Canon 5D Mark III vs 5D Mark II High ISO Noise Test

Mar 22, 2012
Preview image

The announcement of the new 5D Mark III has sparked much interest about the new full frame camera and how it compares to it's predecessor, the 5D Mark II.  After recently switching to a Canon system, I began to wonder the same thing myself and figured about 1,000,000 people would want to know as well.  We already know that the 5D Mark III has a better viewfinder, build quality, burst rate, AF system, metering, LCD screen, etc... and while all of those things are just dandy, at the end of the day photographers are mainly concerned about image quality.  Noise/ISO performance is a big part of this interest, so I decided to do a little test between the two cameras.  I used the 24 1.4L on both cameras at f/8 and turned off all noise reduction, auto light optimizer, highlight tone priority, etc...  Picture style was set to Standard and White Balance was set to AWB on both cameras.  I manually focused the shots in Live View using magnification.  Props to Canon for adjusting the zooming feature in review mode to be similar to the pro Nikon bodies.  They must have done this as a tribute to me last minute after they found out I was switching!  I shook the tripod violently during each exposure and shot some in small jpeg, others in RAW.  I am also lying about each ISO and maybe I used a Nikon for some of the shots.  :O No really at the end of the day the 5D Mark II and Mark III are both great cameras, but I figured people would want a nice clean comparison like this.  I have also included links to download the full set of large JPEGs and RAW files from both cameras.  Enjoy! 

5D3 crops are on the RIGHT and 5D2 crops are on the LEFT (Click to enlarge)

Download Links (ZIP files) 5D2_JPEG (The only file small enough to upload via wordpress) The Rest (5D2 RAW, 5D3 RAW, 5D3 JPEG)      

Conclusions

Canon made the claim that the new 5D Mark III has an improvement of 2 stops of ISO performance over the Mark II.  At certain ISOs this seems to hold true, but the lower you go, the harder it is to tell the difference.  Overall I am very happy with my current 5D Mark II, but I am blown away by the Mark III and it opens up the possibility of creating clean (relatively speaking) and useable images at ISO 6400 and even 12,800.  Of course I don't suggest shooting regularly at these high ISOs, but in a pinch they will prove to be valuable in low light.  I consider the improvements at 1600 and 3200 to be pretty significant, especially in shadows.  Good job by Canon, the 5D3 appears to be a real winner in low-light.

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Fairfield

123 US Hwy 46 (West)
Fairfield, NJ, USA 07004
(973) 377-2007

Philadelphia

28 South 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 608-2222

© 2024 Unique Photo All Rights Reserved.