High ISO with good quality?

[jaimesommers]

Hiya,

I have a 300D which i love, and am shooting my final major project for my last year of my degree.

I cannot use flash and my 300D only goes up to ISO 1600 and looks grainy, I need to blow the images up and print at at least 16 x 12, what Canon's will do this and give me really good quality?

Cheers

jaime

[anglefire]

Well, given the total lack of information as to the subject an lighting you are using then its very difficult to make an informed suggestion.

If you have no limit to your budget, then you could go for th 1D MkIV - that goes to ISO12800 and expands to 102K.

If, as I suspect your budget can't reach the £4K+ for the IV, then you ciould get almost any camera after your 300 - If you can get to say £800 then a 5D classic would be a good choice - clean enough to ISO1600 and expands to 3200 - it was the king of High iso for the thick end of 3years. Only beaten by the Nikon D3.

If you want to be able to go above ISO1600, then the 500D will suit - goes to 12800 - but at that setting, there is a lot of noise.

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by jaimesommers

Hiya,

I have a 300D which i love, and am shooting my final major project for my last year of my degree.

I cannot use flash and my 300D only goes up to ISO 1600 and looks grainy, I need to blow the images up and print at at least 16 x 12, what Canon's will do this and give me really good quality?

Cheers

jaime

You don't say what you are trying to shoot? I had the same problem with my D200 but I locked it down, so it wouldn't go above ISO 800, which reduces the shutter speed. Even my D3 will produce noise at ISO 6400 if the shutter speed is too high.

[jaimesommers]

I am shooting in a hospice with very subdued lighting then converting to black and white.

ISO 1600 isn't enough on my current camera, and virtually a nil budget for a new one, I was looking at hiring one.

Thanks
Jaime

[chris-p]

I was reading the DPReview review of the 7D and the high ISO quality is astonishing especially considering the high pixel count and the APS-C seized sensor. It's as good as the Nikon D300s but with a much higher pixel count and, as far as I'm concerned, re-writes the rule book on high sensitivity, small(ish) sensors and high pixel counts.

[anglefire]

Originally Posted by OldBoy

You don't say what you are trying to shoot? I had the same problem with my D200 but I locked it down, so it wouldn't go above ISO 800, which reduces the shutter speed. Even my D3 will produce noise at ISO 6400 if the shutter speed is too high.

Don't quite understand this one Oldboy - do you mean the shutter speed is too high so is underexposed?

[flake]

Just to approach this from an entirely different perspective, there are other methods of mitigating the use of high Iso, assuming that you are using the original kit lens 18-55mm f/3.5 -5.6 ?

A 50mm f/1.8 would give a 3.5 stop advantage over the kit lens and allow you to reduce the Iso from 3200 to just 320 (If my 1/2 stops are right!). Of course you may still need higher Iso to get the shutter speed high enough, but this means that there's a little headroom, and this simply wouldn't be possible with kit lens. Cost is very reasonable at around £80

Noise reducing software will do a great job reducing any offensive noise, and give you control over how much reduction you apply.

Creative noise Of course you won't want to do this to every one of your images, but this technique is especially effective with black & white conversions and can add a certain atmosphere, the subject matter you have in mind could work well with this.

Providing your subjects aren't moving too much a tripod mount would help with longer exposures, and any motion blur might be a quite effective element in the image.

I'm not sure about Oldboys comment either, by too high did you mean too long?

[jaimesommers]

Ian, thank you!

Flake, yes it is the kit lens, thats interesting and might be worth trying. The tripod is a no go because I am shooting children, who run like the wind!

Can you recommend any noise reductin software?

Thank you again!

[Forseti]

Noiseware 'community edition' - it's free and very good. http://www.imagenomic.com/nwsa.aspx

[jaimesommers]

Thnks!