08-14-2024 05:47 AM - edited 08-14-2024 05:48 AM
Hi Good people 😁
I have been taking images in some lower light situations of my 13 year old daughters karate exploits.
However at 4000 ISO and even 2500 ISO I am seeing severe noise, even to the point of the images not being usable.
For the last event it was my R&, EF 70-200F2.8ii plus EF->RF adaptor
Typically 160th/s-F2.8 ISO4000
I am not trying to pixel peek and identify eyelashes by name on a A0 print, but my old Canon 650D gave me better results.
Basically I am wondering what I have gotten wrong, in settings or am I misjudging the light in the arena. I cannot imagine this is the quality of the sensor, albeit a densely packed high megapixel unit, much more likely an error from behind the camera
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14E3RbxV3JYjgRiAFjOYeZjPwT9VZ-t2t/view?usp=drive_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lx5a7AhMfiTwE8MrJkOt_tRdXWO1cPEc/view?usp=drive_link
08-14-2024 08:00 AM
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08-14-2024 11:48 AM
Apologies done 🙂
08-14-2024 08:21 AM
I do not think that you are doing anything wrong. The R7 is well known to be noisy.Overall, APS-C cameras tend to produce more noise than full frame cameras. The R7 perform extremely well in outside spaces but not so good inside.
My recommendation from my own experience when I owned the R7 is to try always to overexpose (or expose to the right) a little bit. It's better to correct the exposure if you overexposed because you are not adding noise to your picture. If you try to correct the shadows in your picture by adding light you will increase the noise.
Another recommendation is to use DXO PureRaw or Topaz Denoise as part of your post process routine. I personally started to process all my files coming from the R7 in DXO PureRaw and after that process them in LightRoom Classic.
Shooting RAW will help also because you have more room of improvement than if you try to edit JPGs.
Here is a video that I recommend you to check.
08-14-2024 12:11 PM - edited 08-14-2024 12:18 PM
The noise seems to be normal, but the focus is behind the eyes. With my R6 I have set it to AF Case 1. I don't remember, but one of those AF Cases was really bad for my Sigma 500/4,5.
08-14-2024 01:06 PM
BTW, Your pictures are not too noisy. I have seen it a lot worse when you reach 6400 or higher.
08-14-2024 02:19 PM
Noise is usually caused by two factors: one inherent in the sensor size and the other in technique.
The small the sensor and the more the MP count crammed into it the smaller the Photosites: the light wells down which the light moves to be captured by the light-sensitive surface of the sensor. Smaller tubes mean less efficient light performance. That is why your 650D with an 18MP sensor behaved better in low light than the 32MP of the R7.
As a consequence, smaller sensors will be less efficient than larger sensors that have an equivalent number of photosites. When looking at the R7, which has a 1.6 crop factor, if one was to expand that pixel density to the size of a FF sensor, (32MP x Crop factor squared) it would be an 83MP sensor - which no camera maker has attempted in a 35mm format! I always thought that 20-24mp was a relative sweet spot for APS-C, as reflected in all of the other APS-C MILC models. If you look at the latest flagship cameras in the 1 series they have 24MP FF sensors which, if reduced to APS-C size, would have only about 9MP for that sensor area. That is one reason sports photographers want them - they are fantastic in low light.
Larger sensors will be more tolerant of under-exposure, which is not uncommon in light-starved environments, such as indoor sports. As Frank wisely said, using exposure compensation with a slight bias to over-expose to the plus side, might mitigate that.
As to the focusing. One challenge of the R7 body is a tendency to pulse if one is shooting a high frame rates. This is because the sensor on a MILC is used for focus (unlike a DSLR) and that mass of photosites sending focusing data cannot be throughput and processed by the focusing system in time. Thus, it will get one photo sharp, and the next one or two may be back or front focused. This can be mitigated to a limited extent by slowing down the shutter frame rate to 11-15 fps in first curtain shutter mode.
If you had the choice, and you really want the performance, I would suggest considering moving to the FF R6 or R6II which have the FF sensor of 20 and 24MP respectively, a higher-end focus and tracking system and significantly better tolerance to noise. The mechanical shutter (if you use that) is also much, much quieter.
08-14-2024 03:50 PM - edited 08-14-2024 03:51 PM
Excellent explanation Trevor! It reflects my experience. I switched from the R7 to the R6 and the difference is huge from the point of view of noise.
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