D7100 High ISO comparisons to D600

I finally got out this morning to take some bird shots with my 150-500mm Sigma lens on my new D7100. Typically the way I set it up is to Auto ISO up to 3200 in order to keep the shutter speed quick (around 1/800). As I understand it my D600 should perform better at the higher ISOs and that at ISO 3200 both results would be pretty grainy, but what I wasn't sure of is how far apart the two cameras would be in comparison. I'll admit I was a little excited to test the D7100 and see how it looked cropped in at 100%.

I didn't intend to do a comparison but when I uploaded the pics I was disappointed enough to look up some D600 pics from the same location around the same hour but months apart and compare. Because I wasn't intending to do a comparison this "test" is about as unscientific as it can get.

I don't consider any of these pics keepers but mainly chose them to keep most of the values close. All of them are unedited snippets from my LR4 cropped in at 100%

Here is a D7100 at ISO 3200:



Here is a D600 image at ISO 4000:



Here's another D7100 at ISO 1400:



Here's another D600 image at ISO 1600:



Just for kicks here is a D7000 image at ISO 1600:



I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from purchasing a D7100 or to persuade them to choose one camera over another. I like my D7100 and I know it can produce great results. I just thought I'd throw this out there because I for one was fairly astonished by the differences.

Would be interesting to see the same shot, shot back to back and with the same lens.

Tracsoft - Don Kuykendall said:

Would be interesting to see the same shot, shot back to back and with the same lens.

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I agree it's not a fair comparison. All the shots are with the same Sigma lens at 500mm (except for the last one from the D7000). But like you said back to back would give it a fair comparison since (as I understand) poor lighting can really bring out lots of grain.

I think this was really a knee-jerk reaction because I was out for the first time with the D7100 and when I looked at the results I automatically wanted to compare it with my other camera body. I have to admit I was expecting slightly better results. But I'll keep working with it.

Do you have High ISO NR enabled on your D7100? I've shot at ISO 3200 on mine and had far, far better results.



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Noise Reduction is set to Normal. I think it was more of a lighting issue. I'm going to work more with my D7100 to bring out better results.

PapaST said:

Noise Reduction is set to Normal. I think it was more of a lighting issue. I'm going to work more with my D7100 to bring out better results.

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High ISO NR really is quite effective on the '7100.



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Shutter speed too ....

Would be interesting to do a side by side test when you get your D600 back. The lower pixel density of the D600 should give better results.

I'm with Rick. While the D7100's high ISO performance seems to be wonderful, you're cramming the same number of pixels on a sensor that is about 40% the size. To give you an idea of how densely populated that is, if you kept the same pixel density and expanded to full frame you'd have in the neighborhood of 57 megapixels!! There's no way the low light performance from that sensor will match the D600's.

Again, not knocking the D7100, just doing the basic math.

BackdoorHippie said:

I'm with Rick. While the D7100's high ISO performance seems to be wonderful, you're cramming the same number of pixels on a sensor that is about 40% the size. To give you an idea of how densely populated that is, if you kept the same pixel density and expanded to full frame you'd have in the neighborhood of 57 megapixels!! There's no way the low light performance from that sensor will match the D600's.

Again, not knocking the D7100, just doing the basic math.

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I agree Jake. I expected my D600 to outperform the D7100 in low light. But I wasn't sure to what degree it would outperform it. I guess I was expecting a little closer in performance between the two.

Once I get my D600 back I'll do a back to back comparison and get as many variables as identical as I can. The above test wasn't a great test.

I don't want to pick on your lens, but I'm going to. In the below picture I'm at ISO2500 @ 1/8000 shutter speed zoomed out to 200mm on an overcast day and getting way better results than you are. The exception being I'm using an 18 to 200 mm NIKKOR lens. BTW I was using the high shutter speed to freeze the race cars in motion at 200 mph. My ISO NR was and is set to high. What do you think?



WARNING the link has a full rez 6000 x 4000 jpg. http://www.davidjohnsonpage.com/DSC_0166.JPG

No worries... lenses do make a difference. So do shooting conditions, camera settings, etc. When my other body gets back I plan to do a back to back comparison. I want to get the same lighting conditions, same subject, same camera settings and then compare.

Really the only thing that was the same between the D600 and the D7100 was the lens. That wasn't exactly a fair comparison.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results! Thank you!

PapaST said:

No worries... lenses do make a difference. So do shooting conditions, camera settings, etc. When my other body gets back I plan to do a back to back comparison. I want to get the same lighting conditions, same subject, same camera settings and then compare.

Really the only thing that was the same between the D600 and the D7100 was the lens. That wasn't exactly a fair comparison.

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Hey,

I'm also really looking forward to seeing those results as I am looking at getting the D600 over the D7100 (as a replacement for my bust D7000).

I did test a D600 in the shop with my 105mm micro and was absolutely stunned by the results. I remember pixel peeping my D7000 pictures (especially macros) and always being not quite happy. Well, the D600 at ISO 1000, hand-held in mediocre light just blew my mind away! I cropped and cropped and was still impressed.

See this thread http://nikonites.com/d600/10980-d600-owners-unite-discuss-post-photos-14.html#post189142 for more...

Zimboy said:

Hey,

I'm also really looking forward to seeing those results as I am looking at getting the D600 over the D7100 (as a replacement for my bust D7000).

I did test a D600 in the shop with my 105mm micro and was absolutely stunned by the results. I remember pixel peeping my D7000 pictures (especially macros) and always being not quite happy. Well, the D600 at ISO 1000, hand-held in mediocre light just blew my mind away! I cropped and cropped and was still impressed.

See this thread http://nikonites.com/d600/10980-d600-owners-unite-discuss-post-photos-14.html#post189142 for more...

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After I got my D600 I compared shots at 100% against my D5100 (same sensor as the D7000) and the D600 just blew it away in every comparison. Will be interesting to see how the D7100 compares,

Tests I've seen indicate the d600 has less noise especially at higher ISO's.

Is there a consensus - even among the experts - that the 600 is a better camera than the 7100? If someone was upgrading from a 7000, which should they choose?
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eli said:

Is there a consensus - even among the experts - that the 600 is a better camera than the 7100? If someone was upgrading from a 7000, which should they choose?
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I think it boils down to what you want to do and what you expect from a camera. I own both and I'm not ready to say one is better than the other. I will say that one does certain things better than the other. Learning the differences will help you figure out which one would work better for you.

eli said:

Is there a consensus - even among the experts - that the 600 is a better camera than the 7100? If someone was upgrading from a 7000, which should they choose?
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The d600 and d7100 are very similar from a shooters perspective - buttons, controls, etc.

1. You've been using a DX camera for a while, so I would ask, do you feel limited by the sensor size and would jumping up to a full frame make a difference in your photography? Maybe it won't make a difference.

2. The d600 and d7100 have almost exactly the same pixel count. So, the d600 the same number of pixels into a larger sensor size, which helps reduce noise, especially at higher ISO's.

3. The d7100 has a 51 point auto focusing system and the d600 AF is 39 points.

As mention it comes down to how you use the camera and what types images you want to produce. For me, going to FX format would be a natural progression because I like to do landscape and architecture. That means over time, as I can afford it, I'll buy lenses for the FX frame factor. However, the DX sensor size has it's advantages as well and you can use DX and FX lenses on a DX camera.