50D v 5DMkiii

[philwebb]

I currently have a 50D which I love. I am considering a 5D Mkiii, as I am under the impression the 5D Mkiii in low light will preform so much better at higher ISO than the 50D. Would I be right in thinking that a shot on a 5D Mkiii at 800 ISO compared to a shot on my 50D at 100 ISO would be comparible, if so why, Thanks

[hsbn]

5DMIII is a much newer camera and it's full frame so no doubt it will perform much better than the 50D. According to DxoMark, 5DMIII at ISO 400 is somewhat similar the 50D at ISO100. But in real world situation, it may be different.

[philwebb]

thank you

[diverhank]

I upgraded from a 50D to a 5D3 and I can tell you that you are right about the 3 stops advantage.  Actually it is 4 stops for me.  I still use the 50D as a backup but I hardly ever touch it anymore.  The 5D3 spoils me so much. The ISO, the display, the viewfinder, the AF, the IQ...the list goes on.

I limit my top ISO to 1600 for the 50D and to 25,600 for the 5D3.  For my eyes, the two pictures are roughly equivalent in noise and that's 4 f-stops.

I'm mainly a BIF guy and from this perspective, what makes the 5D3 shine is the AF system.  For the first few times, I had trouble shutting my mouth, being wide open in happy amazement.  The 5D3 AF is so good for BIF that I'm willing to give up the 1.6x advantage the 50D has.  Both the LCD and the viewfinder displays are so bright and pretty on the 5D3 and after getting used to that, coming back to using the 50D was a real disappointing shock.

The above picture was taken with 5D3 + 400mm f/5.6L @ ISO 20,000, 1/1000, f/5.6.

[philwebb]

thank you, i am sure which way i am going with this 🙂