Why do Canon APS-C cameras like the 600D/7D show more high-ISO noise than the 5D Mark II or 1D Mark IV?
Asked 1/21/2012
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I'm shooting the Milky Way and notice that my Canon 600D produces heavy noise at ISO 3200–6400, while examples from the 5D Mark II and 1D Mark IV look much cleaner at the same ISO settings. Is this mainly because of sensor size and pixel size, or do different cameras simply have different high-ISO performance? I'm also trying to balance noise against star trails, since lowering ISO often means a longer exposure.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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The bigger the pixels, the less noise there is. This is a matter of physics. More light gets accumulated in each pixel and so it take more noise to appear significant.
The 600D and 7D have APS-C sensors which are small and have a high megapixels count. This makes their pixels comparatively smaller than the 5D Mark II which has a larger sensor and hence larger pixels since the resolution is not much higher than that of the 7D.
You can see the same thing in the Nikon range by comparing the D3X and D3S which are both full-frame cameras but one has twice the number of megapixels. The one with fewer megapixels shows less noise because each pixel is larger.
The extreme example of this is the poor performance of compact cameras which have tiny sensors. The last factor is technology because newer sensors show improvement over previous generation but physics cannot be beaten.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Mostly, yes: sensor size and pixel size are the main reasons.
The 600D and 7D use Canon APS-C sensors with high pixel density, so each pixel is relatively small. The 5D Mark II has a larger full-frame sensor with similar overall resolution, which means larger pixels. Larger pixels collect more light, so the signal is stronger relative to noise, especially at high ISO.
A useful distinction is:
- per-pixel noise: smaller pixels usually look noisier
- overall image noise: when images are resized to the same output size, the gap can be smaller
That said, in low-light astrophotography, larger pixels still tend to give cleaner-looking results at high ISO. Camera generation and sensor technology also matter, but in your examples the big difference is that the APS-C cameras cram similar megapixels into a smaller area.
So the cleaner Milky Way shots from the 5D Mark II/1D Mark IV are not just about ISO settings—they benefit from larger sensors and larger pixels. Different cameras do have different ISO performance, but here the physics of pixel size is a major factor.
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