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Tell your friends about us!Better low light performance GRD III or A12 50mm?
- Thread starter bbodine9
- Start date
odklizec
PK
I'm afraid, there is no simple answer to that question 
From the image quality point of view, A12 50mm wins hands down. You can use ISO3200 without worry about noise or noise reduction. Even JPEG is pretty usable. GRDIII, on the other hand, is easier to use in low light because of much higher DoF. You don't need to care about focusing and group of people are almost always in focus. See for example this post comparing the A12 50mm and S10.
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4353
Since S10 uses the same sensor as GRDIII, you can get an impression about the GRDIII usability. In my opinion, both S10 and GRDIII JPEG is pure vase of time when it comes to sensitivities over ISO400. DoF is both bless and curse of both cameras. With A12, you can play with DoF. But if shooting group of people, shallow DoF could be a pain. You have plenty of DoF with GRDIII, but then you cannot play with it much. Decisions...decisions... If you want best of A12 50mm and GRDIII, maybe you should wait for A12 28mm? Closing the A12 28mm to f4 will give you the same depth of field as GRDIII at f1.9 and you can still get very usable photos even at hight ISO. So the only downside of GXR (and major advantage of GRDIII) is the size and weight.
From the image quality point of view, A12 50mm wins hands down. You can use ISO3200 without worry about noise or noise reduction. Even JPEG is pretty usable. GRDIII, on the other hand, is easier to use in low light because of much higher DoF. You don't need to care about focusing and group of people are almost always in focus. See for example this post comparing the A12 50mm and S10. viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4353
Since S10 uses the same sensor as GRDIII, you can get an impression about the GRDIII usability. In my opinion, both S10 and GRDIII JPEG is pure vase of time when it comes to sensitivities over ISO400. DoF is both bless and curse of both cameras. With A12, you can play with DoF. But if shooting group of people, shallow DoF could be a pain. You have plenty of DoF with GRDIII, but then you cannot play with it much. Decisions...decisions...
If you want best of A12 50mm and GRDIII, maybe you should wait for A12 28mm? Closing the A12 28mm to f4 will give you the same depth of field as GRDIII at f1.9 and you can still get very usable photos even at hight ISO. So the only downside of GXR (and major advantage of GRDIII) is the size and weight.
silverbullet
Member
bbodine9":3i95wpm9 said:
Here you can see a portrait in dim pub light with a lens of 50mm and open aperture of 2.0 (Nikkor 50mm f2.0) at NikonF. Film was HP4 in Microphen. Only one eye is sharp, a bit too narrow, but no chance for me, but a steady hand....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36573929@N ... 175685831/
Cheers
Wouter
New Member
With the better sensor the A12 50mm is a lot better in low light then the GRDIII, but fails at focusing in low light. Even though the lens isn't really fast for a 50 it still illuminates scenes in low light, which is pretty amazing. You might want to have a look at the A12 28mm which performs really well in low light. The AF is pretty reliable and the image quality is comparable with the A12 50mm which is very good up to ISO 1600. Although the GXR+A12 28mm is larger than the GRDIII and the Sigma DP1 it is in my opinion by far the best of these.
ZDP-189
New Member
I can't speak for the A12, but the GRDIII and GX200 aren't strong in low light. You really have to shoot in B&W or the chroma noise will dominate the image even at modest ISO like 400 at around EV6-8. At these exposure values, you're looking at quarter second exposures too. The best way round it is to learn to use flash. The GRDIII's saving. Grace is the GF1 external flash. It tilts but doesn't pan so it's best used on a cable.