Canon 1300D lots of noise (even with low ISO)

[Robin4321]

Hi everyone,

I'm having big issues with my CANON 1300D. As the title says, I'm having a lot of noise in most of my pictures even if the ISO is at 200.

For example that picture (beside the fact that it's overexposed, it's a good example) :

There it's cropped a little bit then you can see it clearly :

It's 10 times worse than my smartphone.

It does the same thing with both my lenses so it doesn't seem to come from there.

I had the same issue before with a compact camera I bought, I resetted it and for some reason it solved the problem but there it doesn't...

At the moment I'm traveling and it's a bit frustrating to take pictures with my smartphone lol so I hope you can help me there! 🙂

[Waddizzle]

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@Robin4321 wrote:

ScottyP ->

"Also don't do focus and recompose unless you are stoped down a lot, though you were stopped down in these. " -> What do you mean by "recompose" and "stopped down" there ?

"Are you selecting juat one AF point (the center one is usually the most accurate) or are you letting the camera pick several af points out on its own?" -> I didn't change anything about the AF point, I haven't found how to set it so far, I'll have a look if it can change something.

I don't understand though because I used to have a compact camera I was taking lots of really nice pictures with it without knowing about all those settings...

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Recompose refers to focusing, and then turning the camera slightly to reframe the shot without refocusing.

If you feel your shots are out of focus, then you should familiarize yourself with how AF systems work in DSLRs.

Many small cameras benefit from being able to focus at hyperfocal length distances, due to their small size and sensors.  But, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and the price is a loss of details.

I haven't looked at the EXIF data, but it looks to me as if you are using the 18-55mm lens that came with the camera.  Your shots are typicall of what that lens is capable of capturing.  

Describing the images as "noisy" is pretty accurate.  A much lower rsolution camera would not pick it up.  Every lens has resolution ceiling.  The camera kit lens must have a ceiling under 10 MP.

[ScottyP]

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@Robin4321 wrote:

ScottyP ->

"Also don't do focus and recompose unless you are stoped down a lot, though you were stopped down in these. " -> What do you mean by "recompose" and "stopped down" there ?

"Are you selecting juat one AF point (the center one is usually the most accurate) or are you letting the camera pick several af points out on its own?" -> I didn't change anything about the AF point, I haven't found how to set it so far, I'll have a look if it can change something.

I don't understand though because I used to have a compact camera I was taking lots of really nice pictures with it without knowing about all those settings...

Yes the the small cameras and the smartphones have tiny image sensors.  This tends to work to give them a large depth of field in focus, with nearly everything from the foreground to the background being in focus. The downsides are they are noisy in low light (though they may do noise reduction to soften the image to hide that) and they are less able to give you a shallow depth of field when you want it.

With a larger sensor like that of a DSLR focus becomes more important and a bit more more complicated. They are designed with an AF system comprised of multiple AF points spread out across your viewfinder that can grab focus. In default mode the camera decides what to focus on and might pick anything under any of those AF dots.  You want to tell the camera what to focus on so that thing/person will be sharp and typically then a lot of other stuff will be out of focus.  

That is often a desirable look though, as it isolates your subject while blurring away distracting background or foreground details.  You control this by selecting one AF point and putting that point on your subject.  Your manual will show you how and there are a couple ways but there should be a small button on the top or back of your camera with a symbol like a checkerboard that activates the selecting mode then you turn the master dial near the shutter release to toggle through the AAF points, and you select the one you want with the set button. 

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[TTMartin]

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@Robin4321 wrote:

I don't understand though because I used to have a compact camera I was taking lots of really nice pictures with it without knowing about all those settings...

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As everyone has mentioned, point and shoot cameras have small sensors which means they have a large depth of field making most everything in the photo acceptably in focus. They also automatically apply a lot of processing to the photos that you may or may not want to have.

With a dSLR technique becomes much more important. Never hold the camera in front of you using the rear LCD like you would a cell phone or point and shoot camera, instead use the optical viewfinder. Learn to hold the camera properly keeping your elbows close to your body. Until you learn more about photography don't be afraid to use the scene modes (portrait, landscape, sports, etc) or even the full green square auto mode.

Learn how your autofocus system works:

A Look at The Canon Autofocus System Part 1

A Look at The Canon Autofocus System Part 2

Those videos may seem boring, but, they are invaluable in your growing from a snapshooter to a photographer. 

[ebiggs1]

Robin,

I don't think what you are seeing is noise either.  We all seem to agree on that point.  The edited sample by one responder is quite horrid unless you love blue or aqua.  Blue t-shirt?

Just to be clear, noise is the grainy effect that happens as you increase ISO.  Your shots look more blurry than noisy.  I would tend to check that part of the issue first.  Here is what I would like for you to do.  A little test.  You need a tripod.  A sunny day and a nice place to shoot some shots.  Set the T6 to "P" mode.  Set the ISO to 100 or 200 whichever is the lowest setting on your camera. WB set to average.  Pick a nice subject 20 feet away and take some shots.  How do they look?  This will tell you what your gear is capable of.  It will be as good as it gets.

BTW, your issue is not caused by diffraction. Diffraction is, as are most lens aberrations, only an issue if you enlarge enough to see it.

[TTMartin]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

The edited sample by one responder is quite horrid unless you love blue or aqua.  Blue t-shirt?

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I was going for that over saturated point and shoot / cellphone look. But, now that you mention it, it does look more like one of those HDR photos you post than a cellphone. 

[TTMartin]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

BTW, your issue is not caused by diffraction. Diffraction is, as are most lens aberrations, only an issue if you enlarge enough to see it.

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Diffraction is not her only problem. I don't think there is any one problem here, but, many little things contributing to the overall issue. However, f/18 is well into the range where diffraction is reducing the image quality and sharpness when using a APS-C camera. You also might want to brush up on what diffraction actually is, since your answer is a little off.

[ebiggs1]

"However, f/18 is well into the range where diffraction is reducing the image quality and sharpness ..."

You might want to stop reading so many encyclopedias and do more hands on photography.  You just might learn to way things are in the real world. If the OP does the simple test I suggested they wil know exaactly what the gear will do.  No book learning, no inner web required.

[Robin4321]

Thanks a lot to everyone for all your answers.

There are all very clear and make sense to me.

Waddizzle -> Thank you for all the explanations. " The camera kit lens must have a ceiling under 10 MP." it sounds so sad to me lol

ScottyP -> Thank you too for the explanations. I'll try to work on the AF dots thing.

ebiggs1 -> I'll try your test and let you guys know what result I get.

I really hope I'll end up understanding exactly what I do wrong and what are my camera's limits because at the moment I'm super frustrated my pictures are not half as nice as the ones I took with my compact camera (that doesn't work anymore...RIP)

[Waddizzle]

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@Robin4321 wrote:

Thanks a lot to everyone for all your answers.

There are all very clear and make sense to me.

Waddizzle -> Thank you for all the explanations. " The camera kit lens must have a ceiling under 10 MP." it sounds so sad to me lol

ScottyP -> Thank you too for the explanations. I'll try to work on the AF dots thing.

ebiggs1 -> I'll try your test and let you guys know what result I get.

I really hope I'll end up understanding exactly what I do wrong and what are my camera's limits because at the moment I'm super frustrated my pictures are not half as nice as the ones I took with my compact camera (that doesn't work anymore...RIP)

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Just keep taking photos until the light bulb goes off.  

Try to use the highest shutter speed that's practical.  With the 1300D, put a priority on using the lowest ISO, between 100-800.  Invest in a wide aperture lens like the EF 50mm f/1.8 STM, or the EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM.

[Waddizzle]

Just keep shooting photos.  I thought I had it figured out after a couple hundred shots.  Nope, it took more like a few thousand shots.  It took that long to gain the experience to figure out how to shoot in low light conditions.

Once I had halfway figured out low light conditions, my shots under good conditions were greatly improved.  If you have never heard of the " Exposure Triangle ", then do a web search and read up on it. Being familiar with it will help you better understand the shutter speed and ISO settings.  

Another topic worth researching is " Depth Of Field ".  Understanding DOF will help you understand your Aperture settings.

Finally, shooting as RAW, instead of JPEG, is the way to go under most conditions.  It requires that you use post processing software to convert the digital negatives into a JPEG, but the final results are better.  You can even correct for bad exposures more easily when you shoot RAW, as well as make numerous other adjustments, such applying Lens Correction to images..