Canon 7D Native ISO

[Michael Olsen]

I've been looking around trying to find information about this to no avail.

Does anyone know the native ISO for the 5d or the 7d?

[mcgeedigital]

I usually rate my 5D @ ISO 320, but it can go MUCH higher IMO due to the lack of noise.

[mel4tonin]

the 5d performs well @320/400 ISO 800 is the limit of the acceptable (rumor is visible in video @800 while photo performs much better).

over 800 can look like a +9db gain on normale camcorder, but still iso 6400 is much better than +18db on my sony ex1

[Sttratos]

If the 5D is only 400 ISO, what is the 7D? 200?
Hard to believe the 5D is only 320/400 when the EX1 is about 320. I know it's only 2MP, but it has a microscopic 1/2" chip and a prism.

[Nathan Troutman]

Only Canon knows the real answer to this question. There is no way to "measure" the native gain. You can try to guess - but it's a subjective decision based on what you think you're seeing. Canon's engineers, however, know exactly when gain is and isn't being used. There's no need to play this game. Canon could just tell everyone. ISO values aren't more helpful to me as a videographer than gain ratings. If I had to chose I'd have both - but if it was one or the other I'd want gain settings.

[Michael Olsen]

Right. I kinda got into all this through the RED forum and I thought that Canon might have announced this somewhere and that I had just missed it. Oh well.