Which camera has lowest noise at high speed?

I am looking for a good camera to take indoor portrait photos of my toddler.
I don't like to use flash because the result is more boring than natural light.
Tripod will not help because of subject movement.

I believe this means I need a camera that has least noise at very high speeds.
I want to use a large-aperture (say 1.8) lens, so that means I'll need an SLR.
Canon rebel and Nikon d70 both support ISO 1600 - which has lower noise? Are
there other cameras to consider (at no more than $1500)?

Also, I notice that some higher priced cameras from these companies have lower
ISOs. (For example Nikon D2X.) That doesn't seem to make sense.

 

Here you can see a noise comparison between the two:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond70/page14.asp

Personally I am somewhat sceptic to the method used, but ...

Other cameras to consider in the price range
Pentax *istDS
Olympus E300


/Roland

 

Canon 20D, of course. Low noise at high ISO is one of it's great s

 

Like asking which commercial jet has the quietest engines, this is a
needless question- they are both very noisy at ISO1600, and any such margins
between them are narrow. Allegedly the 20D has best-controlled noise.

 

Hubble?

 

Have you tried bounced flash?

Bart

 

Hmm. Depends what you mean by "very". If you turn off sharpening and expose
correctly, both cameras will produce 8x10 prints that are soft but quite
clean. If you object to the softness, a slight hit of NeatImage and
sharpening in Photoshop with the threshold bumped a bit will improve the
prints. In either case, you get better prints than you'd get with ISO 800
(and probably even ISO 400) films in 35mm. Also, the noise levels at ISO
1600 in both cameras are lower than the current P&S cameras at ISO 400. So
from those comparisons, I'd say that the D70 and 20D have phenomenally low

Between the lower noise (see the graphs at the bottom of the page)

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos20d/page20.asp

And the extra pixels, the 20D should produce noticeably better 8x10s from
ISO 1600 images.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

 

In message <crsoqm$ja3$>,

The 20D will outdo the rebel and 10D even more with subject areas that
are very sharp, taken with a sharp lens. This is because the 20D has a
weaker anti-aliasing filter, which increases the potential
pixel-to-pixel contrast, and hence the signal-to-noise ratio at high
frequencies in sharply focused areas of fine detail.

This should apply to the D70 as well, since it has an even weaker AA
filter.
--

 

Yes.

But the Drebel's AA filter is already weak enough to allow the 10-22 to
produce Moire :-(

I do not think a weak AA filter is a feature.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

 

In message <cs3enh$fo3$>,

More details?

I thought the drebel and the 10D had the same AA filter.
--

 

??? I found Moire in a shot I took with the 10-22. There isn't much more to
say...

The good news is that it's pretty rare (only once). But the 300D's not my
main camera, so I haven't really stressed it.

That's my understanding, too.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan