Best Portrait Cameras Under $1,000: Shooting in low light

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Best Portrait Cameras Under $1,000: Shooting in low light

Seven cameras, eight lenses compared, one stood out

Shooting in everyday light Special Situations

Page 2: Turning the lights down!

By Dave Pardue, William Brawley and Dave Etchells
Posted: 06/15/2018

On the first page of this portrait shootout we showed you a well-lit outdoor scenario where each camera and lens could comfortably shoot wide open at base ISO with reasonable shutter speeds. In this section, we'll move into more difficult territory and turn down the available light!

The comparison below is meant to simulate either low outdoor lighting near dusk, or reasonable indoor lighting. We used a 6-stop neutral density filter across each camera + lens competitor, even on the RX100 V and the iPhone 8 Plus. And in order to balance the playing field, we normalized each to a 1/60s shutter speed, at their brightest aperture, and then allowed the ISO to rise to wherever it needed to be in order to obtain a good exposure.

Early evening and indoor lighting

This is where the stakes really heat up, because if you spend roughly $1000 on a solid portrait setup you certainly want and need it to be able to handle low light! In crowded social situations flash often won't do the trick, and even if you are allowed flash if can severely flatten the faces unless off-camera flash or bounce flash is used, and those are options you don't always have at your disposal. Once again, we'll kick off the comparisons with a top-of-the-line portrait rig for reference.

Nikon D850 + 105mm f/1.4

1/60s | f/1.4 | ISO 1600 | 105mm eq. | +1EV

Cream of the crop: With a full frame sensor and a super-bright aperture, you're all set to easily conquer low light situations, and our 2017 Camera of the Year does it just about as well as any camera we've ever tested. So, the real question becomes: How many rigs under $1000 can handle the low light stress?

Canon SL2 + 50mm f/1.8

1/60s | f/1.8 | ISO 3200 | 80mm eq.

Fujifilm X-A5 + 50mm f/2

1/60s | f/2 | ISO 4000 | 75mm eq.

Nikon D3400 + 50mm f/1.8

1/60s | f/1.8 | ISO 3200 | 75mm eq. | +1EV

Nikon D3400 + 85mm f/1.8

1/60s | f/1.8 | ISO 3200 | 127.5mm eq. | +1EV

Olympus E-M10 III + 45mm f/1.8

1/60s | f/1.8 | ISO 2500 | 90mm eq.

Panasonic GX850 + 42.5mm f/1.7

1/60s | f/1.7 | ISO 2500 | 85mm eq.

Sony A6000 + 85mm f/1.8

1/60s | f/1.8 | ISO 3200 | 127.5mm eq. | +1EV

Sony RX100 V shot at max tele 70mm eq. f/2.8

1/60s | f/2.8 | ISO 10000 | 70mm eq. | +1EV

Gain strain: In order to provide a reasonable exposure in this light with an f/2.8 aperture, the RX100 V needed to raise the ISO to a lofty 10,000, and a 1-inch sensor isn't designed to handle anything close to that. Viewing at this distance isn't terrible, but as you can see below, should you decide to crop in or print your image there will be noticeable artifacts from the strain of high gain.

Apple iPhone 8 Plus shot at max tele 57mm eq. f/2.8

1/4s | f/1.8 | ISO 640 | 62mm eq. | +1.75EV

Out of range: Smartphones are terrific as general-purpose cameras because you always have one with you for scenes where there is sufficient ambient light. But as the light dims or you head indoors, these sensors simply can't handle the strain. It's like trying to turn the volume up high on a tiny transistor radio to please a large crowd - the physics just don't allow it to happen.

So obviously there is a great deal of difference in overall image quality in low light between the ILC's with their larger sensors and brighter apertures and the fixed lens cameras with smaller sensors. Let's take a closer look at our subject's eye in a side-by-side comparison in order to see what's really going on with our images from these various competitors. Most of our readers want to know what they're really getting, and only by "zooming in" can we really analyze who can handle the strain as the light starts to dim.

We knew beforehand that shooting with a neutral density filter might introduce some unwanted color cast that would vary from camera to camera. In order to normalize this, we loaded the RAW files from this series into Lightroom and corrected for white balance using a standard gray card, and then made some further adjustments individually to help all the photos look as similar as possible. We did not, however, add any additional noise reduction other than what Adobe Lightroom applies by default. And just as we did with the low ISO series, we also tweaked shadows and highlights a bit to taste. The goal was simply to balance the playing floor so that we could fairly judge each model, but your own editing may lead you to different choices for noise versus sharpness, so feel free to download the RAW files and tweak to your heart's content.

ISO: Subject noise comparison (from shots normalized to 1/60s shutter speed)

Nikon D850 + 105mm f/1.4 (ISO 1600)

Canon SL2 + 50mm f/1.8 (ISO 3200)	Fujifilm X-A5 + 50mm f/2 (ISO 4000)	Nikon D3400 + 50mm f/1.8 (ISO 3200)

Nikon D3400 + 85mm f/1.8 (ISO 3200)	Olympus E-M10 III + 45mm f/1.8 (ISO 2500)	Pan. GX850 + 42.5mm f/1.7 (ISO 2500)

Sony A6000 + 85mm f/1.8 (ISO 3200)	Sony RX100V - 70mm eq. f/2.8 (ISO 10000)	Apple iPhone 8+ - 56mm eq. (ISO 640)
The ISO's listed above are varying because we normalized the shots to a 1/60s shutter speed. In this way, we're allowing for a more real world comparison of the ISO capabilities of the sensor and aperture in combination. All of our primary competitors in the ILC department produced reasonably nice images, with only minor discrepancies between them. There is of course some noise while zoomed into the images, even with our higher-end reference camera, but at normal viewing distance in the full shots above the images are all fairly pleasing to the eye. And yet, once again, neither the RX100 V nor the iPhone are able to handle the high ISO strain in low light scenarios given their dimmer apertures and smaller sensors. To be sure, the RX100 V looks far superior to the iPhone image, but it still doesn't quite make the grade in low light for solid portrait work.

Now let's take a look at the noise from the background images, as that can often show interesting differences in high ISO strengths and weaknesses as well.

ISO: Background noise comparison (Guitar image is 7 feet/2.1 meters behind subject)

Nikon D850 + 105mm f/1.4 (ISO 1600)

Canon SL2 + 50mm f/1.8 (ISO 3200)	Fujifilm X-A5 + 50mm f/2 (ISO 4000)	Nikon D3400 + 50mm f/1.8 (ISO 3200)

Nikon D3400 + 85mm f/1.8 (ISO 3200)	Olympus E-M10 III + 45mm f/1.8 (ISO 2500)	Pan. GX850 + 42.5mm f/1.7 (ISO 2500)

Sony A6000 + 85mm f/1.8 (ISO 3200)	Sony RX100V - 70mm eq. f/2.8 (ISO 10000)	Apple iPhone 8+ - 56mm eq. (ISO 640)
Bokeh with raised gain: Once again, we see some slight discrepancies between the primary ILC competitors here, but for the most part they render reasonably pleasing bokeh at 7ft, and the noise from the increased gain is not overly noticeable until we zoom in to view the images up close. We had expected larger discrepancies here, since the apertures and sensor sizes vary somewhat, but for the most part, the playing field is fairly level. Moving to the fixed lens cameras, the RX100 V at least renders some blur to the rather noisy image, but is still not in the league with the others, while the iPhone 8 Plus isn't able to compete at all.