5D2 + 24-105mm... low light highest iso??

[Josh Fung]

Just plugged my 24-105 lens+5D2 into my 40" LCD tv... at iso 4000 it seems very usable........

what are your highest ISO limit that you tend to keep to..? i know the 160 320 640 1250.... but higher than 1600?

[Cody Dulock]

A good way to test what the noise is going to look like is using the "magnifying" function to check your focus... it will crop on the sensor and you will see how much and/or banding there will be. I recommend staying under 1600... if you shoot over, try and shoot everything over so it all looks the same. There are quite a few people using the Neat Video noise reduction plug in that like it. I'm not really a fan because you lose a lot of IQ in the image, but it may work for you.

[Vanja Marin]

Hello there!

I've done lot of testing on this topic!
Unfortunately, this lenses that you mention are the lenses that we all usually have as the main ones..
But they aren't PRIME lenses, ergo, they let very little light in and, cause of its structure, it can deform your picture very easily...(did you notice vertical waves of your picture when doing sudden tilt in lowlight situation?)
Talking about ISO....
My measurement Tests with few Cameras (SONY Z1 among them) and comparing them to my CANON 5D showed that ;

VALUE of 320 ISO is actually the 0dB GAIN on standard camcorder (Sony Z-1 HDV)...

640 ISO would be around 6dB and - although really very usable up to 1600 ISO for many purposes - nothing over 800 ISO is broadcast quality (at least for National TV standards - too much Noise and lens distortion (especially when shot with the lens you mentioned!)....

I tested it with 3 different Light Meters - and I think I got pretty accurate results...
So, standard Camcorders don't even have equivalence of 100 ISO (unless they start with negative Gain (-3)

Hope this helps!
Cheers!
V.

[Amr Toukhy]

Thank you for the interesting info :)

Amr Toukhy

[Bill Grant]

Wow, I guess I'm not up to "standards" I shoot at 2500-5000 consistantly and never use noise reduction on the 5D stuff. Perspective is interesting as contrasted with fact.
Bill

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Limits? There are no limits...

Stick to rules to maintain consistency and quality in your work...but rules, like all rules of life, are there to be used only as guidelines and should never stifle your creativity. Break them as often as you want or need to, as long as the end results meet your intended goals.

160 ISO is a good baseline, but there will be times when you need to push the boundaries - either to obtain footage in very difficult conditions, or simply to experiment...and eventually enable you, through experience, to make your own set of rules.

[Don Miller]

I don't like to go over ISO800. But you need the ISO that you need.

[Peer Landa]

Originally Posted by Don Miller

I don't like to go over ISO800. But you need the ISO that you need.

ISO-800 is pretty much the limit I try to stay within too, hence, to me fast glass is most desirable. But as you say, you need what you need.

-- peer

[Leonard Levy]

your 24-105 lens is actually even slower than teh f4 would indicate as that particular lens seems to lose even another stop of light within the glass. Function more like a 5.6. Just be awae there is much faster glass out there.

[Mitchell Lewis]

The graph in the link shows the ISO levels with the least noise:

Canon 5D Mark II Noise Levels vs. ISO - Canon Photography Group

100, 160, 320, 640 and 1250 have the least noise. 1250 is an especially good setting as it's noise level is almost as low as 100. Crazy!

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Don't forget that those ISO fractional levels reduce highlight headroom. Apparently, the even iso numbers have a balance between noise and highlight definition.

[Mitchell Lewis]

Where did you read/hear about that? I've never heard that before. Interesting.

[Don Miller]

Originally Posted by Mitchell Lewis

The graph in the link shows the ISO levels with the least noise:

Canon 5D Mark II Noise Levels vs. ISO - Canon Photography Group

100, 160, 320, 640 and 1250 have the least noise. 1250 is an especially good setting as it's noise level is almost as low as 100. Crazy!

I don't believe lens cap on tests

[Marcus Marchesseault]

There is a big thread about this and I believe the conversation went along the lines of the whole iso values (200,400,800,1600) being the analog gain settings while the fractionals were analog plus digital gain reduction or amplification to get their values. One reduces noise at the expense of highlight headroom and the other helps highlights while increasing noise. Since it is not apparently a smooth ramp-up of analog gain, I just use the whole f-stop values to prevent changing noise.

[Evan Donn]

Originally Posted by Mitchell Lewis

100, 160, 320, 640 and 1250 have the least noise. 1250 is an especially good setting as it's noise level is almost as low as 100. Crazy!

Every time I see that link posted though people seem to miss the most important part:

"in practical situations the noise differences at everything from 50-1600 have no appreciable differences"

My experience bears this out - I don't hesitate to go as high as 1250 because there's little or no visible noise up to that level. Once you go over 1600 the noise comes up fast, by 3200 it's pretty bad but certainly useable if you just can't get more light, and higher than that would be for emergencies only. Noise isn't the only drawback of the really high ISOs, you also lose dynamic range so your shadows aren't just noisy but also lack any real detail.