Few 1DXII samples

[JMZawodny]

Well I can't run Prime on them yet, but I was able to compare the ISO 51200 images from the 1Dx2 side-by-side with the ISO 6400 images from my 5D2. Much to my joy, the noise appears to be quite comparable, subjectively. As others have noted, the grain of the 1Dx2's noise seems finer. I need to export those images in a format I can get into my own custom SW to do a quantitative analysis. It was very clear to me that the noise at ISO 25600 was much less than the 5D2 @ 6400. Since I know what Prime NR can do for my 5D2 images, these high ISO images from the 1Dx2 should clean up very nicely. I did not expect to see what appears to be a nearly 3 Stop improvement. The 1Dx2 is going to be a spectacular performer!

A side note: I'm not a big user of DPP and was appalled by the artifacts generated by their Noise Reduction algorithm.

 

[karmal67]

I normally use ACR or lightroom ... dpp I have a little abandoned

 

[Jack Douglas]

Well I can't run Prime on them yet, but I was able to compare the ISO 51200 images from the 1Dx2 side-by-side with the ISO 6400 images from my 5D2. Much to my joy the noise appears, subjectively, to be quite comparable, although as others have noted, the grain of the 1Dx2's noise seems finer. I need to export those images in a format I can get into my own custom SW to do a quantitative analysis. It was very clear to me that the noise at ISO 25600 was much less than the 5D2 @ 6400. Since I know what Prime NR can do for my 5D2 images, these high ISO images from the 1Dx2 should clean up very nicely. I did not expect to see what appears to be a nearly 3 Stop improvement. The 1Dx2 is going to be a spectacular performer!

A side note: I'm not a big user of DPP and was appalled by the artifacts generated by their Noise Reduction algorithm.

I use DPP since I have yet to invest in other software. So my level of understanding is limited but I've felt that the lens specific sharpening really did well. I'd really love to see exactly what these artifacts are that I should look for. Any chance you could post a sample or two of what DPP is doing in this realm that is poor?

Jack

Jack

 

[JMZawodny]

Well I can't run Prime on them yet, but I was able to compare the ISO 51200 images from the 1Dx2 side-by-side with the ISO 6400 images from my 5D2. Much to my joy the noise appears, subjectively, to be quite comparable, although as others have noted, the grain of the 1Dx2's noise seems finer. I need to export those images in a format I can get into my own custom SW to do a quantitative analysis. It was very clear to me that the noise at ISO 25600 was much less than the 5D2 @ 6400. Since I know what Prime NR can do for my 5D2 images, these high ISO images from the 1Dx2 should clean up very nicely. I did not expect to see what appears to be a nearly 3 Stop improvement. The 1Dx2 is going to be a spectacular performer!

A side note: I'm not a big user of DPP and was appalled by the artifacts generated by their Noise Reduction algorithm.

I use DPP since I have yet to invest in other software. So my level of understanding is limited but I've felt that the lens specific sharpening really did well. I'd really love to see exactly what these artifacts are that I should look for. Any chance you could post a sample or two of what DPP is doing in this realm that is poor?

Jack

Jack

When setting the Luminance noise reduction to high values DPP begins to strongly blur the image and edges develop halos or displaced replicas - ghosts.

 

[Jack Douglas]

Well I can't run Prime on them yet, but I was able to compare the ISO 51200 images from the 1Dx2 side-by-side with the ISO 6400 images from my 5D2. Much to my joy the noise appears, subjectively, to be quite comparable, although as others have noted, the grain of the 1Dx2's noise seems finer. I need to export those images in a format I can get into my own custom SW to do a quantitative analysis. It was very clear to me that the noise at ISO 25600 was much less than the 5D2 @ 6400. Since I know what Prime NR can do for my 5D2 images, these high ISO images from the 1Dx2 should clean up very nicely. I did not expect to see what appears to be a nearly 3 Stop improvement. The 1Dx2 is going to be a spectacular performer!

A side note: I'm not a big user of DPP and was appalled by the artifacts generated by their Noise Reduction algorithm.

I use DPP since I have yet to invest in other software. So my level of understanding is limited but I've felt that the lens specific sharpening really did well. I'd really love to see exactly what these artifacts are that I should look for. Any chance you could post a sample or two of what DPP is doing in this realm that is poor?

Jack

Jack

When setting the Luminance noise reduction to high values DPP begins to strongly blur the image and edges develop halos or displaced replicas - ghosts.

Thanks. Can you give me some numbers or position settings that this starts to happen. Recently, I've decided that with the 6D I simply don't like shooting over ISO 1250. In that case I use zero luminance but bump the chrominance up a bit from default. Generally with my 300 2.8 II, I set the lens sharpening to 65. The sharpness strength - 3, fineness - 7, threshold - 3.

This would be typical of most of my posted shots. Obviously, I would like to be able to increase the ISO with a 1DX II - have trouble imagining the opportunities that ISO 25 600 would provide!!. Unfortunately, due to the politeness of CR folk, I don't get the critical feedback that might help me do better (generally). Sure we all like praise but all it provides is encouragement, not a formula for improvement.

Jack

 

[JMZawodny]

Thanks. Can you give me some numbers or position settings that this starts to happen. Recently, I've decided that with the 6D I simply don't like shooting over ISO 1250. In that case I use zero luminance but bump the chrominance up a bit from default. Generally with my 300 2.8 II, I set the lens sharpening to 65. The sharpness strength - 3, fineness - 7, threshold - 3.

This would be typical of most of my posted shots. Obviously, I would like to be able to increase the ISO with a 1DX II - have trouble imagining the opportunities that ISO 25 600 would provide!!. Unfortunately, due to the politeness of CR folk, I don't get the critical feedback that might help me do better (generally). Sure we all like praise but all it provides is encouragement, not a formula for improvement.

Jack

All of the default settings for noise and sharpening were set to zero. I only adjusted the two sliders in the noise section. Chroma was at ~12. This artifact appeared rapidly when the Lumi slider approached 18. Admittedly that was an aggressive setting. These artifacts tell you quite a bit about the algorithm they use. I like to use wavelets in some of my own custom NR code. Anyway, we might be getting a little bit off topic here.

BTW: I often shoot ISO 6400 with my 300L f/2.8 II @ f/2.8 and ~1/30 second using only available light. I can't wait to put the extra couple of stops to work.

Joe

 

[Jack Douglas]

Thanks. Can you give me some numbers or position settings that this starts to happen. Recently, I've decided that with the 6D I simply don't like shooting over ISO 1250. In that case I use zero luminance but bump the chrominance up a bit from default. Generally with my 300 2.8 II, I set the lens sharpening to 65. The sharpness strength - 3, fineness - 7, threshold - 3.

This would be typical of most of my posted shots. Obviously, I would like to be able to increase the ISO with a 1DX II - have trouble imagining the opportunities that ISO 25 600 would provide!!. Unfortunately, due to the politeness of CR folk, I don't get the critical feedback that might help me do better (generally). Sure we all like praise but all it provides is encouragement, not a formula for improvement.

Jack

All of the default settings for noise and sharpening were set to zero. I only adjusted the two sliders in the noise section. Chroma was at ~12. This artifact appeared rapidly when the Lumi slider approached 18. Admittedly that was an aggressive setting. These artifacts tell you quite a bit about the algorithm they use. I like to use wavelets in some of my own custom NR code. Anyway, we might be getting a little bit off topic here.

BTW: I often shoot ISO 6400 with my 300L f/2.8 II @ f/2.8 and ~1/30 second using only available light. I can't wait to put the extra couple of stops to work.

Joe

Thanks for that. I take whatever free advice I can get! I had a couple real good days shooting eagles with the 1D4, one day at ISO 600 and one at 800 and I came to regret the ISO 800 shots. After the 6D that aspect of the 1D4 was quite disappointing. Admittedly, I'm not up on post processing so I guess some energy has to directed to that soon.

Jack

 

[jdavis37]

Thanks for that. I take whatever free advice I can get! I had a couple real good days shooting eagles with the 1D4, one day at ISO 600 and one at 800 and I came to regret the ISO 800 shots. After the 6D that aspect of the 1D4 was quite disappointing. Admittedly, I'm not up on post processing so I guess some energy has to directed to that soon.

Jack

Not that I am super efficient when it comes to NR but I typically use 2 products after RAW conversion.. Topaz Denoise (my overall preference) and Nik Dfine 2 (now free). (DXO's PRIME engine is outside of this post though overall is a VERY good product).

This is a long youtube video but it shows how to use Topaz denoise outside of its presets. I have had good success with following this type of workflow:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3V2_9c2Oz4'

Other products probably work just as well. I have never done NR via ACR or DPP as I dislike the overall appearance. DeNoise and Dfine (I use Dfine to selectively reduce noise only in the bokeh regions via color selection) have given me a lot more control over detail retention and selective noise reduction (versus removal).

Good luck with the files. While the photos were less than "great" I felt these real world examples will help many see what they can expect with the camera in their hands versus very controlled settings showing the best the camera can do. I very much appreciate the original poster for helping people see what the camera can do in realistic and uncontrolled conditions! John

 

[Jack Douglas]

jdavis37, thanks for the link. It was educational for me.

Jack

 

[karmal67]

Looking good some photos in the initial post some ni seems to have the focus problems or not?

 

[JMZawodny]

I was able to get a tiff version into DXO, but Prime NR is not an option for non-Raw files. Anyway, here is the result of their "normal" noise reduction algorithm with both the chroma and lumi sliders maxed out with an ISO 51200 image from the 1Dx2. Still visible noise in this 100% crop, but you can still see how much sharper the details are than with DPP. I'm still convinced Prime NR will polish these files nicely.

 

[Diko]

A nice show. Thanks!

Could you upload a few RAW DR tests? Thanks!