides me to think about the image.
--
thezero

 

[Bernard Languillier]

Hi there,

What you are seeing is not in itself a DR problem, it is a problem related to the transition to blow highlights.

The 5D is said to be a good performer in this regard, but it still shows some typical DSLR behaviour, meaning a rather abrupt transition from non blown to blown areas.

The DR of film isn't much larger than that of a DSLR like the 5D, and slide has clearly less DR, but transition to blown highlight is much more "natural" with film and slides than with digital.

Cheers,
Bernard

 

[Donald Wong]

Does this produce different results than bracketing with -1 and +1 EV in Av mode?

--
Gallery @ http://twinpekes.smugmug.com

 

[peteb]

In practice my 5D has more range than my LCD screen (which is only 'somewhat' calibrated ;o))

Photos printed from the 5D have a ton of range in them.

So when you talk about range, I presume you are talking about photos printed infront of you at a lab captured in RAW, processed in a nuetral or faithful style and correctly white-balanced?

Also I presume you are talking about photos that were properly exposed to begine with?

I find that in bright sunlight, my 5D renders some highlights white
rather than having detail. I understand that a DSLR does not have
the same DR as the eye, but I found that my 10D seemed to do well
in bright sunlight, and not the 5D. Any comments? Thanks. Photo
Man.

--
http://public.fotki.com/wibble/public_display/

 

[xtoph]

than to worry about which camera has more dr.

i've found that for my work, the eval metering is treacherous--a head/shoulders portrait against shadow will nearly always blow patches of highlight in the face, for instance. when i have time, i can use the spot meter, but mostly i have just switched to full manual and expose to protect highlights most of the time (right now iso200 f8 tv 500-800, or equivalent, in sunlight where i live--but raising the iso above 200 means you also need to be slightly more conservative on highlights).

this is why it would be really, really useful if the 5d included more custom slots on the dial--i often have m position set up for sunlight, with c set to manual exposed for shadows. but it is so slow to dial in manual exposure changes (compared to full clicks on a manual camera, which you can do by feel before you even bring it to your eye) that if one of those presets is inappropriate for a scene, i sometimes miss it (talking street doc style work here), or fall back to aperture priority and risk blowing the exposure.

 

[astefot]

http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail/dynamicrange2/

...although I can't reconcile their conclusions with my experiences, this makes an interesting reading. Thanks for sharing.

I guess the conclusions depend a bit what exactly is being compared (which camera, which film -> b/w film versus slide film etc.). Also, at least as far as I am informed, dynamic range is tricky to define/measure.

 

[Duwane Huffaker]

I have never tried the bracketing feature. Perhaps I should do that.
--
thezero