Many people get hung up on high ISO performance as if that is the prime feature of a camera that will give them great photos.
For some types of photography, they would be right!
Astrophotographers and pro sports photographers are amongst those who really want low noise at high ISO, for the rest of us, 90% of our photos can be taken at ISO 800 or less and any modern cropped sensor dSLR or Micro Four Thirds camera will do a reasonable job of that.
High ISO performance is not the only feature useful in low light or sports photography, other features include:
- ability to auto-focus – modern contrast detect AF cameras such as Micro Four Thirds can give better low light AF for stationary subjects than dSLRs, but for moving subjects, phase contrast AF with dSLRs is the way to go.
- high quality, and thus usually expensive, wide aperture lenses
- image stabilisation – this can be critical for hand held shots of stationary subjects – but of much less help for moving subjects
- telephoto reach – this is primarily a function of pixel density of the sensor for a given focal length lens
- burst rate for action shots
- weatherproofing
- size – the best camera is the one you are willing to take with you – size may matter!
- out of camera jpeg quality
Now back to the original topic – which cameras are best for high ISO shooting?
I have grouped together results from DxO’s tests on RAW files and hopefully these groupings will provide some perspective and demonstrate that high ISO performance is related to sensor size and sensor technology.
It demonstrates the gigantic gulf in high ISO performance between point and shoots and the much larger sensor dSLRs, and this is the reason why many are choosing the size compromise of Micro Four Thirds.
It also shows that if you want substantially better high ISO performance than Micro Four Thirds can offer you, then you really need to be looking at full frame dSLRs as these would be the ideal complimentary system.
Note that the much larger sensor and much more expensive medium format cameras generally have comparatively poor high ISO performance as these sensors are optimised for high image quality at low ISO for tripod-based work.
The higher the ISO rating, the better the sensor for high ISO images in RAW mode.
ISO rating > 2000 modern full frame dSLRs with low pixel counts:
- Nikon D3S 12mp 2009 – ISO rating 3253
- Nikon D3 and D700 – 12mp 2007/2008 – ISO ratings ~2300
ISO rating 1500-2000 – the modern full frame dSLRs with high pixel counts:
- Nikon D3X 24mp 2008 – ISO rating 1992
- Canon 5D Mark II 21mp 2008 – ISO rating1815
- Canon 1Ds Mark III 21mp 2007 – ISO rating 1663
ISO rating 1250-1500:
- Canon 1Ds Mark II 17mp full frame 2004 – ISO rating 1480
- Sony Alpha 850 and 900 24mp full frame 2009 – ISO ratings 1415 and 1431
- Canon 5D 13mp full frame 2005 – ISO rating 1368
- Canon 1D Mark IV 15mp 1.3x crop 2009 – ISO rating 1320
- Phase One P40 40mp medium format 2009 – ISO rating 1307
ISO rating 1000-1250:
- Phase One P65 Plus 60mp medium format 2008 – ISO rating 1158
- Canon 1D Mark III 10mp 1.3x crop 2007 – ISO rating 1078
- Canon 1D Mark II 8mp 1.3x crop 2004 – ISO rating 1003
ISO ratings 750-1000 – the modern cropped sensor cameras and old full frames:
- Nikon D90 12mp 2008 – ISO rating 977
- Canon 1Ds 11mp full frame 2002 – ISO rating 954
- Leica M9 18mp full frame 2009 – ISO rating 884
- Nikon D5000 12mp 2009 – ISO rating 868
- Canon 7D 18mp 2009 – ISO rating 854
- Sony NEX-3 and 5 14mp mirrorless 2010 – ISO rating 830 and 796
- Pentax K-x 12mp 2009 – ISO rating 811
- Sony Alpha 550 14mp 2009 – ISO rating 807
- Nikon D300s 12mp 2009 – ISO rating 787
- Canon 550D 18mp 2009 – ISO rating 784
- Panasonic GH-1 12mp 2009 – ISO rating 772 (but early models do have excessive banding)
- Sony Alpha 500 12mp 2009 – ISO rating 772
- Sony Alpha 450 14mp 2010 – ISO rating 769
ISO 500-750 – the majority of cropped sensor cameras and medium format cameras:
- Canon 30D 8mp 2006 – ISO rating 736
- Canon 20D 8mp 2004 – ISO rating 721
- Canon 1000D 10mp 2008 – ISO rating 719
- Samsung GX-20 14mp mirrorless 2008 – ISO rating 714
- Canon 40D 10mp 2007 – ISO rating 703
- Canon 450D 12mp 2008 – ISO rating 692
- Canon 50D 15mp 2008 – ISO rating 696
- Canon 400D 10mp 2006 – ISO rating 664
- Canon 500D 15mp 2009 – ISO rating 663
- Leica M8 10mp 1.3x crop 2006 -ISO rating 663
- Pentax K20D 14mp 2008 – ISO rating 639
- Canon 350D 8mp 2005 – ISO rating 637
- Phase One P45 Plus 39mp medium format 2007 – ISO rating 622
- Sony Alpha 380 14mp 2009 – ISO rating 614
- Sony Alpha 350 14mp 2008 – ISO rating 595
- Nikon D200 10mp 2005 – ISO rating 583
- Olympus E3 10mp 2007 – ISO rating 571
- Canon 10D 6mp 2003 – ISO rating 571
- Nikon D3000 10mp 2009 – ISO rating 563
- Nikon D60 10mp 2008 – ISO rating 562
- Pentax K200D 10mp 2008 – ISO rating 561
- Nikon D40 6mp 2006 – ISO rating 561
- Nikon D50 6mp 2005 – ISO rating 560
- Olympus E520 10mp 2008 – ISO rating 548
- Sony Alpha 300 10mp 2008 – ISO rating 538
- Olympus E620 and Pen EP1 12mp 2009 – ISO rating 536
- Sony Alpha 330 10mp 2009 – ISO rating 535
- Hasselblad H3DII 39 39mp medium format 2007 – ISO rating 532
- Olympus E30 12mp 2008 – ISO rating 530
- Nikon D70 and D70s 6mp 2004/2005 – ISO rating 529
- Nikon D80 10mp 2006 – ISO rating 524
- Pentax K10D 10mp 2006 – ISO rating 522
- Sony Alpha 200 and 230 10mp 2008/2009 – ISO rating 521 and 531
- Nikon D40X 10mp 2007 – ISO rating 516
- Pentax KM 10mp 2008 – ISO rating 513
- Olympus Pen EP2 12mp 2009 – ISO rating 505
ISO rating 250-500 – older or smaller cropped sensor cameras:
- Panasonic GF-1 12mp 2009 – ISO rating 498
- Nikon D2Xs 12mp 2006 – ISO rating 489
- Olympus Pen EPL1 12mp 2010 – ISO rating 487
- Nikon D2X 12mp 2004 – ISO rating 476
- Panasonic G1 12mp 2008 – ISO rating 463
- Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro 6mp 2006 – ISO rating 448
- Olympus E510 10mp 2007 – ISO rating 442
- Nikon D2H 4mp 2003 – ISO rating 352
- Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro 6mp 2004 – ISO rating 346
ISO rating 200-250:
- Mamiya ZD 21mp medium format back 2008 – ISO rating 245
ISO rating 150-200 – the modern 4-4.5x crop point and shoots:
- Canon Powershot S90 10mp 2009 – ISO rating 185
- Fujifilm FinePix S100fs 11mp 2008 – ISO rating 177
- Canon G11 10mp 2009 – ISO rating 169
- Canon G10 15mp 2008 – ISO rating 156
ISO rating 50-150 – compact (6x crop) or older point and shoots:
- Canon G9 12mp 2007 – ISO rating 146
- Panasonic LX3 10mp 2008 – ISO rating 94 (but at least it has a wide aperture lens)