XSI/450D low ISO noise?

I was planning on upgrading to a XSi from my XTi to take advantage of the lower high ISO noise. However, I've been reading a few posts on other boards talking about increased low ISO noise on the XSi that shows up in dark areas as low as ISO 100. That was disturbing.

I've not seen it in any sample images or heard it commented on in any reviews. Anyone here see low ISO noise with their XSi/450D?

Thanks for the feedback!

Jim

I have yet to see any low ISO noise except when I get the exposure wrong. I imagine that most people who see this phenomena are just exposing incorrectly.

I've personally noticed a BIT of noise at slowish ISO speeds in the following situations:

• In OK light, only in areas with vast expanses of mild and uniform darkness
• In low light, in which cases only the IS allows a picture to be taken at said ISO speed
• With the pop-up flashed bounced with my Lightscoop

Interestingly enough, I've found that when shooting with the lightscoop at a fairly narrow aperture, there's not much noise difference among ISO 200, 400, and 800. Bouncing the flash diminishes the light of the already-not-so-powerful pop-up, so you can almost consider it a low-light situation.

As per j00sten's comment, I agree...I'm still learning, and I haven't quite nipped that incorrect-exposure bug yet!

cptrios wrote in post #5997506
I've personally noticed a BIT of noise at slowish ISO speeds in the following situations:

• In OK light, only in areas with vast expanses of mild and uniform darkness
• In low light, in which cases only the IS allows a picture to be taken at said ISO speed
• With the pop-up flashed bounced with my Lightscoop

Interestingly enough, I've found that when shooting with the lightscoop at a fairly narrow aperture, there's not much noise difference among ISO 200, 400, and 800. Bouncing the flash diminishes the light of the already-not-so-powerful pop-up, so you can almost consider it a low-light situation.

As per j00sten's comment, I agree...I'm still learning, and I haven't quite nipped that incorrect-exposure bug yet!

Dark areas in a photo that was underexposed and photo's that were over processed were the situations the posters said the XSi exhibited more noise than the XTi. The trade off was the much better high ISO noise performance of the XSi.

So, do both of you have high ISO noise reduction turned on? Are you shooting RAW or JPEG?

Thanks for your responses!

Jim

I usually have it turned off because strictly shoot in RAW. The only thing that I know of that affects raw atm is highlight tonal priority but I could easily be wrong.

I don't shoot with it either; I prefer reducing noise myself over leaving it up to the camera and being powerless to get back the lost detail.

If I get up early enough tomorrow morning I'll go out and take a bunch of comparison shots at 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1600 in JPEG, JPEG with high ISO noise reduction, and RAW. But that's a big "if!"

40D is the way to go for better high ISO noise performance.

j00sten wrote in post #5997405
I have yet to see any low ISO noise except when I get the exposure wrong. I imagine that most people who see this phenomena are just exposing incorrectly.

+1 Proper exposure is key.

cptrios wrote in post #6002306
I don't shoot with it either; I prefer reducing noise myself over leaving it up to the camera and being powerless to get back the lost detail.

If I get up early enough tomorrow morning I'll go out and take a bunch of comparison shots at 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1600 in JPEG, JPEG with high ISO noise reduction, and RAW. But that's a big "if!"

I would really like to see the comparison. I read the reviews over and over comparing the noise etc. but there's nothing like real world comparisons.

Thank you!

Jim

I've noticed this is as well, it seems very low isos have noticeable noise.

If I was gonna fork out the cash for an xsi, Id save a little longer for the 40D

Alright, this is about as quick and dirty as it gets (and no RAW, because RAW doesn't seem to be behaving well with my Mac at the moment). I'll post bigger versions later...for now I have to go to work. Top row has high ISO NR turned on, bottom is off. From left to right, ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600. All taken in full auto mode for consistency (and the cropped area is in the corner and off the focus plane, so I want no sharpness comments!)

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Bottom line from my tests...there is a very small bit of noise at 400 if you pixel peep, but it doesn't get truly noticeable in, say, 8x10 size until 1600. And even then it's really not that bad. Low light situations, obviously, are going to be worse.

I suppose the long story short vis a vis a few of the above posts is: if you can afford a 40d, buy one! I'm totally happy with the XSi as my first dSLR, and it should last me at least a year, or until the 50d comes out

cptrios wrote in post #6005722
Bottom line from my tests...there is a very small bit of noise at 400 if you pixel peep, but it doesn't get truly noticeable in, say, 8x10 size until 1600. And even then it's really not that bad. Low light situations, obviously, are going to be worse.

I suppose the long story short vis a vis a few of the above posts is: if you can afford a 40d, buy one! I'm totally happy with the XSi as my first dSLR, and it should last me at least a year, or until the 50d comes out

cptrios,

Thanks for getting up early and posting the comparison. I'm really pixal peeping and I just don't see any noise issues 100-400 ISO. I can see a little noise at 800 in the image with out NR turned on and much more at 1600. However, the 800 and 1600 with NR turned on look excellent. I've been shooting RAW but the XSi might convince me to shoot RAW + JPEG since NR doesn't work on RAW. The high ISO JPEGs look great.

Thanks again!

Jim

jbone wrote in post #6004675
If I was gonna fork out the cash for an xsi, Id save a little longer for the 40D

I've read the reviews (everywhere) of both the XSi and 40D. Considering image quality and noise only but not build, FPS or personal preference for the size of the cameras, what is it about the 40D that you find superior to the XSi?

Jim