topic Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 00:51:05 GMT

Hi,

I recently purchased the Canon R7 and i do own the Rp as well. I am using the rf 100-400mm usm and i have noticed that even on sunny days with sufficient light i do get substantial Noise on the images even processed trough DPP. The noise is pretty visible even on ISO 1250. I have tried both, mechanical and electronic and the mechanical shutter is way worst. Noise reduction for high Iso is set to standard. Im just wondering if i have some settings done wrongly or what is the case. I know APC sensors usually have higher noise but even with my old Rebel t7 i havent had so much noise in the images. Any advice will be appreciated

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

Tronhard — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 01:06:52 GMT

One of your challenges is that compared to the T7, the R7 is cramming almost 90% more pixels into the same area, and that is going to make the whole thing noisier. I am surprised that you are getting noise for a low an ISO as you mention.

Aside from that, without seeing sample images (of good resolution - preferable links to RAW) it is hard for us to gauge what other elements might be involved. It would also be helpful to know what lenses you are using.

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 02:09:03 GMT

Hi Tronhard,

Thank you for your reply. I am using the RF 100-400mm usm as i mentioned above. I cant currently provide a raw file as i work on a cruise line and the network is not as solid to upload the raw fille images. THat is why i thought i would ask the community. I have noticed noise even on ISO 100 which worries me the most. Its not that bad it is removable with software but still i was expecting the R7 to be handling it much better at least on 100 ISO

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

Tronhard — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 02:16:25 GMT

Sorry, I missed the lens indication. Is that the only lens you use? Well, if you can upload a JPG file with the EXIF data, that would be helpful. You should not be getting noise at ISO 100...

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 02:20:42 GMT

Thanks Trevor, ill do my best if i can upload. But i would give more testing as the high shutter speed might be the reason for the high noise as well. When i have a chance i will upload the jpg maby there is something im doing wrong.

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

Tronhard — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 02:29:50 GMT

There are essentially two reasons why one has noise in an image. The most likely and common is that the image is under-exposed. Much depends on how and what you are metering upon.

What metering do you currently use - the default evaluative or some other? It definitely will help to have several images of the kinds of shots you are taking to get an idea of the tonal ranges you are working with.

What I would suggest is trying some test images shot in RAW. Shoot with exposure set to 1/3, 2/3 and 1 EV + exposure compensation - you are trying to get the highlights as high a possible without blowing them out, so you want to pay close attention to your histograms to allow the brightest to get as close a possible to the right without actually touching the end of the graph. When you bring them into your PP software, does the noise seem less obvious?

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 02:42:00 GMT

I am using the default evaluative meter. From Lightroom to DPP there is a big difference in the Noise. Dpp Shows way less noise

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

Tronhard — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 02:47:38 GMT

I would suggest changing from evaluative metering and setting up back button focus and metering. If you set the metering to spot and learn to take your readings from the mid tones of your image, you would get much more precise exposure.

I have seen multiple reports of people finding the R7 to be noisy but also that Topaz DeNoise works wonders with the noise. I don't have the R7 but I do have the software and it is impressive. I think you can trial it, and if so it might be worth a try.

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 02:53:59 GMT

THanks a lot Trevor, really appreciate your help. I dont think there is a problem with the camera, but i did think i do something wrong. I have purchased the Topaz denoise already and you are absolutely correct that it does wonders to the noise and sharpness of the images :).

I will try your advise on the spot metering and ill do some more testing 🙂

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

amfoto1 — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 21:19:46 GMT

@naumce wrote:
...From Lightroom to DPP there is a big difference in the Noise. Dpp Shows way less noise

This is not surprising.

Lightroom (and for that matter Photoshop and Elements) do not have all that great noise reduction. Plus you are working with a relatively new camera and LR/PS/PSE may need an update to do a decent job of NR with the files coming from it. Even then, other NR software may do a better job. (I use a Photoshop plug in for my higher ISO images, but they are not coming from an R7, so I'm not going to recommend it here.)

DPP, on the other hand, likely does a much better job of NR because it's straight from Canon and they likely have optimized it to work with the new camera even before the camera was released.

That said, I've been following several photographers on YouTube who have been experimenting with the R7 and various NR software. Many say the Nik DFine plug-in works well on JPEGs and DXO PureRaw does even better working from CR3 files. Both have been updated and optimized for R7 (and R10).

YouTuber "Wild Alaska" working with R7 and DXO PureRaw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8CUHjK2dA8

Note: If shooting RAW and working with DXO PureRaw, what it does is create a partially processed DNG file that you then take into LR or Photoshop or whatever to complete the post-processing.

There are free trials of both NR software offered. You might give them a test drive.

You mentioned "sunny days" and "sufficient light", but did not indicate all your exposure settings. If you are using small aperture and/or fast shutter speeds even on a bright sunny day you may be pushing the camera's ISO quite high, causing more noise (and reducing dynamic range at the same time).

Another factor, if you use the same default magnification settings of LR with R7 that you were with RP or T7, you will be magnifying the image a lot more. T7 is a 24MP camera (6000x4000 pixels), while R7 is 32.5MP (6960x4640). Say you view images from both at 100% on your monitor. That means each image pixel is displayed by one pixel on your monitor. So using the same level of magnification, you will be viewing the R7 file 16% larger than the T7 file. Noise will be more apparent at higher magnification.

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

johnrmoyer — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 21:47:31 GMT

I have the R5 instead of R7, so this might not be the case for you. I hope some of this might help anyway.

It might help to disable peripheral illumination correction in the camera menus. It also might help to set high ISO noise reduction to low and then increase it if necessary in DPP. I assume you are processing raw CR3 files in DPP. It may also be possible to process the the CR3 files in the camera and turn off the peripheral illumination correction and change the noise reduction. Also, in DPP, it may help to set clarity to "-1" for photographing people. The radius for unsharp mask in DPP can be set to 3.0 to avoid sharpening the noise.

"Digital Lens Optimizer" will sometimes also make noise stand out. If this is the case, then reduce the value until it looks better.

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 23:42:09 GMT

Thanks for the tips. Appreciate it

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 23:43:13 GMT

Thanks John, will try to disable peripheral illumination and see if that makes a difference as at the moment is on. 🙂

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:48:21 GMT

Just an update to all, specially everyone who gave me the tips. Shooting in spot metering helped a lot in reducing the noise. What i also noticed is shooting in electronic shutter with slower shutter speed definitely helps as well. The biggest problem for me was the hoodie on the RF 100-400 that originally belonged to my 70-200 EF L lenses. Apparently the hoodie was blocking to much of the light entering the sensor trough the lens so i was receiving too much of a noise. Today i did many shots on a sunny day without the hoodie and noise was minimal even with higher shutter speed.

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:48:46 GMT

Just one more time thank you all for all the help

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

Tronhard — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:50:26 GMT

I'm really glad you are having a more positive experience with your new camera - while it inevitably takes some getting used to, it should overall be a joyful experience. I hope it will continue to be so for you!

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 01:19:46 GMT

Thanks Trevor, I do love it. As i mention i own the RP as well, but after getting the R7, cant get my hands off of this camera. I really love it.

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 01:22:14 GMT

This is just a Screen shot of todays session.

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

naumce — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 02:31:52 GMT

Hi Trevor,

Just wannit to share this photo that i shot today. Im loving this camera more and more day by day.

Re: Canon R7 Noise Issue

BrianDavies — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 14:08:26 GMT

Hi, I am not sure if you are still experiencing a lot of noise? I have the RP and the R7. The RP is significantly better being full frame and with less MP too. However, my R7 is better than my M6 Mk II was (with 32.5MP, same sensor as the 90D) and this was confirmed when I watched side-by-side comparisons with the 90D. The R7 has less noise and a much sharper image. My R7 is cleaner than my T6S and 80D were, for sure.

APS-C very quickly gets noisy in the shade, so even if it is a bright day, shoot in the shade and you will be getting around 2 stops more noise than your RP. As you climb up the ISOs they end up only about one stop apart. The quality of the light has a huge impact. I have shot birds in flight at ISO 2500 and been amazed how noise free the images were (I mostly needed ISO 2500 to get a fast shutter speed) and shot at ISO 2500 in a different light and hated the amount of noise. If you expose to the right it can make a big difference! So instead of underexposing and raising shadows in post, overexpose (keeping an eye on the histogram not to clip highlights) and then there will noticeably less noise and less shadow recovery required too (shadow recovery tends to increase noise).

If you turn on HDR PQ the camera also gets less noise. Don't worry, this is not the usual HDR which takes more than one shot and combines them. This takes one shot and can even be used for burst shooting. The image below was taken at ISO 5000, indoors, with HDR PQ turned on. Standard noise reduction, no AI noise removal plug-ins. Obviously the image is also cleaner being far smaller than the full res image out of the camera.