Photography News Issue 42

Photography News | Issue 42 | absolutephoto.com

Camera test 63

ISO 100

ISO 400

Performance: ISO

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

Original image

The Canon EOS M5 was fixed to a Gitzo GT1555T travel tripod for this ISO set using the EF-M 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM lens. It was very late afternoon and the base ISO 100 exposure was 0.5sec at f/8. In- camera noise reduction was turned off and the Raws processed in Lightroomwith no noise reduction. Noise started to appear in the shadows at ISO 400 which is perhaps at a lower speed than expected but overall quality

remained at a high level. Image quality was similar at ISO 800 so remained acceptable, just a little grainy in the shadow regions and areas of smooth tone. From ISO 1600 there was a gradual deterioration in quality, again with shadows suffering most where the grain patterning was clearly evident and fine detail suffered. The noise in the midtones and highlights was still quite fine at ISO 1600 but that changed from

ISO 3200 – noise was evident in these areas too. I think ISO 3200 was about the limit for critical image quality and images got very gritty beyond this speed and resolution of fine detail suffered. Overall, the EOS M5’s ISO skills are good but not outstanding and you get better high ISO performance fromother cameras. However images are still decent up to ISO 2000 and some work in software would clean up images to make them even better.

ISO 12,800

ISO 25,600

Performance: High ISOnoise reduction

ISO 100 no NR

Original image

The EOS M5 has long exposure and high ISO NR features. Shots were taken at ISO 3200, 6400 and 12,800 using the available NR settings of low, standard, strong and multi- shot – the latter is available in JPEG only. Raw files taken with NR are the same as Raws taken without NR if processed through Lightroom or Photoshop. Use Canon’s Raw Photo Professional, however, and the NR strength selected in the camera is applied to processed files. The images shown here are straight out the camera JPEGs. The camera fitted with the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM lens was fixed onto a Gitzo tripod. The exposure for the ISO 6400 shot was 1/160sec at f/8. As usual with NR, it is choosing the setting that gives the best compromise between minimising noise while maximising detail. The multi-shot NR where four frames are taken by the camera and then merged in-camera. The process takes a few seconds and the camera must be kept steady so a tripod is ideal, but it gives the best result. That said, I don’t think the strong setting is that far behind in terms of noise reduction and it didn’t seem too aggressive when it came to handling fine detail. I’d be happy using this setting if I didn’t have a tripod handy.

ISO 6400 no NR

ISO 6400 LowNR

ISO 6400Multishot NR

ISO 6400 Standard NR

ISO 6400 Strong NR

Left London’s Tower Bridge was the setting for our ISO (top) and high ISO noise reduction tests. For the latter the tripod-mounted Canon EOS M5 was fitted with the 22mm f/2 lens. Shots were taken at ISO 3200, 6400 and 12,800 using all the NR options.