Will moving from a Canon 600D to full frame reduce visible noise in cloudy light?
Asked 9/21/2016
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I shoot with a Canon 600D and a Canon 70-200mm f/4L (non-IS). In bright sun my images look great, but in overcast or gray conditions I start seeing noticeable noise/grain, especially on a 27-inch high-resolution display. On a smaller 13-inch screen it is much less obvious.
I’m comfortable shooting in manual mode, so I’m mainly trying to understand the hardware limits. Would upgrading to a Canon 5D Mark II help meaningfully with noise and overall image quality in lower light? I’m wondering whether the larger full-frame sensor and higher usable ISO would make a noticeable difference, or if the real solution is simply getting more light through a wider aperture, slower shutter speed, or lower ISO.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
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Will Full Frame solve this?
Probably not. Nothing can make image quality as good as you'll get in bright sunlight when there's less light. But it will help by about one stop in terms of signal-to-noise ratio.
Ultimately if the scene is two or three stops dimmer then you have to open the aperture or slow the shutter time by the same two or three stops to get the same amount of light on your sensor. Using a FF sensor vs. a 1.6X APS-C sensor buys you one of those stops.
How much that will improve the way your images look on the 27" Thunderbolt Display is hard to say. That's a very high resolution monitor with very precise color differentiation that will show the flaws in a lot of images that lessor displays will not.
If you do decide to make a move to full frame I'd strongly urge you to consider the 6D or even the 5D Mark III. The 6D is every bit as good a camera as the 5DII other than the fastest shutter speed of 1/4000 second vs. 1/8000, a flash sync speed of 1/180 vs. 1/200 second, and no user configurable Custom Exposure modes. The 6D also has a slightly better AF system (11 vs. 9 AF points functional to EV-3 vs EV-1.5), a better exposure meter (63 zone dual layer vs. 35 zone), a DiG!C5+ vs. a DiG!C4 processor, wider EC (+/-5 stops vs. +/-2 stops), more flexible AEB (2, 3, 5, or 7 shots at +/-3EV vs. 3 shots at +/-2EV), Multi Shot Noise Reduction, in-camera CA correction, multiple exposure, in-camera HDR, in-camera resizing and RAW processing, a faster max fps (4.5 vs. 3.9), a deeper buffer (1250 JPEG/17 RAW vs. 310 JPEG/13 RAW), and a shorter shutter lag (<60ms vs. 73ms).
The 5DIII is on an entirely different level in terms of the AF system and also has everything the 5DII has and a lot more. Of course it also costs a little more, but having shot extensively with both the 5DII and the 5DIII I can say the 5DIII has slightly better image quality than the 5DII but is a lot more camera in every other way. With the recent introduction of the 5D Mark IV, now is the time to find a deal on a 5DIII, new or used. Unless you manually focus everything the AF system alone is worth twice the price difference.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
9y ago
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A full-frame upgrade will help, but it probably won’t “solve” the problem.
In dimmer light, the sensor receives fewer photons, so the camera has to amplify the signal more, which also boosts noise. A larger full-frame sensor generally improves signal-to-noise ratio by about one stop compared with APS-C, so a 5D Mark II may give some cleaner results, but not a dramatic transformation if the scene is 2–3 stops darker than bright sunlight.
To maintain image quality in overcast light, you still need more light per exposure by using one or more of these:
- wider aperture
- slower shutter speed
- lower ISO
- brighter scene/light source
Your 70-200mm f/4 is relatively limited in low light compared with faster lenses. Also, a large, high-resolution display will reveal noise and other flaws more readily than a small screen.
So: full frame can improve noise performance somewhat, but the main fix is increasing the amount of light captured, not relying on sensor size alone.
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