A Look At Some ISO 3200 Images From A Canon 5D
A look at some 100% crops
To give you the idea what ISO 3200 looks like on the Canon EOS 5D
unaltered 100% crop
Canon 5D with 24-105 f/4L IS lens @ ISO 3200
The same crop with noise reduction in neat image (at default settings) is a world apart and the wood looks like it has been smoothed with fine grain sandpaper:
100% crop + noise reduction
Canon 5D with 24-105 f/4L IS lens @ ISO 3200
It has been my finding that noise removal often appears to introduces a degree of blur to images. This is happening only because the removal of the noise lowers the local acutance. I would perform sharpening anyway; it is recommended by the developers of Photokit Sharpener to perform some sharpening at the input stage from camera to image processing application. Here however, noise removal has to precede the sharpening process because sharpening the noise would make it worse. So, here is the crop with both noise reduction (default settings) and just a little sharpening afterwards using Photokit sharpener:
100% crop + noise reduction + sharpening
Canon 5D with 24-105 f/4L IS lens @ ISO 3200
Here is another sequence (unaltered, noise reduction, noise reduction + sharpening) from the second image:
unaltered 100% crop
Canon 5D with 24-105 f/4L IS lens @ ISO 3200
100% crop + noise reduction
Canon 5D with 24-105 f/4L IS lens @ ISO 3200
100% crop + noise reduction + sharpening
Canon 5D with 24-105 f/4L IS lens @ ISO 3200
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I find your tutorials very interesting! I have been shooting analog so far but I’m going to purchase a digital slr. Over the years I’ve been shooting with iso 3200 film quite often because I don’t like using a flash. Of course the result is very grainy, which can be beautiful but not always. The 3200 pictures from your camera processed with Neat Image are simply incredible!
Comment by Van de Vijver Kris — April 25, 2006 @ 7:56 pm
Neat Image is indeed a must have application for digital photographers!
It’s ability to batch jobs and auto select a noise reduction profile based on the images EXIF ISO data is great.
I have a Canon 350D which can only do ISO 1600 but with Neat Image I have hesitation whatsoever to use it when needed.
Comment by olorinsledge — May 31, 2006 @ 9:35 pm
I too found this article very illuminating. Would you care to comment on Noise Ninja vs. Neat Image? Personally I was planning on getting Noise Ninja since I have read nothing but glowing reviews of its noise reduction capabilities, but to be frank I had never heard of Neat Image…
Comment by Rob Anglin — December 13, 2006 @ 2:26 pm
Canon chose to make the settings for ISO 50 and ISO 3200 an option that has to be enabled on the 5D before they are available for use. Do you know if there is a downside if that option is enabled all the time?
Comment by Bill Clark — January 4, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
Those are wonderful images at such a high iso. Tha’s what my last post was in reference to.
Comment by Okinawa — February 24, 2007 @ 10:03 pm
My mother and I were looking at pictures of Perranporth and saw yours. She grew up there in 1931-1945. She grew up in the old coast guard house. Her name was Patricia Everitt. We wondered if you knew any of her family. Her brother lives in Bristol still and she lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Just thought we would ask. Heather
Comment by Heather — April 15, 2007 @ 7:05 pm
How do you think the new canon 1d mark III at iso 6400 compares?
Comment by Okinawa — September 21, 2007 @ 3:22 am
bernie mac…
Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts…..
Trackback by bernie mac — October 30, 2007 @ 10:37 am