Since the days have gotten shorter, I have found myself in the position of shooting in low light more often, for obvious reasons. In doing so, I have proven to myself, if no one else, the benefits of having a good camera and good glass. If I was pressed to do so, I could probably give you a dozen motivating factors in my decision to buy a DSLR. Oh yeah, there are a lot of reasons…but the one that made me “pull the trigger” can be stated in one word. Noise. Noise is the bane of any digital photographer who shoots in low light. This problem is only exacerbated by the smaller, cheaper sensors in point and shoot cameras. It can literally ruin a shot, and has, many times, for me.
As an illustration of all this, let me present two cropped images of the dome of the Capitol building in Denver. Both were taken at roughly the same time and from the same location, and they are both handheld shots, but more importantly, they were both taken at an ISO setting of 800. The first was taken with a Canon SX10IS. This is the camera I’ve used almost exclusively for the last three years, at least prior to May of this year. It’s been a great camera, and I love the 20x zoom, but as you can see, the SX10’s poor high-ISO performance means that this shot is virtually useless. Even with massive noise reduction, the image ended up so mottled and the loss of detail was so great that at any size above a thumbnail, the picture looked like crap. Unfortunately, the only means to avoid this problem is to put the camera on a tripod and do a longer exposure at a lower ISO, but in this case, as in many others, that simply wasn’t possible.

This image was taken with a Canon Rebel T3i. It was taken at a bit wider aperture (2.0 vs 2.8) and a slightly slower shutter speed (1/50 sec vs 1/60), but the ISO setting was the same at 800. What you are seeing here is a perfect illustration of the difference between a consumer level point-and-shoot and a DSLR, albeit still a lower-end one. Better camera gear does not equate to a better photographer. What is DOES equate to are limits that can be much higher than with cheaper cameras. The only problem now is that it’s also much harder to blame the camera when I shoot a clunker…
