7D ISO 25600 Quick Test

I decided to push the 7D one more stop past the extended H 12800 setting. I did it two ways, using ISO 6400 with EC-2/DPP+2 and then ISO H with EC-1/DPP+1.

If you needed a web image or small picture ISO 25600 would work in a pinch, but it is a bit rough (as expected). However from what I can tell, you want to use 6400-2 instead of H-1, because it seems to be just a tiny bit cleaner that way, but could just be psychological. Plus if it was 5% cleaner, 5% of still a noisy hardly any detail image isn't much of a difference.

Here are the samples, both run through DPP with 0/0 NR, then post processed afterwards using CS3 and Noiseware, processed on each color channel, then overall.

It was fun, if not a useless experiment! What is still impressive is the lack of perceivable banding, at this point any of the XXD images would start to see severe banding. The red channel is a mess, the green channel is pretty good, and the blue channel does show a tiny bit of banding.

Here are the before and after of the ISO 6400 w/EC-2...

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Here are the H-1 samples...

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Interesting. That's useable for small images. I'd hate to have to crop with it though...

Tom W wrote in post #8869023
Interesting. That's useable for small images. I'd hate to have to crop with it though...

No you don't want to crop, or crop much anyways! Might not be bad for B&W conversions though?

Wow. Those look great TeamSpeed for ISO 25,600. Could you briefly describe the computer workflow you did? I know those were 7D shots, but I'd like to try it with my 50D's high-ISO files.

Collin85 wrote in post #8869048
Wow. Those look great TeamSpeed for ISO 25,600. Could you briefly describe the computer workflow you did? I know those were 7D shots, but I'd like to try it with my 50D's high-ISO files.

ISO = 6400, EC -2
Shoot
DPP - Brightness +2
Convert to JPG

CS3 Steps:
a) red channel - dust and scratches, very minor settings, despeckle
b) green channel - despeckle
c) blue channel - dust and scratches
d) back to RBG - gaussian blur 1.0ish
e) Noiseware, color noise almost maxed out, luminosity about 1/2
f) USM of 300/.3/0
g) Resize down to web size
h) auto-level

I think these were the steps, I should have made an action out of this.

You're right though, the difference in quality towards 6400 is visible... not to say obvious. You can especially see it on the bottle, it cleans up much better in the 6400 shot.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #8869072
ISO = 6400, EC -2
Shoot
DPP - Brightness +2
Convert to JPG

CS3 Steps:
a) red channel - dust and scratches, very minor settings, despeckle
b) green channel - despeckle
c) blue channel - dust and scratches
d) back to RBG - gaussian blur 1.0ish
e) Noiseware, color noise almost maxed out, luminosity about 1/2
f) USM of 300/.3/0
g) Resize down to web size
h) auto-level

I think these were the steps, I should have made an action out of this.

Many thanks TeamSpeed. What's your opinion of DPP's noise-reduction? Sometimes I can be real darn lazy with noise-reduction, and find DPP's NR quite acceptable. Perhaps I should invest in some more meticulous workflows, like the one you just listed.

Collin85 wrote in post #8869142
Many thanks TeamSpeed. What's your opinion of DPP's noise-reduction? Sometimes I can be real darn lazy with noise-reduction, and find DPP's NR quite acceptable. Perhaps I should invest in some more meticulous workflows, like the one you just listed.

I haven't used it, so I don't know.

Here is the difference of the two means of 25,600 with 100% crops to show why it seems the 6400-2 is a tiny bit cleaner. Due to the amount of noise, the JPG compression is very, very high to make the image fit here.

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Cleaned up well.

CliffordPhotography wrote in post #8869183
Cleaned up well.

It takes a bit of work, and when you are done, maybe you have something you can print a 5x7 at best. Now with more light, it gets better, so if you had an evening outdoor event and needed shutter speed, this might be handy. My lighting was 2 CFL bulbs that were just warming up, not great.

Collin85 wrote in post #8869142
Many thanks TeamSpeed. What's your opinion of DPP's noise-reduction? Sometimes I can be real darn lazy with noise-reduction, and find DPP's NR quite acceptable. Perhaps I should invest in some more meticulous workflows, like the one you just listed.

Have you had time to try these steps on your 50D shots? They should work pretty well on the 6400 shots.

Silly question, but how do you enable the extended ISO mode? Mine is grayed out.

Thanks.

I was punished by looking at this thread!

My girlfriend saw me looking at it and made me go buy her some white zinfandel. haha

"if your gonna look at close ups of wine then you have to go buy me some"

thanks a lot.

mikeassk wrote in post #8877526
I was punished by looking at this thread!

My girlfriend saw me looking at it and made me go buy her some white zinfandel. haha

"if your gonna look at close ups of wine then you have to go buy me some"

thanks a lot.

LOL, I am sure the zin had more fun factor in it than I did with the ISO test!