Question about the noise in 10D and DRebel

[lmelendez]

Hi there
I'm curious.... if the sensor in the Digital Rebel is the exact same as the sensor in the 10D, does that mean that the noise at the different ISO settings is the same in both cameras?

Well, I'm not actually sure if the sensor is the same... I remember reading a thread about that sometime ago...but I couldn't find it...

Leo.

[Jon]

Noise will depend not only on the sensor but on the rest of the electronics involved in collecting and processing the image. The post-processor on the 10D, for instance, could be more aggressive than that of the DR at noise reduction. Witness the improved noise in the 20D, which Canon attributes to its Digic 2 processor.

[Jesper]

Canon never officially said that the sensor in the 300D / Digital Rebel is exactly the same one as in the 10D, but I think that it is indeed the same.

If you look at dpreview.com's review of the Digital Rebel (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos300d/page13.asp) they note that the noise is more visible in the Digital Rebel because the colour saturation and sharpness parameters are set higher (in their default settings).

I think that if you set the parameters on the Digital Rebel the same as on the 10D (all on 0), it will be indistinguishable from a 10D image.

In the 20D, it's not only better processing by its DIGIC II processor, but also microlenses in front of the pixels of its sensor, which make the effective capacity to catch photons (light particles) per pixel larger, which helps against noise.

[Jon]

I think EoSD30fReAk casually ripped into his 10D and DR and posted pictures (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=53075&highlight=sensor) of their sensors, which were at the least packaged quite differently.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Using RAW,. the noise is virtually identical.. thus any difference in the two can be attributed to default parameter settings as Jesper points out.

[tim]

I have a very hazy memory of reading something like Canon changing to CMOS technology for the 300D sensor because it was cheaper. It could be that the 10D is the same technology but i'm not really sure. A quick look at a spec sheet should sort it out - see if it's CCD or CMOS.

[Jesper]

All Canon's DSLRs, except for the original 1D (not the 1D Mark II) have CMOS sensors (the 1D had a CCD sensor). Even the old D30 and D60 had CMOS sensors.

[tim]

Cheers Jesper. I do remember they changed something between the 10D and 300D sensor, but I just can't remember what it is sorry.