Mickey the Cat, jpgs at ISO12800!!??

zackiedawg

zackiedawg

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Loving the new camera...much as I found the last one was quite excellent in its overall performance, the new 16MP sensor (Sony A580, A55, Nikon D5100, D7000, Pentax K5) is definitely a killer performer especially at high ISO. ; Being a JPG shooter, and a high ISO shooter (two things that are not often put together), I've long since learned how important exposure is to noise control, but still ISO12800 was just out of reach on the A550...ISO6400 remained usable with a light noise reduction cleanup, but 12800 was too far gone. ; With the A580, ISO6400 is ready right out of the camera, and if the exposure is nailed, ISO12800 doesn't really need any work either...what noise is there is relatively uniform, low on chroma, and the camera seems to be free of banding at these levels.

My cat had to become the willing model for me to play around with ISO12800 in very low light, using my Sigma 30mm F1.4 lens wide open...these were shot in JPG, and come straight from the camera, just resized:

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And one at F1.7 and ISO6400:
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I'm currently sorting through my hundreds of Disney photos from my A580's first trip to Disney this past weekend, and the surprises continue. ; It was a revelation - I actually shot hundreds of night shots, including scenics, handheld with no tripod...the results were shocking for me, as a long-time dedicated tripod night scenic shooter! ; Since I was with a friend I didn't want to slow down his mojo by toting my tripod and setting up long intricate shots, so I'd already written off doing any nice nighttime scenics or landscapes - until I started experimenting with the camera and saw what it can do handheld. ; I'm about 1/3 of the way through, and only have evenings to work on my photos, so I may not have the Disney stuff up until the weekend...but I was happy to be able to get in a lot more types of shooting than I expected, considering this wasn't a 'photo' trip, per se.
 
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Yeah...never did see or hear from anyone while there - I popped onto TMIP nightly but no meet-ups were listed. ; Not a problem as I was mostly letting Dave set the schedule and places since he's the one that hadn't been there in 3 or 4 years. ; I did keep my eye out for other TMIPers walking around, but the It's a Small World theory went down the drain since apparently the World is big enough to keep all of us TMIPers from bumping into eachother! ; ;)

Thanks on the kitty shots - I take probably way too many of them, but rarely upload or share them, so I figured it was OK to throw a few cat photos in here for a high ISO demonstration.
 
bored to death and cloudy day and I happen upon this thread so I figured what the hay something to try. I am out of my comfort zone here as I never shoot in jpeg or real high ISO. never above ISO1600 and always in 14 bit loseless raw so here goes
both are right out of the camera in jpeg fine with normal camera NR on. only resized for web.
D7000 with Nikon 35 f 1.8
 

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justin that last one is fantastic. ; love the colors, exposure, everything!
 
I really wish the camera manufacturers would stop making such huge performance improvements on these cameras. Almost all of them are so good already that the only excuse not to get the shot is user error! :D
 
Nice Howie - told you that sensor is good! ; We share the same 16MP sensor...mostly just comes down to getting the exposure right to reduce the noise a bit - the more underexposed, the more noise. ; Run your shots through a light dose of chroma reduction in Topaz Denoise or something similar, and you can get them even cleaner! ; The amazing thing is how much detail is retained at these ISOs...just 3-4 years ago, the best APS-C sensor was a blurry, noisy, blotchy mess at ISO12800. ; Now, you can print them large right from the camera!

Thanks Tim...it was a slow night and was bored...so pet photos were called for. ; ;)

Erich, you're right - they are really getting so good that poor photos are invariably the user's fault - there are few excuses left anymore...we may end up regretting that at some point!
 
I didnt run them them thru any NR.only the in camera. just a quicky test. yours are much sharper Justin. guess I need to stop down a little and yes underexposure makes tons of noise. I learned that
 
It is probably some combination of exposure and lens - the Sigma 30mm F1.4 is pretty decently sharp even wide open - but does get a little better at F1.7 - your lens might tighten up just stopping down one click or two. ; My camera does have a trick or two up its sleeve for this type of high ISO work, which is why mine look cleaner without any noise reduction...but yours still show the sensor retains very nice detail even at the extreme ISOs - the dog hairs are very distinguishable and clear, and would even be retained with light noise reduction. ; Amazing that an APS-C sensor can be this good in just two sensor generations, where only full frame sensors dared tread a few years ago. ; Of course, full frame sensors can now exceed 100,000 ISO! ; I'm guessing soon we'll actually have a camera capable of taking the infamous photo of a black cat in an unlit coal mine at night without a flash.
 
that new canon looks like it might be able to do that cat in the coal mine
ISO 204,000. whats next ?
come on Nikon get with the program here. we need a new DX body
 
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