I shot this test.
ISO 250 at f4.5.

I know that the 5D footage is heavily compressed, but this just looks "noisier" and more pixelated than it should to me, and more so than other footage I've seen online.
Especially if you go to full-screen mode and look at the darker background (especially to the right of the "subject").

5D noise test on Vimeo

I imported it into Final Cut as Prores (HQ) using the EOS movie plug-in, and exported it as H.264 (although, it looks this noisy/pixelated in Final Cut pre-exporting)

Maybe it's just a function of the in camera compression?
I just want to make sure there isn't something wrong with my camera or that I'm not doing something wrong in the import process.

Thanks in advance.

Todd,
I'll jump in for what it's worth. I see 2 things here that would make your shot noisy. Number one, it is underexposed and underexposed images are going to show more noise. Also 250 is one of the electronic ISOs which generate more noise than it's higher counterparts, so if you were at 320 you would have less noise than 250. Good luck, I think your camera is fine.
Bill

Thanks.

I have looked at other "low light" clips online, where parts are definitely underexposed, and I just don't see the same level of noise.

Avoid shooting at anything except 100, 160, 320, 640, and 1250. They have the lowest noise. 100 is actually a bit noisy, but is sometimes needed in bright situations.

Interesting. I had never heard this regarding specific ISOs being more or less noisy than others,
I had always just assumed the lower the ISO, the less noise.

Thanks guys.

I would add 2500 to that list. Easy. Clean as a whistle.

I will have to stop asking questions and just do some tests myself, but are you saying that 2500 is cleaner than 250?
Seems hard to believe.

Check out the chart that can be found on this page:
Optimising your 5D Mark II for filmmaking-kriskoster.com | kriskoster.com (http://kriskoster.com/2010/08/optimising-your-5d-mark-ii-for-filmmaking/)

http://canonphotogroup.com/misc/5DM2-ISO-Noise.jpg

nope, I'm saying I use 2500 in addition to those other ISOs and it is very clean. Now, I'm coming from a video camera background where 6db of gain is unuseable. 320 is cleaner than 250 though.
Bill

Avoid shooting at anything except 100, 160, 320, 640, and 1250. They have the lowest noise. 100 is actually a bit noisy, but is sometimes needed in bright situations.

Hi Jon, I thought that the lower ISO had the least amount of noise. So if you go up to 1250 wouldn't it get pretty noisy.