Friday Night Lights: Amended
Ya’ll remember the TV show Happy Days? Fonzie could never say he was wrong. He would just stay, “I was wrrr, wrrr,” but could never say wrong. Okay, I am not Fonzie. I can say wrong and I was wrong. I will have to amend my statement to say that I cannot shot available light, high school football with my company issued Nikons. I decided to try out my personal EOS 5D last night and shot Austin High School’s win over Hazel Green. Not only did the Black Bears blow out Hazel Green, I was blown away by the quality of my EOS. I shot at ISO 1600, 1/320th at f2.8. Man, I was staggered. No grain and good color without using a flash. Makes me wish I was shooting the Canon’s every day. This is not to do any technical stuff, just a chance to say WOW! The 5D is not even supposed to be good in low light. I can’t even imagine how nice a Mark III would look. Anyway, enjoy the images and be amazed unless you are a Canon user and used to stuff like this.
You should check out the D3 when it comes out. I was at a recent demo for it and all the Canon users were talking about switching. It shoots at ISO 6400 with no noise, and ISO 25400 with little noise. I don’t know if the D300 does the same with noise, but it does have the same chip.
The only unfortunate thing is the price tag, and that Nikon should have put this camera out a couple years ago.
Btw, I enjoy reading your site and picking up the lighting tips you give.
Incidentally after reading your earlier posts and having struggled with night game lighting, I tried the high ISO setting on my 5D last night and got reasonable results. Not print quality, but web quality. I shot most of them at ISO 3200.
http://photos.janklier.com/2007/10/photos-high-school-junior-football.html
Actually, one of the things that I hear the most about the Canon 5D is how well it does in low light.
I’ve seen some pretty great examples of low light photography from others using the 5D.
I have the 1D (mark I) and the 30D. While they are nice cameras, I don’t think they are in the same class as the 5D in low light.
The new 1D Mark III has shown some great examples of low light, but has focusing issues for some people in some conditions (including daylight, low ISO) so it isn’t perfect either.
I originally got my used 1D for sports, but without the big, expensive long glass, I sometimes would rather use the 30D for night football games. But it doesn’t seem to focus as well as the 30D.
Ain’t nothin’ perfect. (Sigh)
If your company can do that, request a Nikon D3 trial, if it lives up to the hype, it should be a fine low-light camera.
I have seen D3 sample images on the internet and if they live up to the hype in real life, Nikon may finally have a camera that is an excellent low-light machine. I have never had a problem with Nikon image quality when the light is decent or when using strobes. There has always been a bit more noise than I would like but that is still less than say, ISO 1600 film used to be so I didn’t mind. Right now, I am shooting a D2h and a D2Hs at work. The Hs is far superior to the H in low light but neither one is anywhere close to my 5D. At any rate, my company is not likely to switch to Canon so I am eagerly awaiting the D3.
The 5D is known for it’s superb high-ISO performance, it was the king of high ISO until the 1DmIII was introduced last spring.
Nice shots.
I honestly did not know how great the quality is on the 5D in low-light. I bought this camera because of its file size and its relatively inexpensive entry into the full frame market. A fellow photojournalist told me not to buy the 5D because there were some problems in the higher ISO settings so I was pleasantly surprised at the quality. I am glad to hear the camera has such a good rep. That is just gravy on the biscuits.