Posted by Lance Warley on December 20, 2013 at 7:22 AM
Does anyone have experience with the 70D at iso 400-800?
I've had the 7D since it came out. I use it primarily for birds. I like everything about it except one thing - the noise.
My bird lens is the Canon 100-400, which I like for price/performance, but it limits me to F5.6 at 400mm. I keep my bif ss at a minimum of 1/1000. Anything slower and I'm blurring. At 5.6 1/1000, I would love to get good IQ at iso 800. That's not happening with the 7D.
The 7D has heavy noise at iso 400. Heavy enough that I have to use noiseware on almost every background as well as on dark areas of birds. I'm loathe to do this because of the loss of detail.
btw, this only applies to RAW. When I shoot photos of my granddaughter in jpg, iso 1000 is fine.
I've read the 70D autofocus is the same as the 7D, which is fine for me. The 70D is I think 1 less fps, which I doubt I'll notice.
Real world experience is appreciated. Thanks.
Posted by David Bostedo on December 20, 2013 at 10:12 AM
Well I can't offer any real world experience, but DxOMark measurement wise the 70D should be about two thirds of a stop better at low ISOs and pretty much the same as the ISOs rise (>800). That's not a very big difference - the summary scores are 854 for the 7D, and 926 for the 70D. Now that doesn't say anything about the quality of the noise - whether it's nicely random, or fixed pattern, etc. which could also make a difference.
Posted by Lance Warley on December 21, 2013 at 7:09 AM
Thanks, Dave. Yea, that's not much of a difference at all. Like you say, I'm hoping the pattern is less visible.
I just realized the 70D takes SD, not CF. That's another cost.
Posted by Nate Chappell on December 24, 2013 at 10:16 AM
A friend of mine, Cody Conway, who now uses the 70D but used to use the 7D says the noise is much less objectionable with the 70D but I haven't viewed his raw files. Personally I am looking forward to the 7D2.
Posted by Lance Warley on December 24, 2013 at 10:39 AM
Thanks, Nate. That's what I've heard, too.
I'm also looking forward to the 7D2, hoping for this lifetime...
Posted by Richard Hahn on December 24, 2013 at 11:32 AM
Lance,
I have had the 70D for about 3 months now and I like it a lot. For various reason I do not shoot in raw, stick to jpeg. I had not had any real issues with noise. My main lenses are Canon 70 - 200 2.8, Tamron 18 - 270 3.5 - 6.3 and Sigma 50 - 500 3.5 - 6.3. Do not know if this helps at all but thought I would post it.
Rich Hahn
Posted by Lance Warley on December 24, 2013 at 11:40 AM
Thanks, Rich. I'm hoping to find a good price on a 70D after the holidays.
Discussion
6 repliesI've had the 7D since it came out. I use it primarily for birds. I like everything about it except one thing - the noise.
My bird lens is the Canon 100-400, which I like for price/performance, but it limits me to F5.6 at 400mm. I keep my bif ss at a minimum of 1/1000. Anything slower and I'm blurring. At 5.6 1/1000, I would love to get good IQ at iso 800. That's not happening with the 7D.
The 7D has heavy noise at iso 400. Heavy enough that I have to use noiseware on almost every background as well as on dark areas of birds. I'm loathe to do this because of the loss of detail.
btw, this only applies to RAW. When I shoot photos of my granddaughter in jpg, iso 1000 is fine.
I've read the 70D autofocus is the same as the 7D, which is fine for me. The 70D is I think 1 less fps, which I doubt I'll notice.
Real world experience is appreciated. Thanks.
I just realized the 70D takes SD, not CF. That's another cost.
I'm also looking forward to the 7D2, hoping for this lifetime...
I have had the 70D for about 3 months now and I like it a lot. For various reason I do not shoot in raw, stick to jpeg. I had not had any real issues with noise. My main lenses are Canon 70 - 200 2.8, Tamron 18 - 270 3.5 - 6.3 and Sigma 50 - 500 3.5 - 6.3. Do not know if this helps at all but thought I would post it.
Rich Hahn