Wait a minute. Who would dare to shoot at such an ISO? Just use a fast lens and don’t go over ISO 1,600. Well, in this case, the camera was set to such an uncommon ISO to help us understand if it’s worth paying for the Canon C500 Mark II to use it in low-light situations.
Ollie Kenchington from Korro Films and a writer at cinema 5D, made tests with one of latest cinema cameras on the market: the Canon C500 Mark II. The goal was to see how it performs in low-light situations, as well as have a hands-on experience with 6K footage from the same camera. For the low-light test, he used fast glass: Canon’s 24-70mm f/2.8 L and Canon’s 85 mm f/1.4 L. The video was not only shot at ISO 12,800, but also at 50 fps for a slow motion effect, which requires even more light, because he probably had the shutter speed to 1/100 sec. Kenchington stated that the noise in that video was comparable to the noise of his Canon C200 at much lower levels. To me, the C500 Mark II image is exceptionally clean. Let us know in the comments what you see on your monitors and what your opinion is.
The above footage was filmed by Ollie Kenchington at sunrise using ISO 800 and in 6K. I don’t think Vimeo supports that resolution yet, but you can surely switch to 4K. Don’t look for noise there. Just enjoy the view, and if you are curious to see the 6K file in its full glory, head over cinema 5D, download it, and pixel-peep it by yourself. There, you can also find the original file from the low-light video.