Acceptable RAW ISO noise range?

[SkvLTD]

Since I'm thinking of jumping on 610 as soon as taxes come back, the most crucial question that lingers is how the ISO performance is with RAW files. On my 5100, I would say the reasonable limit is 320 since at 400 and up I REALLY have to smooth out the noise sacrificing precious sharpness.

So how does 6xx series compare? That ISO50 feature REALLY intrigues me, but more than anything else the clean high end performance. I suspect lots of tests on lots of sites is based on jpegs and the camera smooths those out, which isn't a great info point for me.

 

[Deezey]

I think noise levels tend to be a personal thing. With me I have no problems with my results at 6400 and 3200. But then for me I am a firm believer in "It is what it is.". I run most of my shots thru Dfine2 once and move on.

 

[Moab Man]

http://nikonites.com/d600-d610/20533-first-night-shot-d600.html

I have no hesitation taking my D600 to ISO 1250.

 

[Geoffc]

Since I'm thinking of jumping on 610 as soon as taxes come back, the most crucial question that lingers is how the ISO performance is with RAW files. On my 5100, I would say the reasonable limit is 320 since at 400 and up I REALLY have to smooth out the noise sacrificing precious sharpness.

So how does 6xx series compare? That ISO50 feature REALLY intrigues me, but more than anything else the clean high end performance. I suspect lots of tests on lots of sites is based on jpegs and the camera smooths those out, which isn't a great info point for me.

Only you can answer that question. I like many others here would be happy at 3200 or maybe 6400 on the 600/800 bodies if it kept the shutter speed up. You should look at ISO test samples on line as it's completely subjective.


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[rocketman122]

I have no issue using iso 3200 for almost anything I need. bump it to 4-5000 on dance floors at weddings. grain is minimal today at high iso with FF. just get the exposure right, dont have a lot of blacks/shadows and you can go up to 6400 as a worst case scenario. use the high iso NR in the menu on low or normal to remove some chroma noise. im not going to say anything about dx but basically, its not a very capable sensor.

iso 400 film had more noise than FF (when exposed properly or even 1/3 stop over) at 3200. I never used a NR software. I have dfine but not needed. it kills the details in images.

when I do my outdoors day events, I shoot at iso 1600 normally. its not an issue. even at 3200 and on a 1080p screen, you can hardly see any grain.

people hesitate and are so nervous to use high iso. better to have a picture with grain thats sharp and great ambient light exposure then a flashed front, black background shot or one you missed and is blurry because your shutter was too slow. ill take grain any day over pictures that dont have a nice well exposed picture of the ambient light.

 

[Geoffc]

I've recently been using a DX 7100 at 3200 and it's good if you expose properly.


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[SkvLTD]

Thanks guys! Only reason I asked is because I I've said, my 5100 chokes at anything remotely good enough for low-lighting. Just trying to prep on-paper so to speak for that jump into FX. Shot an event sunday night pushing 800-1000 and results were very short of my expectations for the quality (but as expected from several prior ones).

All in all, I feel that in my ~47k clicks I've definitely outgrown my current body's overall capacity entirely for where I want to keep on going. The GOOD thing is that all my lenses but 35 1.8g are FX, so the jump will be extremely comfortable.

 

[BackdoorArts]

Late to the party but I'll throw in my 2 cents. I was sorely disappointed in some of the noise I got from the D7000 at anything about ISO 800, and was astounded at how far I could push the D600. Honestly, it's almost made me a lazy photographer since the only thought I almost ever have about ISO now is "Do I want to shoot at 100 or Auto?" and then it's simply press a button and toggle the wheel one notch. I have no issues with anything I get from 3200 and down, and even at 6400 I find that Nik Dfine 2.0 removes it without the over smoothing effect you get from ACR noise reduction, so that's where I set my max in Auto ISO. Not to say that there aren't situations where I set it differently, but you get the idea.

 

[singlerosa_RIP]

I have no problem taking my D600 up to 6400. Here's a shot from last year of Chuck Berry in a small local venue, shot with an 80-200 2.8, wide open at 1/200 sec.

 

[SkvLTD]

Very nice. If that's at 6400, I'm sold. I get that ~640-800 and further just drives me nuts.

 

[DraganDL]

It all depends on what exactly you want to capture.
Extremes: straight out of camera jpg. D7000, 28-100mm@100 (cheap, plastic mount lens), f/5.6, 1/125sec handheld, ISO12800, from a distance of about 70cm, light source: single wolfram bulb (100w) on the ceiling:

 

[BackdoorArts]

It all depends on what exactly you want to capture.
Extremes: straight out of camera jpg. D7000, 28-100mm@100 (cheap, plastic mount lens), f/5.6, 1/125sec handheld, ISO12800, from a distance of about 70cm, light source: single wolfram bulb (100w) on the ceiling:
View attachment 74923

High ISO noise can vary greatly with image content and light intensity. So while there's certainly a lot of noise in this photo, it's by no means distracting. You also have to consider that with a SOOC jpeg that High ISO NR was likely applied, and rather well at that. Were you to look at the RAW file for the same there would be considerable noise since NR is not applied to the RAW file. Even for the jpeg shooter, if you llook at the burlap around the light switch you can see where you've lost detail in the texture from the NR. Again, an absolutely usable image and an important consideration as well (in-camera NR). But "straight out of camera" has a very different meaning to the RAW shooter, and there would be considerable noise to deal with on this shot, I suspect. Thankfully, the RAW shooter has more options as well and could likely do this good or better.

Not knocking the in-camera image. I think the discussion of ISO noise here has a lot to do with loss of detail, whether or not the noise is dealt with in-camera or in post. Were this a bird on a branch somewhere I suspect the details would be very obscured, much like the texture of the burlap. But as you said, depending on what you want to capture you can certainly go much higher than ISO 1600 on a D7000, and most other current Nikons, and get a very usable image.