D5100 - In Camera Noise Reduction Settings

RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
Good Morning All!

I was checking out various settings in my D5100 and noticed two related to NR (Noise Reduction). I was wondering (regarding the LONG EXPOSURE NR & High ISO NR)

1. What do the 0ther 5100 owners have these set at??

2. Have you adjusted/used them at all???

3. What experiences do you have with them?

Mine were set to Long Expos = OFF and High ISO = Norm. (I had not touched them)
I did a test series today on High ISO, set 6400 and
OFF, LOW, NORMAL HIGH.

I am at work so will not be able to process those until I get home..

Thanks for your input as usual...

Pat in NH
 
Marilynne

Marilynne

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Don't recall changing mine. Mine are set to Long Expos = OFF and High ISO = HIGH.


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G

gqtuazon

Gear Head
Pat - the long exposure noise reduction works very well if you turn that function on. It takes another 30 seconds or so for the camera to re-process the image but the output is nice and clean. Best used for night photography. ISO 6400 is too noisy for me unless everything else is pitch black. It is not recommended if you are shooting fireworks since you might miss the fireworks if you want to shoot consecutive shots say at 15 seconds.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I've played around with this setting a bit because I like doing night photography quite a bit. The Long Exposure Noise Reduction function kicks in when exposure time exceeds 8 seconds, when enabled, and affects all both RAW file and JPEG images alike because it works by shooting the same frame twice. The second shot is taken with shutter closed and the in-camera software then combines the images. Through a subtractive process the second shot is used as a template, if you will, to remove "noise" from the first. In my experience it works very well but you have to be shooting some insanely long exposures (as in "measured in minutes") at really high ISO's (I'll stick my neck out and say above 1600ISO) to see any practical application. Unless your camera sensor has some hot pixels, which this would also correct. I guess I'd say the NR function is a good thing to have, I mean, I'm glad it's there, even if it really has what I see as being a very limited range of practical use.
 
RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
gqtuazon said:
Pat - the long exposure noise reduction works very well if you turn that function on. It takes another 30 seconds or so for the camera to re-process the image but the output is nice and clean. Best used for night photography. ISO 6400 is too noisy for me unless everything else is pitch black. It is not recommended if you are shooting fireworks since you might miss the fireworks if you want to shoot consecutive shots say at 15 seconds.
Click to expand...

Thanks Glenn.. That makes sense and echoes what the 5100 manual says. Do you leave yours on??? Or just kick it on when you want it..

I may have to run a test of this with my 5100 later!! :)

Pat in NH
 
RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
Horoscope Fish said:
I've played around with this setting a bit because I like doing night photography quite a bit. The Long Exposure Noise Reduction function kicks in when exposure time exceeds 8 seconds, when enabled, and affects all both RAW file and JPEG images alike because it works by shooting the same frame twice. The second shot is taken with shutter closed and the in-camera software then combines the images. Through a subtractive process the second shot is used as a template, if you will, to remove "noise" from the first. In my experience it works very well but you have to be shooting some insanely long exposures (as in "measured in minutes") at really high ISO's (I'll stick my neck out and say above 1600ISO) to see any practical application. Unless your camera sensor has some hot pixels, which this would also correct. I guess I'd say the NR function is a good thing to have, I mean, I'm glad it's there, even if it really has what I see as being a very limited range of practical use.
Click to expand...

Thanks!! I may have to run some tests later... Glad to hear it works on RAW files.. You indicated that the NR kicks in above 8 seconds, according to the manual, it is supposed to kick in above 1 sec.????

Pat in NH
 
G

gqtuazon

Gear Head
RockyNH said:
Thanks Glenn.. That makes sense and echoes what the 5100 manual says. Do you leave yours on??? Or just kick it on when you want it..

I may have to run a test of this with my 5100 later!! :)

Pat in NH
Click to expand...

I just leave the long exposure "on". It only gets activated like what "horoscope fish" mentioned.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
RockyNH said:
... You indicated that the NR kicks in above 8 seconds, according to the manual, it is supposed to kick in above 1 sec.????
Click to expand...
Well I hate to contradict the manual but...

*scratches head*

I guess I'll just say try it and see. I am still on my first cup of coffee over here, but I'd bet you a Dr. Pepper you're not going to see the NR kicking in on a 1.5s exposure. Please correct me if I'm wrong though!
 
RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
Horoscope Fish said:
Well I hate to contradict the manual but...

*scratches head*

I guess I'll just say try it and see. I am still on my first cup of coffee over here, but I'd bet you a Dr. Pepper you're not going to see the NR kicking in on a 1.5s exposure. Please correct me if I'm wrong though!
Click to expand...

Hahaha.. I have no problem with contradicting the manual... I did a couple tests...

It did NOT kick in at 1 sec

It DID at 1.3!!! Got the Job NR in the viewfinder... it was much shorter process than when I did a 2 sec.. Job NR was up for much longer...

Anyway, that is the data according to my D5100's brain! :)

Pat in NH
 
A

ABN Panzer

Senior Member
Hmmm... Good thread.
Now I have something else to look at.

Currently my camera settings, in this regard, are simply set to the default that it shipped as.
 
RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
Again, thanks to all who responded and shared info on there D5100. Here is the little test I ran at work today...

Set the camera to ISO 6400, AP, f/5.6 S = 1/200. Used the 18-105 at 80mm shooting out my office door to the lab.

This is the original uncropped image...


DSC_6202-2.jpg


I did auto exposure and crop in lightroom, copied all settings to the other 3 and those are the only adjustments.

Hi Iso NR = OFF...................................................Hi ISO NR =Low

DSC_6202.jpg DSC_6203.jpg


Hi Iso NR = Nrmal...................................................Hi ISO NR =High

DSC_6204.jpg DSC_6205.jpg

On close examination and zooming in on the under desk area and also the doorknob.. I really did not see any appreciable difference from the settings.. I even went from direct from OFF to HIGH and no real difference. It is not at this point anything I would worry about.

Pat in NH
 
RockyNH_RIP

RockyNH_RIP

Senior Member
Just for curiousity... had a few minutes before work. I did another test in the kitchen at home. I will not waste bandwidth with posting them, no noticable difference again. From my perspective, did not seem to matter where the High ISO NR is set...

At a future date, I will test the Long Exposure NR setting...

Thanks all for the info.

Pat in NH
 
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