100% Crop Question

[Stuart.Atkinson]

Hopefully someone can give me a simple answer to this.

Ive seen some stunning photos that have been cropped at 100% and they are crystal clear. When i try zooming into 100% on some of mine, they seem quite noisy.

Is this down to the sensor? do u need a full frame sensor to get that sort of quality?

 

[Andy.]

Pass. Some of the 100% crops are mind blowing and nothing like mine.

These are taken with $6000 glass but still..

normal

100%

Normal:

100%

I just tell myself that people use USM and other wizardry to improve their shots before they post them up as 100%... I spent a couple of months worrying that I had a s**t camera/ lens/ technique because my 100%'s did not look like those. I did tests with different lenses on different bodies, different people taking the shots etc and always got the same results.
It turns out, that 99% of the other people I have seen photos from have the same results as me.

 

[Stuart.Atkinson]

Ahhh cheers mate.
I was Shi$$ing myself as ive just gone and got a new body and expensive L series lens and my 100% crops are rough and seem really noisy! Similar to the results you have posted.

 

[Andy.]

What did you buy?

 

[Stuart.Atkinson]

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM Lens
Canon EOS 50D + 17-85mm IS USM Lens

Big Step up from my 350d.... so all i gota do is sell that, the grip, the batteries, the lowpro slingshot bag etc etc now to help pay for this LOL

 

[JJ!]

I get very differing results depending on lighting and all other factors...

These are 100% crops from my old D40 and Sigma 30mm:

But to be honest, as long as it looks good up to A3, I tend not too worry too much about the 100% crop look!

 

[2thumbs]

It's all in the lens IMO. Unless we're comparing crop with full frame. But generally at the lowest ISO etc all crop bodies are much of a much-ness.

Here's one I did earlier with a 36 year old lens and a 4 year old body. Assuming by the shutter speed I took this at f/8 (don't pay attention to the Exif, it's lieing. )

No PP except a resize on the uncropped.

 

[2thumbs]

And here's another @ f/1.4 (god I love this lens)

 

[ukaskew]

I'd never worry about something like that. I appreciate that a few pros need absolute image quality, but there is no point pixel peeping for the sake of it. As long as it looks good at the biggest size you would ever print it, that's good enough, in my opinion.

£600 crop-sensor camera and £500 lens (obviously I never paid that much, second-hand ftw), no tripod and the absolute minimum PS work imaginable:

http://chrisharrison.smugmug.com/photos/478375681_iGFw9-O.jpg

For me personally, a quick glance tells me that it will print pretty darn huge with no problems. Job done.

 

[dk]

dude you should not be having any issues with 50d and 70-200 L lens, thats a 15mp camera and perfect glass.

heres a couple i took at the weekend with that exact setup

it must be the way you are cropping or something. I didn't even know what a 100% crop was until i read this thread, but you certainly sholdn't be having any issues with that setup, thats for sure.

The ISO will make a fairly significant difference though, with the camera going up to 1600/3200 and 6400 you really need to be checking your 100/200 images for the quality.

p.s. sorry about the size of the images, felt i needed to post the full original to compare.

 

[ukaskew]

p.s. sorry about the size of the images, felt i needed to post the full original to compare.

URL link to the images?! Jeez!

Lots of chromatic aberration at the top of Big Ben in the first pic

 

[Andy.]

lol @ the 6mb embedded images, just as well my internet connection got cranked up to 50MB today!! Nice results though.

 

[Ian]

I've just had one of my photos printed out by Photobox at A2 size for my mum and dad's anniversary, looks just fine. It was taken with a 450d and kit lens. As mentioned above, people worry too much about pixels, as long as it looks fine at the size it's going to be viewed at I wouldn't worry.

 

[dk]

URL link to the images?! Jeez!

lol, sorry, hadn't even thought of that, just tried to edit it and i could click on the button but sods law, once i replaced them with links my 15 mins was up and it wouldn't let me.

sorry.

 

[Stuart.Atkinson]

just uploading some images to Fotki, Could you have a look and see if u think all is ok? might be just me! I know a couple of these shots are poo, but not had chance to get get out and use it properly yet.

http://public.fotki.com/Stuart-Atkinson/50d_test/

 

[Andi-B]

Never actually considered the 100% crop before, not had reason to TBH

Just had a look through some of mine;

Full pic;

100% Crop;

Full pic;

100% Crop;

Full pic;

100% Crop;

 

[dk]

URL link to the images?! Jeez!

Lots of chromatic aberration at the top of Big Ben in the first pic

really, because I don't see any on my screen, just bright sunlight reflecting off the metallic parts of it?

 

[dk]

just uploading some images to Fotki, Could you have a look and see if u think all is ok? might be just me! I know a couple of these shots are poo, but not had chance to get get out and use it properly yet.

http://public.fotki.com/Stuart-Atkinson/50d_test/

looking at the exif's all those shots are taken at 800 iso to 3200, i would try some at 100 or 200 to get the best results as you are bound to get some graining by using those iso's.

i don't see anything wrong with them though at full res.

 

[5parky]

dude you should not be having any issues with 50d and 70-200 L lens, thats a 15mp camera and perfect glass.

heres a couple i took at the weekend with that exact setup
it must be the way you are cropping or something. I didn't even know what a 100% crop was until i read this thread, but you certainly sholdn't be having any issues with that setup, thats for sure.

The ISO will make a fairly significant difference though, with the camera going up to 1600/3200 and 6400 you really need to be checking your 100/200 images for the quality.

p.s. sorry about the size of the images, felt i needed to post the full original to compare.

Wow, those pics are impressive.