topic Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

High Noise in 5D Mark III

jackai — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 05:11:03 GMT

Hey Everyone,

I'm getting a random issue with my 5D Mark III. I usually shoot in AV mode, RAW at ISO 100. I don't like to increase my ISO because I want to avoid high noise and plus I'm shooting in HDR. In dim lighting conditions when I have to lengthen the shutter speed and then view/process the dng images in Camera Raw, I get a mixed bag of results. Some images at 1/8 sec or 2 sec have the grainiest noise in the shadows, but then I'll have an image at 10 or 15 seconds and the image is smooth and sharp. I'm at my wit's end.

It also helps to know that I just bought a 16 - 35mm 2.8L lens and it's been working fine up until today when the autofocus went bust. Could it be a body issue or lens issue? I'm driving to Canon repair on Monday morning to drop off both lens and body. Any help or insight will help.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

hsbn — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 05:32:06 GMT

Image at 1/8 or 2sec, is it under-exposure? When you pull up under exposed image, you'll get tons of noise, especially in the shadow.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

jackai — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 14:08:42 GMT

I didn't think underexposed images would show that much noise. I autobracket the scene at 0, +2, -2. Sometimes at 0 or +2, I get that annoying noise. It's just so random.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

hsbn — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 05:50:01 GMT

don't under estimate noise in under exposed shot even if you just increase it a bit especially with high ISO shot. You have any sample image?

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

jackai — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 16:50:48 GMT

Here's an example, check out all the noise on this one. It's at f/5.6, 1/6 sec at 16mm

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

hsbn — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 21:32:25 GMT

It does look like noise for under-exposure shot. Is this straight out of camera? No post processing done? What software you use to convert it? I checked the Exif data and saw Photoshop CS4. From my knowledge, I know photoshop CS4 doesn't support 5DMIII file.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

jackai — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 22:36:37 GMT

This was a raw file converted to a DNG and then I saved as a jpeg so the file wouldn't be too large. I did no modifications in raw (DNG rather) - it's as is.

I'm glad you said this because I will be upgrading to PS 6 very soon. so I'm hoping I don't have to deal with converting raw to DNG as part of my workflow anymore. Thanks so much for your interest.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

hsbn — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 23:15:11 GMT

No problem. I'm curious too. I dig a little deeper into your Exif data and look at your processing values:

Tint = "+2"
Exposure = "+3.40"
Shadows = "0"
Brightness = "+71"
Contrast = "+19"
Saturation = "0"
Sharpness = "25"
LuminanceSmoothing = "0"
ColorNoiseReduction = "25"
ChromaticAberrationR = "0"

The exposure was pushed by 3.5 stop, and the brightness +71. That's a huge value. Yet Noise Reduction is set at ZERO. Thus, the result should have a lot of noise and banding noise as seen in your photo. I don't think there is something wrong with your camera. You may have development PRESET turn on by default.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

jackai — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 23:38:30 GMT

That's interesting, I saw the +3.40 in raw as well, and I keep wondering why is it at that value when I auto bracketed it to be at +2? I'll look more into development preset as I have no clue as to what that is. I admit that I don't know a lot of the controls of the camera, so that could be an issue too.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

pratik2440 — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 13:32:28 GMT

This often happens if long exposure noise reduction settings are not set properly. For a 1/8th second shot, the noise reduction is not applied. For a 2 second shot, it is always good to apply noise reduction, even if ISO is low, just to be safe.

So if I was you, I'd just enable long exposure noise reduction to ON in all situations. That should solve the problem. Sensor heating also causes abnormal noise performance in some bodies. But that isn't an issue unless you have been shooting live for hours before.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

hsbn — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 15:23:47 GMT

His case has nothing to do with LNR. It was the raw file got pull up extremely, thus the noise. And LNR is not good to be turn on all the time especially if you're shooting ISO1600 or higher.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

VinWeathermon — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 23:45:12 GMT

Shooting portraits in my studio using ISO 50; why on earth is there so much chunky, blocks of noise in the shadows in the RAW file? The exposure is supposed to turn the background dark...and it looks like limited color depth or tonal range is weak. Am using LR 5. I can turn up the noise removal, but this seems really odd to me. Maybe because I used film and the much slower ISO film had a much finer grain I expect better.

Is the answer to push ISO higher? That forces me to ND my strobes and lenses, a pain in the butt. Not sure if it shows up in this jpg, but it has not been adjusted for exposure in LR, no noise removal, just a export to JPG with Adobe 1998 color space, 100% quality @2024 pixels wide.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

jackai — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 01:57:36 GMT

I don't perform a lot of studio lighting, so I'm not sure what your issue is with the images. I generally don't like to use flash and rely on natural light to photograph my subjects. I will tell you that I still get noise from time to time in my images. I do turn Noise Reduction off which tends to help, but it's still annoying. I hope you have better luck.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

jackai — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 02:02:49 GMT

@hsbn wrote:
His case has nothing to do with LNR. It was the raw file got pull up extremely, thus the noise. And LNR is not good to be turn on all the time especially if you're shooting ISO1600 or higher.

HSBN, What did you mean that my raw file got pulled up? I'm still playing with controls on my camera and managed to turn noise reduction off. I just upgraded to PS6 and am hoping I won't have this problem anymore, but I just want to understand how that image had an exposure of +3.4 when I set it at +2. What did I do wrong?

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

TCampbell — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 20:37:30 GMT

Hi VinWeathermon,

I do not see these "clunky blocks" you speak of in your image... nor in my own 5D III in general.

But keep in mind that when you post a reduced size image, the forced resampling that the computer has to do to make a smaller image has the side effect of smoothing things out.

Remember... when you shoot RAW there is NO NOISE REDUCTION applied to the image... no exceptions! If even the tiniest amount of noise-reduction is applied... then what you have isn't technically a "RAW" image anymore.

Also keep in mind that your computer monitor is also part of the image. A while back, someone posted an image that had "banding" in it. I have two computers and an iPad. I notice on my "oldest" computer (which had a pretty good display for it's day -- but is now getting to be a bit dated) I could see *some* banding... but not much. On my newest display (very high end) I could not detect *any* banding at all... and these two monitors are literally side-by-side on my desk. Also on my retina display iPad I could not see the slightest hint of banding.

My conclusion was monitor was the problem and not the camera.

As I look at YOUR image above... I do not see any clunky blocks (and I'm also using my oldest monitor -- this is the one in which I could see *some* banding on the previous post). But the real question is... do YOU see the "clunky blocks" on THIS WEBPAGE (not on your original image). If you see the blocks on the webpage (meaning after the resampling to down-size the image has been performed) and I do not see the image, then you're in a need of a monitor upgrade. If, on the other hand, you do not see the clunky blocks in this image but still do in the original then the resampling has taken the problem away.

The 5D III is an exceptionally good camera.

One other thing... I haven't used LR in years. But I do use Aperture and the two are a LOT alike. When you import a RAW image, there's a JPEG preview embedded. Also Aperture generates two JPEGs... one is a "thumbnail" and the other is a larger JPEG "preview" image. The point of these is to let you fly through your images quickly. But when you pull up an image to start work on it, it immediately reverts to the real "RAW" image. Make sure you're not getting fooled by looking at a "preview" version of an image and not the RAW.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

VinWeathermon — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 00:30:08 GMT

Hi Tim, yes I'd thought of that. I used to have a 1DS MK II and it banded in the shadows with magenta lines; this is more like a gradient that missed a large part of the tonal range. I don't see them on this webpage because it is too small. I rarely use camera JPG, and don't fool with noise removal when I do (but I know it does this a bit no matter what camera presets are used.)

I have other raw files that have similar shadows with other cameras and this isn't visible like it is with this 5dMKIII (including two other 5dMKII bodies.

It is fascinating that your monitor could not see banding that the older one could....I'll try looking at raw files on other monitors.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

Tim — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:08:23 GMT

Hello VinWeathermon,

Upon looking at the image, chunky blocks of noise are not apparent. It's possible it has to do with the low ISO straining to develop details in the shadow areas. Since you're shooting with strobes, you may wish to up the output versus raising the ISO. You want to have enough light in the shadows to expose properly. If you aren't using a dedicated light meter, it may be beneficial to your photography to use one especially when shooting strobes.

As the old adage goes, you want to expose for shadows and develop for highlights. The same is true across digital and film, except the computer/ software suites are now your darkroom and development tools. We wish you the best of luck and believe your issue can be resolved with an adjustment of the exposure and more careful handling of contrasting areas.

If this is an urgent technical support matter, please feel free to contact support directly, either by phone or email, through the Service and Support section on Canon's web site.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

RobinS — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 19:56:24 GMT

Hi there,

I used the original 5D for years and have recently upgraded to the 5D Mark III. I shoot RAW, converting to TIF, and I'm getting noise like never before, especially magenta and cyan colour noise... even in brighter areas of the photo. It's definitely a very serious issue for me. Is this a common problem that has a fix or could it be a faulty camera body? Thanks for your help.

Re: High Noise in 5D Mark III

Skirball — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 17:06:30 GMT

@RobinS wrote:
Hi there,
I used the original 5D for years and have recently upgraded to the 5D Mark III. I shoot RAW, converting to TIF, and I'm getting noise like never before, especially magenta and cyan colour noise... even in brighter areas of the photo. It's definitely a very serious issue for me. Is this a common problem that has a fix or could it be a faulty camera body? Thanks for your help.

Can you post an example, it's hard to comment without knowing what you're looking at. The 5D3 handles noise considerably better than the old 5D, so if you're getting results that are worse then something is off.