Tag Archives: test

Equipment, Tests

Using Prints to Test Four Canon DSLRs

Leave a comment

Miles Hecker has posted interesting test results in his Canon EOS big guns image quality shootout:

As some of you know, I am a landscape photographer. I migrated to full frame digital SLR’s from medium format film. I used to shoot 6×4.5, 6×7 and 6×9 film with the end product being prints of 20″x30″ and larger. As such, I chose to investigate only one area of the 5Dmk2 in this exercise, overall image quality or IQ for short. For this test, I decided to construct a still life with a wide range of color, lots of detail and very controlled lighting to obtain what for me are valid results.The test would produce 100% crops for pixel peeping. The final analysis of IQ however would be made using real life obsevers and detailed sections of 16″x24″ and 20″x30″ photographic prints.

What I like about his test methodology is that it eliminates the very difficult issue of normalizing on-screen tests of cameras with different sensor sizes and photosite densities but doing something that I have felt would make the most sense, comparing large prints from the different test cameras. In this case he tested the Canon EOS 1DsM3, 5D2, 5D, and 50D. 

I won’t spoil the fun by telling you the results here, but let’s just say I’m not at all surprised at the results.

Commentary, Equipment, Tests

Testing the Canon 5D II for Noise

Leave a comment

From Night Photography blog by Andy Frazer: More 5D Long Exposure Tests:

Seattle-based night photographer Brian Chapman has posted another set of 5D MkII long exposure tests, this time all taken at night. Although this set was taken at ISO 400, underexposed, and then pushed during RAW conversion, the results are very interesting.

Brian Chapman’s experiments are essentially a night photographer’s torture test – shooting at high ISO, underexposing, compensating in post, adjusting the image, and including areas of uniform color and luminosity. If you aren’t familiar with real life noise issues in digital photography you might think, “Ugh! Noise.” If you have done night photography and made prints for images like those in the test you might be thinking, “Hey, that’s pretty darn impressive!”

Equipment

Lowepro Inverse 200 AW

Leave a comment

It seems like no matter how many camera bags you have, you never have too many. I have quite a collection, ranging from some rather large ones that I use for travel (Thinktank Airport Acceleration) or for serious photography on the trail (“Lowepro Rover Plus AW”) to smaller bags like the “Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW” and one of the Lowepro Topload Zoom bags. Each of these has a relatively specific role in my photography.

Even with all these bags there has been one sort of situation for which I’m ill-equipped: carrying minimal gear on walking/hiking trips, perhaps just the camera/lens or perhaps with the addition of one extra lens, water, and a few small non-photography essentials. I’ve used non-photography lumbar packs and small backpacks, but they don’t really work the way I like for photography.

I recently had a chance to use the Lowepro Inverse 200 AW bag, and it seems like it may fill this gap for me. Continue reading Lowepro Inverse 200 AW →

Equipment, Tests

Sharpness Test Updated

Leave a comment

I have updated my Sharpness and Aperture Selection of Full-Frame DSLRs post to include the corner crops from the same photos used for the center crops that were already there. Here’s the image I added – see the link for full information.