Lenses vs noise? - DPChallenge Forums

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

04/24/2009 03:44:10 PM · #1

Having a D300 I am not completely overwhelmed over its performance shooting with high ISO. As you can see (hopefully you see it, it's quite clear with higher resolution) in this photo:

the red parts (darker parts in general) suffers from a great deal of grain and noise. The suit and the snow are quite noisy too when looking at it with higher resolution.

As you can see, I used a 70-300mm lens, a cheap and fairly good lens, and shot with an ISO at 800. My question is, would a better lens "help" the camera with noise at high ISO? Not thinking of extra F stops, so save it =)

Edit: Maybe this should be in Hardware... Figured I should post it here since I thought it was a discussion of a photo, but this just might be Hardware... Everyone is entitled one mistake, eh? e...

Message edited by author 2009-04-24 15:46:21.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

04/24/2009 03:46:42 PM · #2

Originally posted by BJamy:

My question is, would a better lens "help" the camera with noise at high ISO? Not thinking of extra F stops, so save it =)

I don't think so. But

Kirbic would be the one to ask. I'll PM him and point him at this thread. He knows everything :-)

R.

Citadel

Nikon D7500

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

04/24/2009 03:48:58 PM · #3

My guess is that the image might have been underexposed to begin with. One article I read in Outdoor Photography indicated that you should expose to the right, otherwise you'll see noise regardless of what ISO you are shooting at (once you've adjusted your levels that is). eta: This is because noise appears in the shadow areas not in the highlights.

That being said it would be nice to see the full sized original without the processing.

Message edited by author 2009-04-24 15:50:01.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

04/24/2009 03:56:01 PM · #4

Originally posted by Citadel:

To counter that, I needed a fast shutterspeed, and the lighting conditions that evening was hell. Pitch black, and arena lit by searchlights (my dictionary said the translation was searchlights, I think it just might be wrong, but you understand...). Or did I misunderstand you? I can try and upload the photo on flickr or something. Don't think I'm able to do so here?

Citadel

Nikon D7500

04/24/2009 04:35:28 PM · #5

Originally posted by BJamy:

Originally posted by Citadel:
My guess is that the image might have been underexposed to begin with. One article I read in Outdoor Photography indicated that you should expose to the right, otherwise you'll see noise regardless of what ISO you are shooting at (once you've adjusted your levels that is). eta: This is because noise appears in the shadow areas not in the highlights.

That being said it would be nice to see the full sized original without the processing.

To counter that, I needed a fast shutterspeed, and the lighting conditions that evening was hell. Pitch black, and arena lit by searchlights (my dictionary said the translation was searchlights, I think it just might be wrong, but you understand...). Or did I misunderstand you? I can try and upload the photo on flickr or something. Don't think I'm able to do so here?

Nope, you read me correctly. A better lens would have a wider aperture which would allow you to keep your shutter speed up while allowing to overexpose slightly as well. You could also go to the higher ISO as well. (I think the D300 is supposed to do up to 3200?)

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

04/24/2009 04:48:01 PM · #6

Originally posted by Citadel:

I think max ISO is equalant to 6400. A better lens, like the 2.8 series, would help out a great deal. But besides photography I smash cars as a hobby, so I'm on a strict budget =) I can't seem to upload the original file size on flickr, but somehow it didn't look all that bad in 1024x680, so I guess with resolutions that size photos with high ISO should be ok.

So, just to be clear, the 80-400mm won't have any advantages over the 70-300mm lens in this respect, being they have the same max aperture if I recall correctly? Kinda curios about that too.

Thank you for good answers!

Edited to add: I fixed exposure in the RAW conversion, guessing that triggered some of the noise too. Nevertheless, got at least two good photos that night, so with a better lens I would kick off, right? e...

Message edited by author 2009-04-24 16:49:55.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

04/24/2009 06:30:53 PM · #7

Originally posted by BJamy:

...Edited to add: I fixed exposure in the RAW conversion, guessing that triggered some of the noise too. Nevertheless, got at least two good photos that night, so with a better lens I would kick off, right? e...

Yep, that's what made the noise more visible. Doesn't look bad at all at web resolutions though. You are correct that a different lens of the same maximum aperture will not help at all with noise. You might try practicing panning with a slightly slower shutter speed. You can't go too much slower, but you might get another stop out of it, and that would make it unnecessary to increase exposure in RAW conversion.