Canon EOS-1D Mk IV response in low light
Last weekend, i had an opportunity to photograph a couple of really good blues musicians at the Artista Bar & Restaurant at Tropicana Mall. The Terence Chong Blues Band was there along with Zhin Wong, a ‘wicked’ blues harmonica player.
My intention was to subject the Canon EOS-1D Mk IV to further tests against the Nikon D3s. For this article, I will just stick to the Canon 1D as I’m really tight for time. I’m preparing to photograph a group of bikers up in Cameron Highlands soon and I have not decided on what equipment to use yet!
The following were my settings on the Canon.
· ISO at 6400
· High ISO noise reduction at LOW setting
· ALO Auto Lighting Optimizer disabled.
· HTP Highlight Tone Priority disabled.
· Exposure compensation at 1-stop under.
· White balance in automatic mode.
· Picture style in neutral setting.
From my experience with both the Canon EOS-1D Mk IV and the 5D Mk II, exposure tends to lean towards over-exposure especially in a very low key light environment. Even outdoors, both cameras tend to over expose.
In this respect, I do like the way exposure compensation is controlled on Canon professional level cameras by the Quick Control Dial. I can easily adjust exposure compensation without having to press any other button to select it.
Auto Lighting Optimizer was disabled. I find this function usually only serves to brighten the overall exposure too much. In my work, I do like to retain the atmosphere and light level of the surrounding area as much as possible.
Highlight Tone Priority is not a function that should be used indoors as it works, well, on highlights! I also did not want HTP to add any more noise to the image.
Even at ISO 6400, my exposures were running about 1/125 sec – 1/250 sec at f/4 on the musicians who were on stage. There were no spotlights trained on the musicians at all.
Leaving White Balance in automatic mode was a good choice. The Auto White Balance setting on the EOS-1D Mk IV seems to be more accurate than the 5D Mk II. The 5D Mk II has a tendency to capture images in pub/bar settings a little too warm for my liking.
Shooting exclusively in RAW, I was comfortable with leaving the Canon to decide on settings for White Balance.
Throughout the night, I did not have a single issue with focusing. The 1D Mk IV clearly focuses a lot faster and reliably than the older generation 1D Mk III.
Looking at the 100% crops at ISO 6400, noise level is acceptable for my usage. I don’t blow up my images that much.. usually up to a maximum of 20 x 24 inches so noise is perfectly acceptable. This is a great improvement from the days when I pushed Kodak Extachrome ASA 400 120 format film 2 stops and ended up with grain the size of golf balls! Anyway, I do not want to fall in the trap of ‘pixel peeping’. What’s important is that I am able to capture images in low light with an acceptable level of noise. This acceptable level of noise is of course subjective.
Canon 1D Mk IV at ISO 6400
Canon 1D Mk IV at ISO 6400 cropped 100%
Canon 1D Mk IV at ISO 6400
Canon 1D Mk IV at ISO 6400 cropped 100%
Canon 1D Mk IV at ISO 6400 cropped 100%
I look at noise level this way. If it looks natural, then I will accept it. The reason why I say this is because we are accustomed to looking at low light shots that look grainy. Just look at all the excellent concert photos in magazines like Rolling Stones; especially the older issues that were shot on film. There is obviously grain from pushing the film and the photographs are usually not pin sharp. However, that does not detract from the the overall story-telling ability of the image.
Lately, there is just too much emphasis on low noise level at high ISO. Certainly, when I started to write my series of comparisons between the Nikon D3s and Canon EOS-1D Mk IV, noise level at high ISO was foremost on my mind. After all, this aspect is what magazines and the advertising concentrated on. But I’ve also come to realize that for most users, they will not see the difference at the sort of enlargement size they are used to.
I have included just one image from taken by the Nikon D3s at ISO 6400. The settings on the Nikon D3s were similar to the Canon even as far as Noise Reduction is concerned.
What is obvious is the images from the D3s are cleaner. Then again, for my usage, this lower noise level is not critical, as I am not enlarging the images substantially.
Nikon D3s at ISO 6400
Nikon D3s at ISO 6400 cropped 100%
After this session, I feel confident about bumping the ISO setting on the Canon EOS-1D Mk IV up to a maximum of ISO 6400. I did not have the opportunity to test the Canon 5D Mk II in the same settings but I suspect the images should be superior to that of the Canon EOS-1D Mk IV as far as noise level is concerned.
