Canon vs Nikon – Part 3 – High ISO Performance
In Part 2, I wrote about color balance with regards to the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and the Nikon D3s. In this article, I will investigate the high ISO capability of both cameras.
Although a comparison between a 1.3 cropped sensor and full frame sensor isn’t exactly fair or logical, I must stress that I am writing this with reference to my own personal requirements.
In my case, all I want to know is that for a given angle of view, would I be able to shoot at ISO 3200 and how would the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and Nikon D3s perform. After all, the Nikon D3s has a reputation of outperforming any other DSLR camera in high ISO situations.
Nikon D3s @ ISO 3200
Canon 1D Mk IV @ ISO 3200
Nikon D3s enlarged
Canon 1D Mk IV enlarged
As you can see from the cropped JPEGs, noise level is visibly more prominent in the 1D as opposed to the D3s. This is evident in the white keys of the piano. Without making a printed enlargement, I am reluctant to say whether I can live with the noise level of the 1D. We will get to this eventually as I intend to make some test prints. If I were using these files for a magazine article, the noise level would be immaterial. But I am planning to make prints of 40 x 60 inches and at that size, noise levels in the file would be critical.
Take note that the D3s has rendered the scene slightly less warm than the 1D Mark IV. The D3s had recorded the image at 3600K while the 1D had recorded the image at 3950K. White balance was set to AUTO on both cameras.
* All of the photos were shot in RAW, then imported into Lightroom 2 before the images were resized in Photoshop CS4.
** Camera settings.
Nikon D3s : Picture Control @ Standard setting / Active D-Lighting @ Low / High ISO NR @ Low
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV : Picture Style @ Standard setting / Auto Lighting Optimizer @ Low / Highlight Tone Priority disabled / High ISO Speed Noise Reduction @ Low setting.
