BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveClifton" data-source="post: 1704867" data-attributes="member: 48420">Hi Ron, I also used to get some very useable images at ISO 800 with my Olympus camera (in my case, as you know, an E-510), and after some recent comparisons I'm not wholly convinced that the competition from Canon and Nikon is streets ahead just yet on this particular issue. I do believe however that Nikon currently have more of an edge than Canon, but there are other variables too that perhaps have more of a bearing on overall final image quality than pure ‘ISO performance’. Attached are two shots, both taken at ISO 800. The Goldcrest is with my Olympus, and the Grouse is with a Canon 40D. Both have been cropped about the same amount, and a little sharpening has been applied to both in roughly equal measure. Neither image is perfect, but personally I don't think there is that much to choose between them in terms of noise. They both show some, but it isn't too overpowering IMHO. I have taken better images with the Canon than this; this one was a bit soft out of the camera, and would need even more sharpening to bring it up to the level of the Goldcrest, which was a bit sharper to begin with. Of course, further sharpening would add even more noise to the image in order to make it more 'useable' in terms of sharpness. The point I'm making here, is that nailing the exposure and focus in the beginning can mean that less pp is necessary in the end, which of course means less image degradation, and that this in itself probably has a greater effect on the final image quality than subtle differences in ISO performance between one camera & another.For what it’s worth, I do believe that Canon currently does have a slight edge at ISO 400-800 over Olympus, and that Nikon perhaps have a similar slight edge over Canon (though I personally have no experience with Nikon), but these advantages are not so marked as some 'experts' would have us all believe. In summary, if later Olympus cameras like the E-30 and E-600/620 are even closer to Canon than my E-510, then it’s probably of more benefit at the moment to hone your technique than worry about the ‘deficiencies’ of your camera system of choice. To confuse matters further, from what I've seen so far the new Canon 7D is less than perfect at similar ISOs to the above, though it is distinctly better at higher settings.Steve</blockquote>

Verification