It was tight and dark
It’s tight, because the 50 at APS-C doesn’t pamper – especially when the scene is quite narrow.
Dark, because despite working on the f/1.4 aperture and ISO to 3200, the times of 1/100 second were a luxury, while most of the pictures still fell out at 1/80 or even 1/60 second, i.e. times far below the zone of common sense in the case of event photography.
With such high parameters, being on the verge of equipment capabilities, it is hard to find studio quality pictures. However, despite the difficulties I managed to realize quite a number of attractive frames with which I am satisfied (and who knows me, he knows that I am very critical of the results of my work).
In the light of the magic lantern
I have also tested the extreme dual ISO parameters, which are basically the limit values for the EOS 7D (100/3200). The photographs taken as part of the festival show are my first commercial use of Magic Lantern software and the aforementioned dual ISO module.
Magic Lantern is the result of perseverance, knowledge and talent of a handful of people. This independent software is provided free of charge and runs with the original firmware. It lets you take seventh sweats out of your DSLR, something even Canon’s engineers probably didn’t dream of. In addition to the possibility of almost any programming of the equipment, the “lighthouse” provides many measurement tools known e.g. from professional video cameras. It also allows advanced control over the exposure parameters, and introduces many new functions, including recording in RAW .
However, the most interesting are the achievements of the last six months, headed by the dual ISO, a technique allowing to take a picture with different sensitivities for even and odd lines. The result is an interlaced photo that is apparently useless (because whoever wants to see their portrait through a filter composed of thousands of interlaced lines). After applying a bit of magic mathematics, however, we are able not only to reproduce the original image without interlacing, but also to significantly expand the detail visible in both the darkest and the brightest areas of the frame (which would normally be burned out or under-exposed). It’s like taking two pictures simultaneously – one dark and one light – and then combining them into a whole, but by interlacing them with different ISO parameters we’re able to get these two pictures in one frame.
How this looks in practice can be seen in the gallery above. Actually, it… Cannot be, because after conversion and processing, such photographs are basically indistinguishable from “ordinary” ones. And the devil, like the devil, is in the detail. Without the double ISO, it would be difficult to draw out so many details in the lights and at the same time calm tonal transitions in half-tones with the help of the old 7D.
Of course, Magic Lantern will still not make the APS-C transform into a full frame with magic mathematics, although… knowing the achievements of this team probably everything is possible.
Anyway, the magic lantern installed on the 7D and in experienced hands allows to exceed many hardware limitations. How colossal they are for the entire photographic market will be seen in the near future.
