5D Mark III Night Scene ISO Test

Firstly, the experimental setup...5D3 with 24mm L II


Test method: Everything was left on auto, except for aperture at f/8. In hindsight, I should have stopped down more, but I didn't install the shutter release for bulb mode and 30s f/8 iso200 was a good exposure...Shutter speed was determined by camera metering, which I must say is VERY ACCURATE compared to my 50D. Photos are out of camera jpg. I have the raw version, BUT I don't have the raw codec...

Why this test? ISO test in bright day light usually don't tell much. From my limited experience playing with camera(and it really is very limited), typical iso test in bright day light or studio controlled environment seems to be 1-2 stops better than it really is when you need that high iso. That means, the iso performance could be great in great lighting, but much worse in low light. In a way, this renders the high iso performance useless, because one will never shoot high iso with good light and high iso performance in POOR LOW LIGHT CONDITION is where it counts...Of course, proper exposure can significantly help.

So here are the night scene iso test. The 100% crops are taken from the full 22megapixel photos. This is the scene from my bedroom...



In crop 1, the focus will be smearing of detail in the sign board and noise in the background. Good or bad, you decide.
100% Crop 1
ISO200


ISO400


ISO1600


ISO6400


ISO12800


100% Crop 2
Bright and well lit part of the photo...perhaps representative of what you will get with proper exposure...Maybe the details to look for here are the noise in the sky and the sharpness of the building...

ISO200


ISO400


ISO1600


ISO6400


ISO12800


Crop3
It is a medium lit scene in the whole photo. A possible way of comparison is the detail of the brick wall. At high iso, noise control is probably smearing away all the detail of the brick wall.

ISO200


ISO400


ISO1600


ISO6400


ISO12800


Despite the iso capability of 102400, I feel that ISO 12800 has exceeded my minimum requirement for image quality. Therefore, I stopped at ISO 12800. Honestly, I will probably stick so ISO 6400 max for indoor general usage. For landscape, one probably has got a tripod. So perhaps native iso 100 might be the best option.