Camera Labs

The comparison is mainly for my own information. Similar data might or might not be out there on the net, but this way I can do what I want.

I am not only comparing the two cameras, but also the jpeg output under common settings, and also the raw output without any noise reduction. This is to give an indication of what the raw data looks like before you start to apply noise reduction. Of course, the de-bayer software may have its own characteristics in this.

Environment
Indoor artificial lighting by energy saving type bulbs.
Approximately 1.5m or 5' from camera to subjects.
Cameras on tripod with corded remote release

Common settings
White balance: auto
Focus mode: single
Focus point: mid only on Miffy's nose
Exposure mode: aperture priority f/8
ISO: as below
jpeg: max quality

Canon 50D settings
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.8 II
Peripheral illumination correction: on
Picture style: standard
Long exposure NR: off
High ISO NR: standard
Highlight tone priority: off
Auto lighting optimiser: standard

Sony A350 settings
Lens: Sony 50mm f/1.4
Creative style: standard
Long exposure NR: off
High ISO NR: on
DRO: D-R
SSS: off

jpeg processing: 100% lossless crops

raw processing: converted in ACR. White balance "as shot". Everything else set to zero where possible except exposure +1 for 50D, +1.5 for A350. Saved as jpeg at high quality (10) then lossless cropped.

The big picture:



ISO100 - Order: 50D jpeg, 50D raw, A350 jpeg, A350 raw


ISO200 - Order: 50D jpeg, 50D raw, A350 jpeg, A350 raw


ISO400 - Order: 50D jpeg, 50D raw, A350 jpeg, A350 raw


ISO800 - Order: 50D jpeg, 50D raw, A350 jpeg, A350 raw


ISO1600 - Order: 50D jpeg, 50D raw, A350 jpeg, A350 raw


ISO3200 - Order: 50D jpeg, 50D raw, A350 jpeg, A350 raw


ISO6400 - Order: 50D jpeg, 50D raw


ISO12800 - Order: 50D jpeg, 50D raw

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Interesting. Thanks for using your time to share this with the forum.

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Nikonian

http://www.edtangphotography.com
http://journeysintophotography.blogspot.com/

WOW, the 50D's noise results are suprisingly good! Thanks for the effort, interesting to look at and compare them!

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Ed


Canon 40D + Grip | Sigma 10-20 EX | 17-85 | Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX II | 50 F/1.8 | 430 EX II + Other Stuff
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The 50D is clearly better with high ISO stuff. Wish my Oly's were somewhere close to that ...

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Olympus E620 | 25/2.8 | 50/2 | 12-60 | 14-42 | 14-54 | 40-150 | 70-300
Olympus E-P2 | Panasonic GH2 | 20/1.7 | 14-42 | 14-140
Leica M7 | M9 | 21/4 | 35/1.4 | 50/2.5 | 50/1.5 | 70/2.5 | 90/2
Sony NEX-3 | 16/2.8| 18-55
My FlickR!

ISO performance is a relative thing between different models. ISO 800 isn't the same for all models. In that respect, the 50D is a great performer, given that it's an APS-C sized sensor.

However, rather than needing to resort to high ISOs (unless there's no other option), good lighting leads the way.

_________________
Nikonian

http://www.edtangphotography.com
http://journeysintophotography.blogspot.com/

From what I remember of the E510 at ISO1600, it was pretty usable although of course still better to keep lower.

For my styles, I rarely have control of the lighting (wildlife) so I find myself using high ISOs quite a lot on the 50D. What's high? I'll routinely go as far as 3200 if needed, although if I find myself setting 6400+ often it's usually time to go home.

Interestingly I estimated the 50D had about 1.5 to 2 stops of noise performance over the A350 in jpeg, and that seems to be roughly the case here too. The difference in raw is harder to quantify from their differing characteristics.

Forgot to say earlier, the exif should be intact to some extent in all of these if you want to look at it for any reason.

And given the statement in the 500D thread, this should be indicative of its performance too.

If I'm really bored, I guess I should do a "best raw conversion" output comparison too...

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Nice comparison. I'm not sure because I don't have first hand experience with the cameras but I think the A350 has relatively poor noise performance rather than the 50d have very good performance?

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Graham
Flickr

Very good comparison ,but why did you made a test between a CCD sensor camera & a CMOS one? I mean,everybody knows the CMOS has better noise management.

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
Visit my work here

Hmmm ... probably because he owns both cameras.

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Olympus E620 | 25/2.8 | 50/2 | 12-60 | 14-42 | 14-54 | 40-150 | 70-300
Olympus E-P2 | Panasonic GH2 | 20/1.7 | 14-42 | 14-140
Leica M7 | M9 | 21/4 | 35/1.4 | 50/2.5 | 50/1.5 | 70/2.5 | 90/2
Sony NEX-3 | 16/2.8| 18-55
My FlickR!

The E510 @ ISO1600 ... aarghh.

If you are really bored, maybe you can try to explain to me again that whole about a lens' magnification relative to focal length and minimum focusing distance ... I still don't quite understand it ...

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Olympus E620 | 25/2.8 | 50/2 | 12-60 | 14-42 | 14-54 | 40-150 | 70-300
Olympus E-P2 | Panasonic GH2 | 20/1.7 | 14-42 | 14-140
Leica M7 | M9 | 21/4 | 35/1.4 | 50/2.5 | 50/1.5 | 70/2.5 | 90/2
Sony NEX-3 | 16/2.8| 18-55
My FlickR!

grahamnp, noise performance presented in this way is relative, so if one is particularly good or the other is bad is only a matter of viewpoint.

Razvan, Armanius is right, these are the cameras I have and use. That is the only reason for pairing them up this way. However, given what's known about the 500D, the 50D results should also apply to that too. The 500D is roughly in the same market position as the A350 even if there is about a year difference in it now.

Armanius, not sure what else I can add to the magnification stuff I haven't elsewhere... I'll have to leave that for another place and time.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Since the 50D's noise performance is so good,a comparison with the old 5D would be really interesting. I can bet money there's not going to be many differences between the 2. (as I played with a 5D & I kind of know it's potential)

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
Visit my work here

Actually that one is a possibility. A colleague at work has the 5D and I've already agreed in principle to borrow it some time for other testing I want to try. Then again, with the ultra low pixel density in the 5D, they would have to do pretty badly to get bad noise performance out of it.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Well... it seems photobucket don't like the 50D ISO1600 output. I'll fix that later if I can find out why they did it...

It occurred to me I should check the exposure from the cameras. The metering gave the same shutter times up to ISO800, but at 1600 the 50D seemed a little less generous.

100 - 1.6 - 1.6
200 - 0.8 - 0.8
400 - 1/3 - 1/3
800 - 1/5 - 1/5
1600 - 1/13 - 1/10
3200 - 1/25 - 1/20
6400 - 1/50
128k - 1/100

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Thanks for the effort popo.

When you do the RAW best output test, could you throw in RawTherapee into the mix? The high ISO Sony shots have the typical smudgy ACR look to them.

Alternatively, you could host the RAW files somewhere and I'll have a play with them

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PhilipGoh.com