I am continually impressed by the Sony A7's ability to make a decent image at high ISOs. 

Kinja'd!!! "Anon" (tjsielsistneb)
11/03/2015 at 23:06 • Filed to: None

Kinja'd!!!2 Kinja'd!!! 22
Kinja'd!!!

For example, this picture I took today, it was a cloudy day, the squirrel was in the shade, I was shooting with a 300mm at 1/320th of a second and as a result was having to shoot at ISO 12800! That’s right, this image is a 12800 ISO picture! Of course this has had some work done to it but it’s a testament to Sony sensors that I can pull this off of a 12800 image! On a side note, do any of you know how hard it is to manual focus a 300mm?!


DISCUSSION (22)


Kinja'd!!! scoob > Anon
11/03/2015 at 23:09

Kinja'd!!!1

...

I have no idea what any of these letters and numbers mean.

(This must be what it’s like to not be a car person. I don’t like it.)


Kinja'd!!! wafflesnfalafel > Anon
11/03/2015 at 23:12

Kinja'd!!!1

and zoomed way in too - impressive. I have never gotten a decent shot of those darn twitchy fuzzy tailed rats. :)


Kinja'd!!! Bandit > Anon
11/03/2015 at 23:22

Kinja'd!!!0

Damn. My base model T3 gives up at about a tenth the ISO.


Kinja'd!!! Stef Schrader > Anon
11/03/2015 at 23:23

Kinja'd!!!0

My camera’s dead. All I have is a potato at the moment. This doesn’t help.

Yay manual focus. Hardest lens I used manual focus on was definitely a fiddly Nikon kit lens. Not sure if it was loose or what, but it didn’t have much weight to it, so it moved around a bit too freely to stay put all that well. Oh well.

Pretty good low-light performance, though. Not sure I want to jump ship after getting so used to the Canons, but me gusta.


Kinja'd!!! ttyymmnn > Anon
11/03/2015 at 23:26

Kinja'd!!!1

What was the aperture?


Kinja'd!!! Anon > Bandit
11/03/2015 at 23:32

Kinja'd!!!1

To be fair this had a decent amout of work done to it. Also I know that feel, my Rebel XSI looked like that at ISO 1600! That said I do miss how Canon cameras render flesh tones, skin on the A7 looks odd before editing.


Kinja'd!!! Anon > ttyymmnn
11/03/2015 at 23:34

Kinja'd!!!0

f/8 because manually focusing on a moving object with a 300mm at f/5.6 is pretty much impossible without a monopod.


Kinja'd!!! Anon > Stef Schrader
11/03/2015 at 23:46

Kinja'd!!!0

Was it an autofocus kit lens? Manual focus lenses which are very different from manually focusing autofocus lenses! Solely manual focus lenses are an absolute joy to use (if you don’t using live view or an EVF) due to their long throws and well dampened focus rings. I mean don’t get me wrong, I miss a whole hell of a lot of shots because I don’t have autofocus. That said it’s like the difference between using a dual clutch and a manual. Yes the dual clutch may be faster and better in almost everyway, however the manual is is just so much fun and draws you into the experience!

Secondly I’m writting a review of the A7 currently (and trust me I’m not pulling any punches) and it should be up soon. However let me spoil the review a bit and say this, referb models are going to around $850 right now, If you have any intrest in using manual lenses (becuase the autofocus lenses are stupidly expensive!) I could not reccomend any other camera that wasn’t $1400 and that would be the A7II!


Kinja'd!!! Anon > wafflesnfalafel
11/03/2015 at 23:48

Kinja'd!!!0

Are you using a camera where you can manually set the shutter speed?


Kinja'd!!! wafflesnfalafel > Anon
11/03/2015 at 23:55

Kinja'd!!!0

yeah - I usually carry my little Canon g10, (low light is not one of it’s strong points.. )


Kinja'd!!! roflcopter > Anon
11/04/2015 at 00:11

Kinja'd!!!1

Kinja'd!!!

I just recently picked up a Canon 7D and that combined with any of my faster lenses is a recipe for wow in low light. It’ll shoot up to 12800 ISO as well and in decently lit places(like you had) it performs amazingly.

The above image was taken at ISO1600(maybe 1000 but pretty sure 1600) in damn near complete darkness, it was even hard to frame the composition through the viewfinder if the headlights weren’t visible. This camera continually amazes me.


Kinja'd!!! Flavien Vidal > Bandit
11/04/2015 at 00:11

Kinja'd!!!1

T3i user here... 1600iso is no problem as far as I’m concerned... I avoid going over but still.

These were taken at 1600iso

Kinja'd!!!

Kinja'd!!!

Kinja'd!!!

Kinja'd!!!

Kinja'd!!!


Kinja'd!!! Anon > scoob
11/04/2015 at 00:25

Kinja'd!!!0

Ok let me see if I can explain it like this.

Ok so there are three separate camera settings that make up the image, aperture (abbreviated as f/), shutter speed, and ISO

So lets start with the simplest first, shutter speed. It is literally what it says on the tin, it’s how fast the shutter goes up or down. The longer the shutter speed, the more light is let into the camera. You typically want 1/60th of a second as that’s when action freezes for normal moving things. if you do slower, there will be blur. Also something to take into consideration is when using longer lenses in hand, a general rule of thumb is the use the shutter speed equal to the mm of the camera so if I were to use a 300mm lens I would set my camera to 1/300th of a second. However if you’re shooting in a dark area, you can use a longer shutter speed to allow the camera to get more light in so you do not have to use a high ISO, speaking of!

ISO! The best way (though not the truest) to explain this is to say that it’s fake light you camera makes up. The light that your eye sees is pretty much equivalent to ISO 100. Every time your camera doubles the ISO it doubles the light. So for example if I were shooting in a place that at ISO 100 I could only shoot at 1/20 of a second I could bump up the ISO to ISO 200 since the light is doubled you can now do double the shutter speed so I can now shoot at 1/40th of second. If I wanted to shoot at 1/80th of a second I could double it again and shoot at ISO 400. Of course this is all decided by the final step in this process, aperture.

To think of aperture, think of your eyes. When your eyes are in a dark area the pupils expand to let more light in, aperture is almost the same way. An aperture of f/1 is equivalent to the light you can see with the human eye. However at f1 very, very, very little is in focus, so you have to close the aperture blades in the lens tighter like your eyes when their in bright light. the higher the number of the aperture, the smaller the light opening in the lens is. The smaller the aperture is the more things are in focus, however because it’s closed up, much less light is coming into the camera. by the way the “stops” for aperture are 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, and so on. Each number on this scale you go up, double the amount of light is lost.

So lets see if we can’t round this all up so I can get back to drinking. So if you were shooting at an aperture of f/2, with a shutter speed of 1/60th, and an ISO of 100 and decided to move the aperture to f/2.8, you would either need to double your ISO (making your picture more grainy and less detailed) or lower your shutter speed to 1/30th of a second.

I hope I was able to help!


Kinja'd!!! Anon > roflcopter
11/04/2015 at 00:28

Kinja'd!!!0

The 7d is an amazing camera! It’s a bit dated but so is a 1966 Ford GT. What lens were you using, if I had to guess, it was something with a 2.8 aperture?


Kinja'd!!! Noah - Now with more boost. > Anon
11/04/2015 at 02:20

Kinja'd!!!0

Yeah my ancient rebel XSI is done at 800 lol. That blows my mind... 12k?!


Kinja'd!!! Stef Schrader > Anon
11/04/2015 at 04:23

Kinja'd!!!0

Yep—an autofocus lens.


Kinja'd!!! JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Anon
11/04/2015 at 07:45

Kinja'd!!!0

try manually focusing a knob-focused 500mm f:5.6 mirror lens.


Kinja'd!!! roflcopter > Anon
11/04/2015 at 08:20

Kinja'd!!!0

Yeah... I can’t justify dropping the money on a mk ii so the 7D was the best bet to get into a ‘modern’ camera. I'd been shooting with a 40D before that, and I really don't see the advantage of a full frame for the stuff I'm typically doing. And yes, that was shot with the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8. Good guess!


Kinja'd!!! scoob > Anon
11/04/2015 at 09:43

Kinja'd!!!0

Wow. Thanks for explaining it all! Wasn’t expecting that lol.

Maybe I’ll stick to point and shoot cameras. :P

So THIS is what it’s like to be told by a gearhead what the basics of driving a manual is.


Kinja'd!!! mcseanerson > Anon
11/04/2015 at 11:51

Kinja'd!!!0

You think that’s good? Check out this video on an A7SII at 40,000.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

That’s insane.


Kinja'd!!! mcseanerson > Anon
11/04/2015 at 11:56

Kinja'd!!!0

I took this at iso3200 and actually thought it turned out surprisingly well on my T2i. This was with the nifty fifty at f/1.8 1/30 second.

Edit: Also I know what you mean about the was Canon renders colors. I lean more towards video and it’s like trying to edit a jpeg as opposed to raw when you edit video so you do not have as much wiggle room which makes me hesitant about Sony cameras. That said I really want an rx100 MkIV.


Kinja'd!!! BATC42 > Anon
11/06/2015 at 17:03

Kinja'd!!!1

It’s crazy how far we have come in sensor performance. On high end cameras like the A7, it’s not really surprising, but the size of the thing versus what pro bodies were able to do jsut a few years ago, the progress is amazing!! I’ve tried focusing my 50-230mm manually, I feel your pain. And I’m also toying with the idea of buying a manual 135 or something similar.

Low light performance is one of the reason I love my Fujifilm X-A1 so much, and I got it brand new with 2 lenses for 450€. Picture below was taken with the 35mm @ f/1.8, 1/60 of a sec and ISO5000. Post-processed in LR.

Kinja'd!!!

Below is the same picture, but as a JPEG straight from the camera.

Kinja'd!!!