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Sinar eMotion 54LV - 30 second exposure

G

Graham Mitchell

New member
Someone was asking for long exposure samples, so here are some from my back, the e54LV. This back's noise performance isn't as good as Thierry's recent e75LV - that is something else - but still highly usable. I don't normally shoot long exposures so I went out tonight and put it to the test.

Thanks to the sodium lighting, I had to do a pretty large white balance shift, which actually increases noise so this is a real torture test.

ISO 50, 30 seconds

Scene:



100% crop, no processing other than white balance:

 
L

LJL

New member
Graham,
That is not bad at all. Thanks for sharing it.

This raises a question in my mind at this point. Is there a crossover point between a longer exposure at lowest ISO and a shorter exposure at a higher ISO? In other words, would your 30 sec ISO 50 shot, have less noise than a 15 sec ISO 100 shot, or some other proper exposure?

This is probably very closely tied to the base sensitivity of the sensor to some degree, so it may not be a general application, and ambient temps will come into play at some point. (I shoot a lot in South Texas, where it gets pretty warm/hot most of the year, and I can even see changes due to heat on the CMOS sensors in my Canon, so the CCDs in the MFDBs have to suffer some trade-offs also.)

So when does a long exposure become a bigger problem than a shorter exposure at slightly higher ISO for some of these backs?

LJ
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Just as a example from the ZD back at ISO 50 and 20 seconds . I see no issues at all. I am basically working before sunrise. No noise at all.
 
B

BJNY

Member
Graham, I posted this question in Thierry's ISO 800 thread:

BJNY said:
Also would be curious to know
how soon after the 30 second exposure is the digital back ready to make another capture.
(Is there a wait for some sort of automatic black reference exposure to be made immediately afterwards?)
Click to expand...
 
Jack

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
foto-z said:
Another 30 s exposure. Now you can see why I don't bother shooting streets here at night. Man, those lights are ORANGE!
Click to expand...
True, but they can make such cool B&W conversions :)

(PS: Hope you don't mind my re-processing your image, and if you do let me know and I'll delete it ASAP)
 
B

BJNY

Member
foto-z said:
BJNY, yes there is a 30 second wait while the black reference is captured, if your exposure was also 30 s.
Click to expand...
As I suspected.
Thanks, Graham.

BTW, a friend reported the Canon 5D is able to make the next captures immediately,
while the 1Ds2 has to wait.
 
T

thsinar

Guest
LJ, see my answer/remark to the same question in the other thread (e75 ISO 800 Sample):

yes, there is a difference in noise when shooting either with high iISO and short time as to low ISO and long time: but as you said, the ambient temperature DOES play here a lot.

If pretty cool, then I would probably go for the lowest possible ISO. At which temperature to "switch" to higher ISO and shorter times, well, that has to be tested.

Thierry

LJL said:
Graham,
That is not bad at all. Thanks for sharing it.

This raises a question in my mind at this point. Is there a crossover point between a longer exposure at lowest ISO and a shorter exposure at a higher ISO? In other words, would your 30 sec ISO 50 shot, have less noise than a 15 sec ISO 100 shot, or some other proper exposure?

This is probably very closely tied to the base sensitivity of the sensor to some degree, so it may not be a general application, and ambient temps will come into play at some point. (I shoot a lot in South Texas, where it gets pretty warm/hot most of the year, and I can even see changes due to heat on the CMOS sensors in my Canon, so the CCDs in the MFDBs have to suffer some trade-offs also.)

So when does a long exposure become a bigger problem than a shorter exposure at slightly higher ISO for some of these backs?

LJ
Click to expand...
 
T

thsinar

Guest
Thanks too, Graham, those are pretty impressive as well!

Thierry

foto-z said:
Someone was asking for long exposure samples, so here are some from my back, the e54LV. This back's noise performance isn't as good as Thierry's recent e75LV - that is something else - but still highly usable. I don't normally shoot long exposures so I went out tonight and put it to the test.
Click to expand...
 
L

LJL

New member
thsinar said:
LJ, see my answer/remark to the same question in the other thread (e75 ISO 800 Sample):

yes, there is a difference in noise when shooting either with high iISO and short time as to low ISO and long time: but as you said, the ambient temperature DOES play here a lot.

If pretty cool, then I would probably go for the lowest possible ISO. At which temperature to "switch" to higher ISO and shorter times, well, that has to be tested.

Thierry
Click to expand...
Thanks, Thierry. I did see your comments. My question was more around where things may transition. A good example is the overall color, saturation, etc., that comes from longer exposures at base ISO, and that may be preferable to building noise. I think Graham has a good illustration of this.

The other part of things is related to ambient temp effects. I agree, shoot at base ISO whenever possible, but sometimes that may not give best results. On really warm shooting days, I actually push the ISO a stop and then underexpose a stop or so, as I found that to deliver better color and lower noise with my Canons. Seems counter-intuitive, but it seems to provide good images for me when I need to shoot at higher shutter speeds under difficult light. (Besides polo, I shoot a lot of equestrian events that are held in large, poorly lit, hot arenas, and I need to stop action with a higher shutter speed. So I force things to manual, and purposefully underexpose a bit to get a denser file that actually holds up to pushing when processed, much as your shot from the garden.)

LJ
 
T

thsinar

Guest
LJ,

I fully agree with you, and your findings are also what I have experienced.

Thierry

LJL said:
Thanks, Thierry. I did see your comments. My question was more around where things may transition. A good example is the overall color, saturation, etc., that comes from longer exposures at base ISO, and that may be preferable to building noise. I think Graham has a good illustration of this.

The other part of things is related to ambient temp effects. I agree, shoot at base ISO whenever possible, but sometimes that may not give best results. On really warm shooting days, I actually push the ISO a stop and then underexpose a stop or so, as I found that to deliver better color and lower noise with my Canons. Seems counter-intuitive, but it seems to provide good images for me when I need to shoot at higher shutter speeds under difficult light. (Besides polo, I shoot a lot of equestrian events that are held in large, poorly lit, hot arenas, and I need to stop action with a higher shutter speed. So I force things to manual, and purposefully underexpose a bit to get a denser file that actually holds up to pushing when processed, much as your shot from the garden.)

LJ
Click to expand...
 
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