10/30/08
I have a few high ISO Noise shots to share with you. None of these crops have been post-processed for noise or contrast or color or saturation. The only adjustment is to lower the exposure by 1/3 of a stop in Adobe Lightroom to show how a properly or slightly over exposed image will reveal noise. The lesson here is keep your exposure to the right to minimize noise in your image. Any of these shots will take noise reduction and be totally usable images.
Here is a shot from the EOS 5D, ISO 1600, over-exposed by 1/3 a stop and adjusted down in Lightroom, no sharpening. 100% Crop.
Below is a shot from the 50D, ISO 1600, over-exposed by 1/3 stop adjusted down in Lightroom, no sharpening. 100% Crop
50D at ISO 3200, 1/3 stop over-exposed, adjusted down in Lightroom. No Sharpening, 100% crop.
What I'm seeing with the 50D is that at ISO 1600, a properly exposed shot contains about 1/3 of a stop more noise than the 5D. I'm talking RAW, out of the camera. The 50D seems a little more sensitive to underexposure though. A 1 stop underexposure on the 50D will give a higher rise in noise than a 1 stop underexposure on the 5D. At correct exposure they are very close.
What I've noticed also is the 50D files behave very nicely with post-processing noise reduction. I can clean a 50D image, virtually removing noise at this ISO and still have a result that provides more resolution than the 5D or D300. The D300 can't come close to either of these cameras with detail at ISO 1600. I'm very impressed with this new crop sensor body. It's shaping up to be a D300 killer.