Has there been significant improvement in noise control over the past 4 years?

[ArchRival]

I am looking to upgrade from a Canon 400D to Canon 600D body only or another camera with similar specs/price. Main reason is i can't stand the noise in the 400D. So my question is how does camera noise nowadays compare to 4 years ago? Are the improvements significant enough to justify an upgrade? The noise graphs on dpreview don't seem to suggest much improvements, but i'd like to hear the views of people here.

I will be attaching a permanant light blocking filter to the lens, and will be using high iso (1600 onwards) at long time exposures (> 4 min), so i'm mostly concerned with noise levels under those operating conditions.

 

[gundamseed84]

not sure abt 600D but if u compare 500D with the newer sensor and processor in G1X then the noise improvement is really alot. so maybe u want wait for 650D to be announced in digi5 then noise improvement would be very obvious. not sure abt 600D as never tried before.

 

[meganut]

Hi bro,

From what i see i believe there has been a good improvement. The max ISO is 6400, at 1600 the photos are still pretty decent and usable...

You might want to try renting one to really test it. Sometimes can get promotion of $35-40/day to rent a 600D... That is a small amount of investment to test for yourself before you commit

 

[Rashkae]

Don't just look at the noise graphs. Look at the studio samples.

 

[pinholecam]

Why look at the graphs, when you can look at the sample photos

Imaging Resource "Comparometer" ™ Digital Camera Image Comparison Page

Canon EOS 60D Review: Digital Photography Review


To me, a significant improvement occurred from about 2010.
Most cameras since then have very usable 1600 and 3200 ISO.
YMMV

 

[spinworkxroy]

I'm just curious..what kind of shooting you do at iso1600 with over 4min exposures. I'm pretty sure you are going to get noise with such shooting regardless of camera with all NR turned off and shooting in RAW. In fact if you ask me..the main improvement in modern day camera vs older ones are mainly with jpg...not much has changed for raw.

 

[Cowseye]

I'm just curious..what kind of shooting you do at iso1600 with over 4min exposures. I'm pretty sure you are going to get noise with such shooting regardless of camera with all NR turned off and shooting in RAW. In fact if you ask me..the main improvement in modern day camera vs older ones are mainly with jpg...not much has changed for raw.

Agree, in camera NR "speaks" only Jpeg. You need other "translators" such as noise ninja to "talk" to your RAW files...

 

[edutilos-]

I am looking to upgrade from a Canon 400D to Canon 600D body only or another camera with similar specs/price. Main reason is i can't stand the noise in the 400D. So my question is how does camera noise nowadays compare to 4 years ago? Are the improvements significant enough to justify an upgrade? The noise graphs on dpreview don't seem to suggest much improvements, but i'd like to hear the views of people here.

I will be attaching a permanant light blocking filter to the lens, and will be using high iso (1600 onwards) at long time exposures (> 4 min), so i'm mostly concerned with noise levels under those operating conditions.

Should definitely have improved, 400D to 600D...

 

[brapodam]

I'm just curious..what kind of shooting you do at iso1600 with over 4min exposures. I'm pretty sure you are going to get noise with such shooting regardless of camera with all NR turned off and shooting in RAW. In fact if you ask me..the main improvement in modern day camera vs older ones are mainly with jpg...not much has changed for raw.

Yup. My D90 has a lot of noise when shooting at night at ISO 200 and >3min exposures. I doubt any camera can do ISO 1600 >4 min

 

[Rashkae]

I will be attaching a permanant light blocking filter to the lens, and will be using high iso (1600 onwards) at long time exposures (> 4 min), so i'm mostly concerned with noise levels under those operating conditions.

All camera will show long exposure ISO noise with these shooting requirements. Even shooting at ISO 100, 200, your sensor will heat up and you will get ISO noise.

 

[Wizongod]

I will be attaching a permanant light blocking filter to the lens, and will be using high iso (1600 onwards) at long time exposures (> 4 min), so i'm mostly concerned with noise levels under those operating conditions.

Don't mind me, and if anyone else can answer, but why attach a light blocking filter (I'm assuming ND), and then use high iso and long exposure?
Shouldn't you just lower the iso instead, or if that makes the exposure too long, get rid of the filter? :dunno:

 

[donut88]

I am looking to upgrade from a Canon 400D to Canon 600D body only or another camera with similar specs/price. Main reason is i can't stand the noise in the 400D. So my question is how does camera noise nowadays compare to 4 years ago? Are the improvements significant enough to justify an upgrade? The noise graphs on dpreview don't seem to suggest much improvements, but i'd like to hear the views of people here.

I will be attaching a permanant light blocking filter to the lens, and will be using high iso (1600 onwards) at long time exposures (> 4 min), so i'm mostly concerned with noise levels under those operating conditions.

Why are u shooting with 1600 ISO with long exposure?

 

[sjackal]

Why are you shooting long exposure with ISO1600 plus a 'light blocking filter'?

 

[Rashkae]

Why are you shooting long exposure with ISO1600 plus a 'light blocking filter'?

Maybe it's the lens cap.

 

[sjackal]

Maybe it's the lens cap.

It had been an issue with Leica and celebrities...

http://leicarumors.com/2011/03/10/leica-m-shooters-dont-forget-to-take-your-lens-cap-off.aspx/

Not sure Canon got such problem or not?!

 

[sin77]

4yrs back??

I had D90 and now I have D5100.

Note that D5100 is 1 level lower than D90 but the noise control is much better.

 

[fmeeran]

Note that D5100 is 1 level lower than D90 but the noise control is much better.

Yes, but the sensor is an upgrade though.

 

[sin77]

Yes, but the sensor is an upgrade though.

well, the topic title says improvement in noise control. Sensor upgrade is tokgong liao for this purpose. Moreover also upgraded to Expeed2 for processing.

 

[ArchRival]

Thanks for the input guys.

Went ahead and got a 600D. Here is a noise test comparison between the 400D and 600D at ISO 1600, 4 minutes. Both shots taken with the body cover on, 100% crop. The raw files are converted to 16-bit tiff using Canon's Digital Photo Professional, then changed to jpg for uploading. There is this noise reduction thing for high iso in the 600D. Don't know how that works, so turned it off. Both images were taken immediately after the cameras were switched on.

600D

400D

I'm attempting astrophotography, hence the need for high ISOs and long exposure times. The filter used is a broadband UHC/LPR. It filters out sodium and mercury emission spectra to reduce sky glow, but also restricts light transmission quite severely. The final product is an image where stars are captured, but the downside is lots of image noise.

Anyway this is a quick test. The bright star in the middle is Gamma Ursae Majoris in the Big Dipper. ISO 1600, 4 minutes. Optical system is of focal length 900mm, F/6.3. Not many stars seen here because the field of view is quite narrow. Also, there seems to be some light leak at lower left corner from the led indicator.

 

[sin77]

So tokgong