Real World Sports Shooting High ISO Noise Comparison 50D, 1D Mark III, 1Ds Mark II

I normally shoot night soccer with a 1D Mark III and 300 2.8 @ 2.8 at ISO 6400 and a 1Ds Mark II with a 135 2 @ 2 at ISO 3200. I wanted to determine if the 50D might replace the 1Ds Mark II as my second body. The ISO 6400 images were shot with 300 3.8 at 2.8; 3200 ISO images with 135 2 at 2. Images were selected to try and find the most comparable subject composition and field location from the last two games to be able to compare all three bodies at ISO 3200. ISO 6400 images were prepared from the Mk III and 50D. Note - it is highly likely that motion blur is contributing softness to these images, but my primary interest was the nature and composition of the noise and how effectively it could be reduced in post-process and given the nature of shooting sports at nights it is an unfortunate fact of life that action stopping shutters speeds are not always achievable. To satisfy my curiosity I upsized the 50D and Mk III files to 1Ds Mk II size with genuine fractals, and downsized the 1Ds Mk II and 50D images to 1D Mark III size and all three sizes are presented here. Images were then post-processed as if I was going to print them at a large size and include noise reduction with noise ninja, color and contrast boosts, and some base level sharpening. I did not perform the final output sharpening step. I did not try and remove all luminance noise.

The full gallery that the 50D and Mk III images were from is here: http://troutstreaming.smugmug.com/gallery/6135287_HfkkA//386027311_YSgrv

The 1Ds Mark II image came from here: http://troutstreaming.smugmug.com/gallery/5894239_Zzx4h//366505737_yb5My

Image Copyright © 2008 J. Andrew Towell for Troutstreaming outdoor and sports media. All Rights Reserved. Please contact the copyright holder at troutstreaming@gmail.com to discuss any and all usage rights .