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Canon 5D Mk II - Pixel Peeping at High ISO
January 4, 2009

Caveats about these comparisons:

1. The only current DSLR that I have available to compare to the Canon 5D2 is the Nikon D300, a DX format SLR with about half the resolution of the 5D2
2. The lenses are obviously different with the 70-200 f2.8 IS used with the 5D2 and the 70-200 f2.8 VR used with the D300 - this results in the comparison being a combination of lens and sensor. While lens adapters are available to allow the use of Nikon lenses with Canon SLRs, I don't have one at the moment
3. The cameras were handheld, which will affect critical sharpness especially at the slower ISO settings; however, this comparison is not about resolution, but about high ISO settings - these are more real world test shots, used in an environment and in a manner that I would use a high ISO setting, namely, a dimly lit hockey arena to photograph my son playing hockey, where I'm not going to be schlepping around a tripod or even a monopod
4. With such caveats, you may not find the comparison to be meaningful, but that's okay, because I will have more critical comparisons, which will also take a look at resolution too

These first comparisons are just of a hockey net with crops taken from the center of the frame. The shots were taken on the same day with one camera used first then the other. The cameras were set to aperture priority with the shutter speed falling where they may based on the cameras' metering. The first two shots are a bit soft due to slower shutter speeds. RAW files were converted via Adobe Lightroom at default settings, but I did turn down sharpening and noise reduction to zero.

5D2 at ISO 200	D300 at ISO 200
5D2 at ISO 400	D300 at ISO 400
5D2 at ISO 800	D300 at ISO 800
5D2 at ISO 1600	D300 at ISO 1600
5D2 at ISO 3200	D300 at ISO 3200
5D2 at ISO 6400	D300 at ISO 6400
5D2 at ISO 12,800
5D2 at ISO 25,600

My thoughts - up to ISO 800, pretty much even for noise, but at ISO 1600, the 5D2 starts to pull away and offers up a plus one-stop of difference over the D300's high ISO noise characteristics. ISO 3200 still looks quite usable from the 5D2. By ISO 6400, the D300's quality is worthless and looks even worse than the 5D2's ISO 12k.

More comparisons

These samples are in the same arena and same day. The difference between this set and the first one is that the exposure settings are the same for both cameras. Because the lower ISO settings are similar enough to each other, I only posted samples from ISO 800 onwards (also the lower ISO settings would have required a slow shutter speed and would likely have revealed hand shake).

5D2 at ISO 800	D300 at ISO 800
5D2 at ISO 1600	D300 at ISO 1600
5D2 at ISO 3200	D300 at ISO 3200
5D2 at ISO 6400	D300 at ISO 6400
5D2 at ISO 12k
5D2 at ISO 25k

My thoughts about this set aren't much different than for the first set. If you want to laugh at the dark and shoot in challenging ambient light situations, full frame is the way to go.

Obviously, my experience with full frame cameras is with only the Canon 5D Mk II, so I can only wonder how much better the Nikon D3 and D700 are (as they are reputed to be by some, over the 5D2).

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