Low light, high anxiety

The following was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend today.

Dear Shabby,

I just purchased a new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. It's a remarkable digital camera, able to get photographs at higher shutter speeds in lower light than I'd ever thought possible. The low-light performance of this camera makes photos possible where the human eye can barely register light at all.

Here's my problem: I was photographing an event in very low-light conditions, but was able to use a higher shutter speed than ever before in such a situation. So my camera was actually able to catch the subtle color shifts in wavelength created when a light filament is vibrating at super-high speeds. This is natural, as light filaments do this all the time when they are excited by the electrons running through them. It's how artificial light is created. Normally we (and our cameras) just see a relatively continuous stream of light. But with my new camera I am seeing successive frames all with slightly different colored light. A little green, then very green, a little orange, then very orange. It drives me nuts! I know I can "fix" this color in Photoshop or other programs, but as a journalist I am left with a thorny ethical dilemma: Aren't ALL these colors in fact accurate? Should I be fixing them at all?

This worried me so much that I tried an experiment. I shot photos by candlelight. And it turns out FLAME ITSELF HAS SLIGHT BUT PERCEPTIBLE COLOR SHIFTS! Not even flickering flame has steady and repeatable color!

So my question is, how do I convince everyone, everywhere, to go back to black and white photography, which we all know is more realistic than that Whore of Babylon, color?

Signed,
Photographer In Sunny San Diego

Dear PISSD,

Is that camera so good at low light that it can shoot things while you have your head this far up your own butt? Wow, that is a good camera.

I recommend you do what photographers have always done. Blame it on the reproduction and the crappy newsprint. And congratulations on your new camera.