Low light with the T2i: Highest ISO recommended?

J

jimbee

Member
I'm wondering what T2i shooters think about its low-light capability. I've only had the camera for two weeks, but when I did some shooting at dusk, maybe an hour after sundown, 30 fps, 1/30th shutter speed, at f/3.5 on the kit lens, I had to go to ISO 400 to get a good exposure.

When I played back the clips, I thought they were pretty noisy. I could see the pixels kind of "changing" and "dancing" from frame to frame. Is that an artifact of the H.264 compression? And beyond that, what would be your recommendations for the highest ISO to use without it getting too noisy. My feeling at the moment is to never go higher than 100, because I hate noise, but obviously that is not possible in the evening or at night.

Any advice much appreciated.

jimbee
 
If you ditch the kit lens and go with something like a Sigma 30mm f1.4, you could shoot the same scene with the same exposure @ ISO 100 and 1/50th shutter. The kit lens at f3.5 is 2 2/3 stop slower than f1.4 or another way, let's in only 1/6th the light.

I wouldn't go past ISO 800, and 1600 only where absolutely necessary.
 
You can go up to 1600 imo were you see some fine grain but still looks amazing, higher than that though it loses quality. I have tested this extensively as well. Also you cannot say that the kit lens is not for low light, as that is simply not true.


No matter how and when you shoot you need light, the great thing about the kit lens is that you can get great wide shots, that simply cannot be done with the 50mm 1.8.

I have started filming strictly with only the kit lens and supplying at least 500 watts of light and have been getting amazing results.

Maybe if your filming inside of a cave or some tight area where you can't get light then things get tricky, but trust me where there's a will there's a way.
 
dvxhutch:

Those night shots are amazing and sharp.

The pans are very smooth and professional looking.

I've shot at 800 iso and I find the results very acceptable. But only with lenses 2.8 wider or more. The kit lens stay at home at night.
 
Thanks for the advice! Yeah, no substitute for adding watts or getting a faster lens. I do have an old Olympus 50mm f/1.8 that helps in low available light, but it's not wide enough with the crop factor. I have an Olympus 28mm f/2.8 on the way that should help a little over the kit lens. Someday, maybe I'll be able to afford the Sigma 1.4. But, dvxhutch, your nighttime Budapest shots were very beautiful at ISO 400 -- I could not see any sign of noise. Your results were much cleaner than mine. So I'm off to do some more experimenting.

jimbee
 
Wow! Those were both great. It gives me hope for nice stuff with higher ISOs. Time to get back to the low-light laboratory.
 
let me say this i never shot anything over 800iso and mybe the real lowLOW light stuff mybe 3-5shots where 1600iso
 
dvxhutch said:
The kit lens is not designed for lowlight. Try the canon 50mm 1.8 - only a hundred bucks.

I try not to go above ISO 400.

Here is a link to a video with both lenses:

http://www.vimeo.com/9989885
Click to expand...
Did you use an on camera light for any of the night shooting?

I'm especially curious for the closeups of the girl.
If no light was used, then you had some great street light available.
 
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