Canon EOS 1D IV High ISO night images

Photographer: ©Per Inge Oestmoen
Number of images: 33
Created on: Saturday 26 December 2009

These are made from original JPEG files, thus a significantly higher quality is likely possible from RAW capture. (Yes, I have the RAW versions too) However, this gives a relevant picture of the camera's JPEG capabilities which are particularly important for sports photographers and photojournalists. I take for granted that any serious nature photographer uses RAW capture. High ISO noise reduction was turned off in all instances since I am personally not enamored with NR, especially not in-camera NR. Image _F6C2869 shows the very dark environment during the capture of these images, and accordingly the ISO 200 versions were sightly underexposed at a shutter speed of 30 sec.

White balance is somewhat off, but this fact does not affect the purpose of the images and moreover such inaccuracies can easily be adjusted either on camera or with RAW conversion software. There is no ground for blaming the 1D IV for the erroneous white balance in these images; it was a difficult lighting in the night and the camera was on Auto White Balance. (AWB) No sharpening whatsoever has been applied to the full-size versions, and the camera was set on "Neutral" picture style - which means absolutely no sharpening.

I judge ISO 6400 from this camera to be superior to ISO 3200 from the EOS 1D III, which nevertheless remains a top low-light performer albeit now superseded by its successor. There is no serious loss of quality until well after ISO 12800, even with these JPEG images. Even at ISO 51200, detail is impressively well retained. It would seem that new and novel forms of nature photography are possible with the EOS 1D IV.

_F6C2869_ISO_12800_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (103 KB)	_F6C2875_ISO_800_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (274 KB)	_F6C2875_ISO_800_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (2286 KB)	_F6C2876_ISO_1600_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (278 KB)
_F6C2876_ISO_1600_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (2454 KB)	_F6C2877_ISO_3200_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (281 KB)	_F6C2877_ISO_3200_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (2548 KB)	_F6C2878_ISO_6400_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (292 KB)
_F6C2878_ISO_6400_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (2889 KB)	_F6C2879_ISO_12800_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (297 KB)	_F6C2879_ISO_12800_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (3299 KB)	_F6C2880_ISO_25600_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (325 KB)
_F6C2880_ISO_25600_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (3735 KB)	_F6C2882_ISO_51200_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (377 KB)	_F6C2882_ISO_51200_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (4849 KB)	_F6C2890_ISO_200_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (250 KB)
_F6C2890_ISO_200_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (2037 KB)	_F6C2894_ISO_51200_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (395 KB)	_F6C2894_ISO_51200_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (4832 KB)	_F6C2895_ISO_25600_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (335 KB)
_F6C2895_ISO_25600_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (3576 KB)	_F6C2896_ISO_12800.jpg 1000 x 667 (318 KB)	_F6C2896_ISO_12800_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (3248 KB)	_F6C2897_ISO_6400_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (312 KB)
_F6C2897_ISO_6400_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (2918 KB)	_F6C2898_ISO_3200_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (308 KB)	_F6C2898_ISO_3200_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (2680 KB)	_F6C2899_ISO_1600_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (300 KB)
_F6C2899_ISO_1600_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (2587 KB)	_F6C2900_ISO_800_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (297 KB)	_F6C2900_ISO_800_sRGB.jpg 4896 x 3264 (2442 KB)	_F6C2904_ISO_200_1000.jpg 1000 x 667 (264 KB)