Noise/ISO.... What's acceptable In your opinion?

oO Stevie Oo

oO Stevie Oo

oO Stevie Oo

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Behind the camera...
As above, I've personally turned into a noise perv, I hate it, but I'm finding in these low light days that I have no other option other than to crank up the iso.
I'm using the f4L 70-200mm and concidered going for the f2.8 but for what I use it for even f4 is too shallow a depth of field, so i I don't see any benefit from faster glass.

I shoot at around 1/50th for panning and it seems the slower I go, the more noise is being produced. The only other option I can think of is a body upgrade but the only crop body worth concidering is the 7D (currently using a 550D) but the ISO tests show the quality and noise through out the iso's of the 7D vs the 550D show next to zero difference and the other features of the 7D are no benefit to me for what I use it for... So what's the crack with the overall view on noise? LR noise reduction can only do so much before ruining tye image, do I just grin and bare it or what? Lol

Cheers

(this was ment to be a quick question lol)
 
Have you tried Canon DPP for noise reduction? I've heard that it tends to work better than Lightroom or PS (assuming you use 1 of these), though haven't tried it myself.

There's also plugins available for PS
 
DPP is very very good for noise reduction, much better than Lightroom or PS.
Lightroom and PS seem to have some auto NR built in when you import the image which can be altered. Either way, DPP still does a better job IMHO.
 
Depending entirely on the scene and processing, noise/grain can seriously add massive amounts to an image :)
 
Grain can, noise generally just looks like a cheap camera took the image :/

How about a 5D classic? If you find you're not using the full 200mm anyway it might be worth considering for lower noise?

If you find you really need the length then would an f/4 IS help? I'm confused as to why a longer exposure would mean more noise at that sort of timescale (1/50), maybe some examples?
 
I'm not sure what you mean by this 'I shoot at around 1/50th for panning and it seems the slower I go, the more noise is being produced'. Not sure how a slower shutter speed would produce more noise (nice images on flickr :) ) Though freezing the action without blur would be a challenge at slower speeds.

With the 7D I think I'm right in saying that it uses the same sensor as the 550D hence similar iso performance.
 
What ISO are you shooting at with shutter speeds of 1/50 and slower? It's going to be quite dark out if you're having to be above ISO800?
 
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Cheers all
I tend to shoot at the lowest ISO I can to be honest but after my last outing I noticed even shooting at ISO 200 is noticibly noiser than shooting at 100, unless I'm shooting at a night event I generally try to stay below 400, at night 800 to 1600 ISO purely because it's a night event that can't be avoided.

Shutter speeds I usually use from 1/30 - 1/160 depending on where I am (down to 1/15 sometimes on a night) but its seems to me the slower I go the more noise I get, not massively but noticable,
I'll give the above suggestions a go so cheers for them :)

(the 7D sensor is similar but slightly larger than the 550D/600D/60D sensor so it is a different sensor, but quality tests show their outcome is almost identical)
 
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Depends what im shooting in mate,
In Tv with evaluative metering sometimes the exposure needs adjusting (which is understandable shooting cars of different colours etc), but if the lighting is consistent and I'm shooting in manual it's usually spot on after a few test shots

I know knocking up the exposure adds to the noise though so I usually play with contrast, brightness etc
 
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oO Stevie Oo said:
Cheers all
I tend to shoot at the lowest ISO I can to be honest but after my last outing I noticed even shooting at ISO 200 is noticibly noiser than shooting at 100, unless I'm shooting at a night event I generally try to stay below 400, at night 800 to 1600 ISO purely because it's a night event that can't be avoided.

Shutter speeds I usually use from 1/30 - 1/160 depending on where I am (down to 1/15 sometimes on a night) but its seems to me the slower I go the more noise I get, not massively but noticable,
I'll give the above suggestions a go so cheers for them :)

(the 7D sensor is similar but slightly larger than the 550D/600D/60D sensor so it is a different sensor, but quality tests show their outcome is almost identical)
Click to expand...

Just curious, would you say you have a noise problem in the blue channel?
Sky's etc. can show allot of noise with that sensor.

A 5D classic will give you a good boost, also images will remain sharp as you up the ISO as it doesn't have aggressive NR that crop camera's use in order to get respectable DXO mark scores.
 
oO Stevie Oo said:
(the 7D sensor is similar but slightly larger than the 550D/600D/60D sensor so it is a different sensor, but quality tests show their outcome is almost identical)
Click to expand...

I just checked this up as that didn't sound right, and as I thought, the 550D/600D/60D/7D all share the same 18MP, 22.3 x 14.9mm sensor.

As another point, try shooting ISO 400 and exposing to the right rather than an underexposed ISO 200. It seems counterintuitive but having to pull an image up to a correct exposure almost always results in worse noise than had you shot an ISO stop higher and then just pulled down the exposure on my cameras, it might be the same for you.
 
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I read there different as in deeper and the chips on the back are different, just what i read before I bought my current setup
 
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Ksanti said:
I just checked this up as that didn't sound right, and as I thought, the 550D/600D/60D/7D all share the same 18MP, 22.3 x 14.9mm sensor.
Click to expand...

They are pretty much the same chips, although the 550D and 7D are made at different fabs, which apparently is why the 7D is a little noisier than the 550D, and if I remember correctly the 7D also has more noise issues at low ISO's.
 
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