Not Happy

First off let me state up front that I am not knocking any camera company. So a year ago I made the jump from nikon to canon thinking it was the right move for me. My reasons were that I believed canon made pro class glass one stop slower for alot of there lenses that are more affordable to a working class stiff such as myself ie the 17-40L the 400 f5.6L and 100-400L. However I am thinking that I have made a huge mistake. My first love is bird and wildlife photography and living here in the great PNW as you all know the light is very often almost non exsistent and find myself wanting and NEEDING to shoot at higher ISO to get shutter speeds up but the canons just cant handle higher ISO's, I am not talking ISO 2500 or such but even ISO 400 looks terrible in the noise department. This pic was taken with my dads d7000 at ISO 1000 and my 50d at ISO 320 looks worse.
I have shot the 7d and the 40d side by side and its not much better. Do any of you think that canon is going to catch up to nikon in an affordable body in the next year or so?. thanks for listening to my rant.

Sensors keep getting better. It's a tag-match between a number of contenders...not just Nikon and Canon, isn't it. So we wait for sample ISO photo comparisons from the next D4 and Canon 1dx. This will eventually trickle down to the affordable cameras...but, how long will we wait? Yeah, the old 12mp D3S type of sensor upgraded would be perfect in a new Nikon D400. But, I think most of us DSLR shooters will begin migrating to mirror less. Cameras in 5 years will look more like a handgun ...a big space-age looking zap gun. Instead of a hammer there will be an lcd screen. The barrel will be the interchangeable lenses attached to a mount with aperture dials, shutter controls, and stabilizer. The handgrip with the LCD will be detachable from the lens mount portion ...available for simple future sensor upgrades. Besides this separate back housing the sensor, it will have a flip-up lcd, and a hand grip like a handgun with the trigger used to trip the shutter. A couple thumb wheels will control a menu. Shooting will be fun for both video and stills. So while your question is important in the short-term...I am not planning to spend money on a new DSLR for a couple years cause the mirror less is gonna take the market by storm.

Ken: I assume you are joking about the trigger style?

Wade: I have been disappointed in Canon's noise level with modest ISOs too. I had a 40d, now have a 7d, and read somewhere that the 7d does better at higher ISO (like 1600) than modest ones like 400. That might be worth trying. There are settings for in-camera noise reduction, so check your manual and play with that a bit too.

Was your NIkon a full frame camera? FF cameras of just about any era will do better with noise than a canon 1.6 or Nikon 1.5, so that could be one of the variables as well.

Hi Marylynne, I was genuine. I have shot quite a few of UW Dempsey Indoor track meets the past 3 years. My friend has a daughter running for U of Oregon. I have had success catching the action of hurdlers, long jumpers, sprinters, etc....but, it demands the best ergonomics in order to make it enjoyable. That ain't happening. I try to fill the screen with as much action so that little cropping and loss of resolution is achieved. The dslr in which you must see the action by the eyepiece is awkward. It's the old spray n pray. IF the mirror-less system were shot at 60 fps for 10 mp ea..which is just around the corner...then the ability to sight down the 100 mm lens without looking at the lcd nor through an eyepiece like a rangefinder would be the easiest effort, in my opinion. Perhaps a sighting type of scope that rests atop the lens housing...eh...adjustable zoom to match the lens. This leads to my thought that tripping the continuous shutter with a trigger-like mechanism...seems perfectly sound and applicable. No way would a lens and quick-release type grip be mistaken for a 'hand-gun'...any more than some video cameras are that already are out in the market could be mistaken. Think of it like scouts that use speed guns to measure a baseball pitcher's ball velocity. The vocabulary...labels would need to change for marketing purposes. That I agree with....Ken S

I hear you Wade. I'm in the same boat, even though I shoot Nikon. I have the older D80, and lust after the better ISO of the newer cameras. I've got a year or two before I can "catch up."