Graininess using a 7D

I have used a Rebel XT for the past 5 years and have always been happy with it. I thought it was time to move up... so I saved up and purchased a 7D with much excitement. I have put a few hundred shots in using the same lenses I have used on my rebel. To my dismay, the 7D shots were grainier than the rebel when viewed at a 1:1 ratio! With the rebel, I was just shooting to jpg... but with the 7D I was shooting to RAW and they are STILL grainy! I've been shooting at ISO 100 outdoors in the daylight, with a fast framerate (faster than 1/500 usually) using AF. I am not doing anything different between my two bodies. Is this something common with the 7D? Or could there be something wrong with my camera?

Can you post a sample image? Is it only happening with one lens or more? Which lens?

Please post samples.

A 18MP image viewed at 1:1 may have graininess compared to a 8MP image at 1:1. It has over double the resolution.

when you shot at jpg, some level of noise removal has already been applied in camera, so the pictures looks clean, when you shot at raw, there is no noise removal going on, that is why when you convert raw files to other format such as jpg, you have to apply some level of noise removal. LR 3 will give you best result where as canon's DPP will work too.

Stop pixel peeping if you can print a Rebel shot then print the same shot from the 7D then compare

are you sure you know what you're doing? i'm asking because you expect raw to have less noise than jpeg, which actually is the opposite.

I agree.
Coming from the 400D (shooting RAW) I noticed that the 7D (again shooting RAW) has more grain in smooth area's like blue skies. In area's with lots of detail I don't see it.

It does not bother me at all: at print sizes you won't see a thing.
Also: the noise is quite film like and looks better than the grain in the slides I shot for 30 years so that is another reason I'm not worried.

About JPG vs RAW:
jpg has processing done in the camera. The whole point of RAW is that you do the processing and that includes noise reduction.

foxfirewisp wrote in post #12281486
I've been shooting at ISO 100 outdoors in the daylight, with a fast framerate (faster than 1/500 usually) using AF.

Firstly, you're shooting raw with a low ISO and fast shutterspeed (framerate is for video). Are you changing the exposure when you process the raw image because it's coming out too dark? If you are doing that then you're guaranteed to increase any noise present. Do a search for ETTR.

Second, as has been mentioned, don't compare noise when zoomed to 100%. Compare the noise in actual images. Pixel-peeping has its uses, comparing cameras with different resolutions isn't one of them (unless you only care about pixels, not pictures).

Frank is right about ETTR (aka, Exposing To The Right). The Right refers to the right side in the histogram, where the lighter tones reside. Technically, more data is collected in that region so there will be less graininess overall in lighter areas as compared to darker areas.

I would add that oversharpening can also exacerbate any graininess, particularly in dark areas.

Would be good to see offending noise?!...

Here is an ISO 400 direct JPG from the camera from my old 7D, does yours look worse than this? If so, I imagine you have the exposure too low and are bringing it up. This was already a bit underexposed.

http://teamspeed.smugm​ug.com …Jfqr#668876581_​kVu7G-O-LB

I do know how to do postprocessing using lightroom - I had no idea that saving to jpg already did some noise reduction! So maybe this is all just normal grain that I couldn't see at all at 8mp on my rebel. This particular picture was taken with a CP filter and they did start out a little underexposed... however, the graininess has happened with many unfiltered photos as well.

I made a smugmug trial account and uploaded a photo from yesterday. This is a raw exported with no post-processing at maximum quality and resolution. Thanks everyone for your replies, I really do appreciate it.

http://foxfire.smugmug​.com …SXPQwp#12635532​27_Xm38z6N

Looks pretty darn good to me considering it's a RAW export with no PP.....I don't see a problem with it.

I have shot RAW with a lot of sky in frame before and at that size image there should be no noise. Have you set up the custom functions menu? Are the settings stock? Stop shooting RAW and see what you get. RAW has its uses, but that shot is not one of them.