D800 and 'Noise'

[Terry Johnson]

Hello, I have had my NIKON D800 for about two weeks now (12-15-13) and I am very happy with the images it produces, with one exception, the images have a lot of noise. I take all of my images in 'RAW' format with all noise reduction filters set to 'off'. I have my ISO sensitivity range set to ISO 100 - 400 to keep the noise down. I process my images using ACR for generic edits and then process selected areas using Photoshop CS6.

I have taken some test images using the JPEG format and the camera produces very good images with very little noise, however, post processing ability in Photoshop CS6 is greatly reduced because of the compressed JPEG image format.

I have heard you can take images with little 'noise' all the way up to ISO-6400, however, I do not find this to be the case when shooting in RAW mode.

Any feed back on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...Terry Johnson

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Tery,

From what I have seen D800 is def. capable of producing great results at high ISO (much higher than 400). And of course everybody shoots RAW here(you have to, for best results). Your problem is that you are not familiar with advanced image processing and noise reduction techniques. What people are talking about is that after optimal RAW processing, you can achieve a noise-free output at very high ISO, not that the RAW file itself has no noise, it certainly has.

In order to achieve noise-free output at high ISO, you need to focus on many details from the choice of the RAW convertor and conversion setting, to how you apply noise reduction sharpening etc. all of them are important in producing a high quality output. Of course on top of that, you must use a sensor with great low light performance, which D800 has one.

I am not on top of current Nikon gear but hopefully someone who uses this body can give you more feedback.

good luck

[John Chardine]

Hi Terry- Any camera body will produce more noticeable noise if you underexpose your images and even in a well exposed image there will always be more noise apparent in the darker toned parts of the image than the lighter parts. Could you post a whole uncropped image with the exposure techs and another showing just a 100% crop of a portion of the image you think has excessive noise.

[Robert Kimbrell]

Hey Terry, I have been using the D-800 since it was first introduced, My assessment of the camera is somewhere in the middle of your expectations. Firstly I use Nikon capture for my raw converter, but suspect Arc would give similar results. I do find the camera a little unforgiving for missed exposures, and can produce excessive noise especially in underexposures. I don't use auto Iso, but If i did my upper end default would be 1600. You mention Iso 400, The D-800 should take you way beyond that with minimal noise. On the high end. I don't even attempt 6400. I avoid 3200 but given the right conditions with good processing you may find it usable. Bottom line if you feel the camera is limiting you to Is0 400, you need to discover the reason, as a good copy of the camera is certainly capable of more than that.

[Linwood Ferguson]

....I take all of my images in 'RAW' format with all noise reduction filters set to 'off'. I have my ISO sensitivity range set to ISO 100 - 400 to keep the noise down. I process my images using ACR for generic edits and then process selected areas using Photoshop CS6.

The noise reduction setting in the camera has no impact on the raw image in ACR, it only affects JPG's straight out of the camera (and it does affect Nikon software if using that). The long exposure noise reduction (which is NOT what we are discussing) does affect raw.

The default noise reduction in ACR is zero, if I recall. I use lightroom, but I think it's the same scale. I would suggest that as a routine case you set it about 20 or so. As you get up to 1600 or 2000 ISO, try the upper 20's. I find anything over about 30-40 degrades the image a lot by giving skin a plastic look (ok, I don't do birds mostly, but people). But at 400 ISO you should need just a touch of noise reduction to cut down what you see at 100%.

That's the other thing to keep in mind with a D800, that people know but don't apply the knowledge when editing -- you are seeing a much magnified image. The same scene with a more "normal" DSLR body will be zoomed out a factor of 2. Take any other camera raw image, zoom in to 200% vs 100% and see how much noise you see. It's worthwhile evaluating the image zoomed to 100%; but the real test is how it looks viewed normally in a normal size.

I shoot with the best low noise camera out there (D4) as well as the D800. In the low ISO range, I'll take the D800 image every day - more dynamic range, less noise, better colors, more detail. As it gets to 3200 and above, the D4 starts to shine for low noise, but the D800 is still no slouch. So I agree with the other poster, I think the issue lies in post processing.

Or post some shots for comments (either some large ones if you can, or crops shown 100%).

[Gene Potter]

Hi Terry, I just got my D800e this Christmas and I am experiencing the same thing. The first shots were of a night heron, in fairly low light, at 2000 iso and I was very disappointed. That experience sent me out to do a test. I went a well lighted city area with a variety of color, greys and various shade. I shot a series of raw images ranging from 400 to 2000 iso with my 70-200 at 200mm and was careful to meter the correct exposure in manual. Afterwards I did my typical, simple, PP that I've done with thousands of d3s and d4 images: that includes some crop, sharpening and a little saturation. What I discovered was that 400 and 640 iso were pretty acceptable when viewed at 100%. At 800 iso and above the images become much more noisy, even in well lit colors, when viewed at 100%, not to my liking. All look pretty good at normal viewing size though. I think Lin is right that the huge image size has something to do with our noise issue. I'm guessing that we need to rethink post image editing as well our camera exposure techniques.

[Dan Brown]

I like the NR job that Capture NX2 preforms on the my D800 files, seems to be a smoother result than anything else I have tried. I am doing this globally as a first round of NR on noisy images, viewing at 100%, using settings of 3 thru 20 with 1 to 3 on the sharpening as needed. Then convert to tiff and finish up PP in ACR and CS5 with selective NR, USM, etc. Not an expert at this but it seems to salvage noisy images to my liking.

[dankearl]

I don't understand this at all.
The D800 is excellent.
I don't see noise at all under iso800.
DXO rates it number 1, above the D4 and higher than the 1DX.
I would return the copy.

[Terry Johnson]

Dan Brown, you mention you use NR in NX2. I use NX2 often and am not aware of NR capability or, as someone else mentioned, the ability to select areas in an image in NX2 for editing. Would you please expand.

Thanks a bunch...Terry Johnson

[dankearl]

Terry,
Under "select adjustment", the one you use for everything from light to color to focus there is Noise Reduction.
After you use the selection tool to mask the BG or whatever, you select Noise Reduction and use the slider to apply as much as you want.
It works very well, much better and easier to use than anything in PS as far as I am concerned for spot or area noise reduction.

[Dan Brown]

I do not use NX2 NR for selective areas, although I might try after reading Dankearl's post! I zoom to 100%, check for noise in the darks and midtones and then open the noise reductions tool and depending on the noisyness, apply from 2 to 20 nr and a little sharpening GLOBALLY. I then crop, add presharpening with NX2 USM (40-4-4) and then OPEN WITH which converts the image to a TIFF into PSCS5-ACR. I look at what ACR can do for me and then open into PSCS5 for all selective adjusting.