Should I set the camera noise reduction to off is I use Noise Ninja?

[[shingo]]

My question is really, are the noise reduction inside a camera such as a XSI software only and in post-processing? If so, since I'm going to use noise ninja anyway for high iso picture, should I just leave all the job to the software?

Also, I always shoot in raw.

[mrkgoo]

I believe the in camera noise reduction is in post-processing, so yes, you are probably better off doing it with more control in your own software. I don't have that software, so I find the in camera modes handy.

[GBRandy]

Much like sharpening an image, it is best to take many small steps and not one large one.

Leave the NR on in the camera and run the NN later (sometimes twice)

Better yet, shoot RAW and then play around to see what works best for you. In Digital Photo Pro (should have come with your cam) you can emulate everything the "in camera" software would do to a file and see the results at your leisure. You can then undo it and try another set of settings on the original RAW file.

Great way to learn.

[[shingo]]

Originally Posted by GBRandy

Much like sharpening an image, it is best to take many small steps and not one large one.

Leave the NR on in the camera and run the NN later (sometimes twice)

Better yet, shoot RAW and then play around to see what works best for you. In Digital Photo Pro (should have come with your cam) you can emulate everything the "in camera" software would do to a file and see the results at your leisure. You can then undo it and try another set of settings on the original RAW file.

Great way to learn.

Great idea, but who would buy a DSLR and not shoot in raw hehe

I always shoot in raw, much more flexibility, who care about disk space, storage cost 1$ per 10 gig, not much of a problem.

[[shingo]]

Anyone else has some experience with this?

[DarthVader]

I think the in camera NR is not that good...I've tried this on 5D Mark II anyway. I basically turn it off and use Dfine to selectively remove noise.

[tharmsen]

Shoot in RAW. I see no reason to limit yourself by shooting in JPEG. I mean, some of the pro's do it all the time because they get a perfect exposure/framing every time they click the shutter. For the rest of us there's Lightroom/Photoshop/GIMP. Post processing JPEG's will not yield as good of results as PP'ing RAW's.

[[shingo]]

Does the noise reduction also work in Raw? I don't understand why everyone assume that I don't shoot in RAW?

[tzalman]

No, the NR does not get done to a RAW, it's part of the conversion to jpg. Like all the other in-camera settings DPP reads the metadata flag to set its default NR (if you have it set in Preferences to do so). Other converters can't see the flag but have their own defaults. So it makes no sense setting NR in the camera if you shoot RAW unless you use DPP and can't spare a couple seconds to find the best NR setting.

[mrkgoo]

Originally Posted by [shingo]

Does the noise reduction also work in Raw? I don't understand why everyone assume that I don't shoot in RAW?

Because RAW is not a picture format, and hence post-processing is never really done on a RAW file.

During the processing of a RAW to a viewable picture file, things like sharpening, NR etc can be applied. But the RAW itself is never changed. As tzalman's reply states.

Originally Posted by [shingo]

Great idea, but who would buy a DSLR and not shoot in raw hehe

I always shoot in raw, much more flexibility, who care about disk space, storage cost 1$ per 10 gig, not much of a problem.

I don't get all the RAW shooters who insist on shooting in it, but don't really understand what it is. But I suppose you don't need to, so long as you understand what it can do for you.

[BscPhoto]

I have three bodies, 1Ds II, 40D and XTi. I have the noise reduction off on all of them and I shoot at ISO 800 and above all the time, also setting your contrast and sharpening in the camera to a low or negative number will save a lot of detail, you can sharpen and add contrast post production but there is less of a chance of loosing important highlight and shadow detail. Also the internal noise reduction will remover detail, image quality and sharpness

[wbm]

Originally Posted by GBRandy

Leave the NR on in the camera and run the NN later (sometimes twice)

Erm, that's probably a bad idea with NN if you're using the camera profiles (rather than auto-profiling) as the noise profile will be wrong. In fact for best results using the profiles, you really should shoot in RAW with no NR or sharpening applied in the raw converter before you run NN on the generated TIFF file. That way the noise in your image will be a better match to the profile and so will be reduced more effectively.

Ewan (has spent far too much time measurbating Noise Ninja this week...)

[magwai]

i have to disagree that multiple repeated noise reductions can beat one good one. this might be possible if the many steps work in different ways but there is no way repeated use of the same process can give better results than one correct usage. the math cannot support that, too much info is lost at each step that cannot be recovered.

[AlanU]

With the flexNR it does a two step process on the higher ISO's for NR for my 1dmkIII.

Using Neat image with my other bodies it works extremely well. I shoot mainly jpeg and have had excellent results. Put it in print and you wouldn't see a huge difference from a raw shooter IMO. I'll shoot raw when I feel its imperative but I seldom ever have issues recovering any jpg exposure files. All I say is dont over expose the heck out of jpgs and you'll be just fine.

I would try both NR on/off in camera and see for yourself what gets you the best results. I keep it on but I seldom shoot over ISO 3200.