Canon 5D noise problem

<p>My 5D (classic) has been troubling me lately with noise that I'm seeing in the images. I'm wondering if it's a problem (or if it's normal and I've just never noticed it before) and then either how to fix it or whether it's time to part ways with this particular body. I will see if I can include a photo here to show you what concerns me. This is a crop of a shot with a 24-70L at 24mm, 1/500 sec @ f/5.6 and ISO 400. Look in particular at the dark areas of the Eclipse and the windows of the 4Runner in the background.</p>

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<p>well I have a classic 5D too and I think I have also noise at this moment, as I cannot see that there is sun in your photograph! <br>

Was it a cloudy day when you have taken this photo? it seems also that your saturation is too high and that cause the noise more visible, and also did you shoot in RAW and then converted this one in JPG? that makes noise visible too ...</p>

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<p>For a sharpened 1:1 crop with boosted contrast that looks about like I would expect for ISO 400.</p>

<p>If you want to lower the noise, you should be able to go to at least at ISO 200 without a tripod. Noise reduction in post processing could help too, at the cost of losing some detail.</p>

<p>Biliana, yes, this was a cloudy day. I'll check what the saturation is set on to see if that resolves anything. I did also shoot in RAW and convert using Lightroom.</p>

<p>Joe, ok, thanks. I do generally try to shoot at 200, but on cloudy days I will often bump it up to 400. This image had no sharpening or USM applied, but I did slightly boost contrast in post.</p>

<p>There's also chromatic aberration (the red and cyan tinges on opposite sides of edges), but that's a lens issue and can pretty easily be fixed in software.</p>

<p>The image looks about right, maybe a bit on the noisy side (also depends on how hot it was, among other things). As was suggested earlier, at 24mm you could drop down to 100 iso and stop-down to f/8 (1/60s @ f/8) without too much worry about camera movement (not counting the wind, of course).</p>

<p>Steve, yeah, I'm not too worried about the CA, especially any in this image since I pretty much just took the shot above to show the noise problem. A software solution to the noise may still be what I'm left with.</p>

<p>Paul, the temperature was about 65*F when I took that shot.</p>

<p>I'll go test the camera out more thoroughly at different ISOs and with different exposure settings to see if anything changes. The saturation in-camera was set to +3, I'm assuming by default since I don't recall messing with it. I turned that down and will see what comes out.</p>

<p>Sorry to say, but I see a definate problem here. There is way to much noise which I spotted at first glance(no need to Zoom in) especially coming from a 5D. Unless you have the saturation dial set to the max this is pretty unusual given that the ISO was only 400.</p>

<p>It's a cloudy day and the light is more even (less contrasty) and yet there are deep shadows on the sides of the car and SUV and the grass looks too dark (should be a midtone). To my eyes the image looks underexposed about 1 to 2/3 EV and that would explain the extra noise. Check the camera histogram. I bet not much is showing on the right side.</p>

<p>EOS meters tend to underexpose cloudy day landscapes so I usually add a little EC to taste. Just as long as you don't cook the HLs you can pull it down in post and enjoy a near noiseless image.</p>

<p>Harry, that's also what I still think, though it seems like a majority of responders here so far think that there might be other factors explaining the noise. It's cloudy again today, mid-70s, so it should be a perfect day to go outside and take some more shots at different settings. I certainly hope there's nothing wrong with the camera, because replacing it would be a stretch right now.</p>

<p>Puppy, the histogram does suggest that this image is underexposed by about 1 stop. I'll dial in some EC today and see if that helps. I feel like I've usually gotten better results from this camera but the mind does play tricks.</p>

<p>Yup, fixing a one-stop underexposure will definitely help with the noise, and I suspect it will be a significant improvement.</p>

<p>Ok, so here's the result of a little testing. I *almost* can't see it in these 1:1 crops, but it's still there when I peep. Tell me what you all think. These are crops of the same larger image, shot on an overcast day, 70*F, with 50 f/1.8. Settings: 1/60s, f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/3EV exposure comp, in-camera saturation on +1.</p>

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<p>and, less visible still...</p>

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<p>It's really hard to tell with the red subaru, but still to me(or my monitor) it looks like your ISO is stuck at 1600 .</p>

<p>That looks about the same as I get for noise with a 5D at ISO 100 in Lightroom with noise reduction off. Jpegs straight from the camera probably have less noise than that.</p>

<p>And while the noise on the red Subaru may be visible, it looks absolutely nothing like ISO 1600 from my 5D.</p>

Joe, thanks for confirming. I agree that it is nowhere near what I get at 1600. I will try to stop obsessing over it.

<p>Nick,<br>

You could may be try playing with the 'Detail' setting in LR. I find the default of 25 too aggressive for most of my images on the 5D and indeed other bodies. As an example I tried matching the PS5 USM setting of 300-0.3-0 with LR3's Detail on the same landscape raw file and I could see that LR3's 'Detail' setting of only 5 or 6 (with Amount 102 & Radius at min.) could visually match the PS5 USM result!<br>

Every image is different but ... you get the drift?</p>