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TESTS and Other Photographic Trivia

Click here for: High ISO Noise with Nikon D50 verses D70 verses D2x

Tests taken at ISO 1600.

D2x at 160 pixels wide D70 at 160 pixels wide

As you can plainly see, the D2x has much less noise than the D70 at ISO 1600, pixel for pixel. These pictures came from Phil Askey's site, www.dpreview.com. My own informal tests confirm this.

Here is another test done by Phil. It compares the luminance noise levels of various cameras. Notice the low noise level of the S2. It is an old test, but still valid.

Here is a photograph I took last week with the D2x. Hand held with Nikon f2.8 70-200. It was shot at ISO 320. (It was overcast and I needed a little speed to freeze the elk movement). These elk were at the 12,000' level at Rocky Mountain National Park. Even at ISO 320 the D2x takes amazingly sharp pictures. The first photo is highly cropped - and I had to resample down to get it to fit on the monitor! Image size is 20" x 14" at 72 dpi (for monitor). The full frame image size is almost 5 FEET wide.

The second image shows the full frame, It will easily print 2' x 3'.

D2X TESTS at ISO 100 to 3200

Conditions of the test:

1- High noon

2- Hand held with Nikon 17-35 set at 35mm. The house is roughly 1/3 to 1/2 mile away!

3- All photos shot in raw and converted in Adobe Camera Raw

4- Raw Conversion settings were done with ACR defaults. Nothing was added or changed.

5- A section was cut out of the center so a 100% view would be available.

6- Here is a full frame shot of the first photo. The originals all had some sharpening as provided by the default settings of ACR.

Click to open larger version.

Conclusions and caviats:

1- All print well on 8.5 x 11.

2- Use NR as provided by Nikon or Adobe when opening ISO 1600 or 3200. I did not for the examples shown. It does make a difference! When I ran Adobe Color Noise Reduction during 1600 and 3200 conversion and used maximum setting, I saw a large difference - for the better.

3- Be careful NOT to under expose when shooting at 1600 or especially 3200. A one stop under exposure at 3200 can produce pretty ugly results!

4- LASTLY - These images were taken in broad daylight. With indoor lighting expect a LOT more noise, especially in the shadows.

ISO 100 at 100%

ISO 200 at 100%

ISO 400 at 100%

ISO 800 at 100%

ISO 1600 at 100%

ISO 3200 at 100%

These are simply JUNK images used to illustrate various points made on dpreview.com

These will make little sense to most. Click on the photo for a larger image.

Five samples illustrating Vertus - Fluid Mask 3 (and no, I don't even know the people) Notice the fine hair masking!

As always, click on for a larger image.

D700 with shadows opened up excessively. This was to compare noise floors at ISO 200. Click to enlarge and also

notice the granularity difference.

E3 with shadows opened up excessively. This was to compare noise floors at ISO 200. Click to enlarge and also

notice the granularity difference.

Adding a blur to the background.

Gleeson School at f16 with D700

Click on for larger image.

Masking Revisited

After using Vertus - Fluid Mask 3 for some time I ran into a problem with black hair against a white background - and was stumped. I kept getting some color contamination in the black hair and struggled for 3-4 hours to get rid of it. Really puzzled. So, just for comparison purposes I down loaded Topaz ReMask 3 and proceeded to get real serious with it. After a typical 3-4 hr learning curve I struck pay dirt! The initial masking was butt simple but I was still getting color contamination so I looked at a few tutorials. Ah ha! I needed to practice some more and also use the Keep command to rid the image of color contamination. There is more to this, of course, but here is the finished product. Maybe 5-10 minutes! I was impressed. Here is a 100% version. Click and wait for a huge image for judging. Be careful. Huge file. I tried this image with a solid black, solid white, and a half dozen scenes. Pretty clean mask. Before and after.

Sensor Data for Nikon D600 verses D7000

Sensor data for Nikon D600

Make	Nikon	ISO	Measured ISO	Read Noise (e-)	Saturation (e-)	DR (stops)
Model	D600	100	79	7.3	76231	13.4
Sensor	Sony	200	159	4.5	38418	13.1
Tech	CMOS	400	317	4.4	19551	12.1
Date	13/9/2012	800	634	3.8	9810	11.3
Pixels	4028x6080	1600	1230	3.6	5154	10.5
Size	24.0x35.9mm	3200	2355	3.3	2547	9.6
Pixel size	5.9 micron	6400	4870	3.3	1278	8.6
Bits	14	12800	9534	3.3	687	7.7
Q.E.	53%	25600	19015	2.8	192	6.1

Sensor data for Nikon D7000

Make	Nikon	ISO	Measured ISO	Read Noise (e-)	Saturation (e-)	DR (stops)
Model	D7000	100	83	3.1	49058	14.0
Sensor	Sony	200	167	3.0	18780	12.6
Tech	CMOS	400	328	3.0	9802	11.7
Date	15/9/2010	800	658	3.0	4992	10.7
Pixels	3280x4991	1600	1269	2.9	2673	9.8
Size	15.6x23.6mm	3200	2627	3.8	1409	8.5
Pixel size	4.73 micron	6400	5197	3.6	704	7.6
Bits	14	12800	10549	4.6	389	6.4
Q.E.	48%	25600	21150	2.5	143	5.8