Noise on a 50D

[SteveR]

I have an issue with noise, and am sure that it is present even at 100 ISO. At 250 ISO it is evident without doubt in grey skies at 100% crop. 800 ISO and above is unusable for landscapes, in fact you can see it at normal PC screen size, let alone 100%. Does anyone else have the same issue, or is it faulty? You can see the effect on some of my images in flickr if this helps

[Sheiky]

Steve I'm very curious. Please show those pictures. I have had some occasionally very high noise at even iso 100 with my 50D as well. Background looked like iso 1600+ in those pictures. That's about the main reason I'm considering buying another camera. 7D or 5DII Maybe we've got the same problem.





Jan

[Mark Elberson]

It's been my experience with the 50D that if you under expose you image that the noise will be much more prevalent. I believe this to be true with other cameras as well though. Others have spoke up this regarding the 5D Mark II. It just may be a bigger problem with the 50D. I'm really not sure. I believe this is why many people suggest that youETTR, or Expose To The Right of the histogram (over expose). I domost of my shooting indoors with low light so I find myself having to use flash. The good news is that makes it very easy for me to ETTR. Sometimes I have to pull back the exposure in DPP but that's easy.


I was actually take some shots recently where I was using flash and had my ISO set to 200. I was taking several shots insuccession and one timethe flash did not have enough time to recycle. Since I was shooting at 1/200th and ISO 200 the picture was several stops under exposed. Without even trying to push it in post the noise was nasty! It looked more like a Lite Bite ("http://www.hasbro.com/litebrite/) display than a picture!!

[barba]

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I am pretty sure that 100% crops are the major catalyst for body upgrades. I am trying to make it a point not to look at them.


Are you shooting jpeg or RAW? What noise reduction settings are you using?
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[Sheiky]

Well in my case 99/100 pictures turn out good. I always shoot in raw and no camera noise reduction. Too bad I've thrown all my faulty pictures away.
And I'm not sure what I have done wrong the times my pictures where noisy, so I can't recreate them. Steve might show you more.

[SteveR]

Pics are here:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/45601861@N02/ ("http://www.flickr.com/photos/45601861@N02/)


Note that some are with my old 30D, but they stand as a comparison. All files show in RAW, converted to 100% quality JPG with Lightroom. The one withh the tree where I have darkened the sky and painted the mist effect is particularly bad, but this is not in the other less brutally modified image of the same shot. I am going to do a controlled comparison of Lightroom vs DPP at several ISO speeds and do some pixel peeping, as I am sure that I not using Lightroom to its best. The NR is set to &lt;standard&gt; on camera, and LR is at the deafult setting of 25 I think for luminescance and 0 for chromatic noise. I have never read any user manual / book for lightroom which is obviously a potential area for error, but I never saw a noise problem with any shots of the 30D using the same software and approach.

[Daniel Browning]

I have an issue with noise, and am sure that it is present even at 100 ISO.


That's normal for all Canon cameras except the 1D/1Ds series. They have 8-9 stops of dynamic range and if you go over that, you'll see some ugly noise. There are many factors that affect dynamic range:

Needless underexposure
Highlight Tone Priority
Automatic Lighting Optimizer
Tweener ISOs (250, 500, 1000)
Bad light



Maybe people do not realize that they underexposed a photo. If you post one of the raw files to yousendit.com, we can look at it for you and let you know if it was underexposed.

[Fast Glass]

You should set the crominance to a higher setting and the luminance to 0 at low ISO speeds because crominanceremoves almost no deitail from an image.


John.

[Bob]

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"]<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; color: black;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]Take a look at this comparison.<o:p></o:p>


http://www.neutralday.com/canon-eos-1d-mark-iv-vs-nikon-d3s-iso-comparison/ ("http://www.neutralday.com/canon-eos-1d-mark-iv-vs-nikon-d3s-iso-comparison/)


Bob

[Sheiky]

I have an issue with noise, and am sure that it is present even at 100 ISO.


That's normal for all Canon cameras except the 1D/1Ds series. They have 8-9 stops of dynamic range and if you go over that, you'll see some ugly noise. There are many factors that affect dynamic range:

Needless underexposure
Highlight Tone Priority
Automatic Lighting Optimizer
Tweener ISOs (250, 500, 1000)
Bad light



Maybe people do not realize that they underexposed a photo. If you post one of the raw files to yousendit.com, we can look at it for you and let you know if it was underexposed.






I do understand it. I've set my ALO and HTP off from now on and see if I still get false pictures. I must notice that I have had two the same pictures just taken moments after each other, but exactly the same composition, same light, same everything except for focus maybe (macro shots)...one could fail and one is good. How could you explain that then? I thought it was a mechanical error. And when I'm talking about noise at ISO100 I mean NOISE.... like iso3200 noise. Still kicking myself for throwing away those pictures so fast....

[Daniel Browning]

I must notice that I have had two the same pictures just taken moments after each other, but exactly the same composition, same light, same everything except for focus maybe (macro shots)...one could fail and one is good. How could you explain that then? I thought it was a mechanical error. And when I'm talking about noise at ISO100 I mean NOISE.... like iso3200 noise. Still kicking myself for throwing away those pictures so fast....


Could be something is broken. If it happens again, post the raw files (the 1 noisy and the other OK) and I'll see if I can help. Some 50D owners have had to send their camera in for repair before, but it's rare.

[Sheiky]

I'll do that. Can take a while though. The weather isn't great at the moment and it still is a rare occasion. However, thanks for your help [Y]greatly apreciated[Y]

[SteveR]

Hi Dan, thanks for the offer. Most of the noise I see is in clouds, after I apply a grad in lightroom. I looked at some raw files in DPP and they look better even at 100%. I'll find one that is noisy and send it as you suggest. Trouble is I bought a 6 month old camera off ebay so no warranty....

[SteveR]

and should I switrch off these:




Highlight Tone Priority
Automatic Lighting Optimizer



I think they are off already, I certainly haven't activated them so will check off.

[SteveR]

@ Daniel - what address should I send to on yousendit.com


Thanks

[Daniel Browning]

and should I switrch off these:


Yes. They increase the dynamic range, which makes noise more visible. If that is the reason why you're seeing noise, then using less dynamic range will work around the problem.



@ Daniel - what address should I send to on yousendit.com


Any address, even your own. It doesn't send the file by e-mail, it just gives you a link to the file. Then you can post the link here and anyone can download it.

[Cris]

On my 50D i don&acute;t have that kind of issues with noise at all... i think it is pretty well controlled...

[SteveR]

I'll post the images later this evening, but I did some test shots last night at the full ISO stop intervals and viewed them in DPP RAW and they didnt look that bad, at 800 its clear at 100% but at screen fit it was acceptable. Even 1600 would print reasonably ok, so I am beginning to think it's Lightroom settings. Anyway, let's see!