1600 ISO comparison

[bill_kleimen]

Very interesting D50/D70/D2X ISO 1600 comparison:

http://dustylens.com/d2x_-_d70-_d50.htm

[greg s]

Interesting indeed! The D50 is surprisingly good at 1600 and the D2X surprisingly bad (if these test results were correctly performed). This goes beyond the crop factor. I hope the D200 is in the D50 camp.

[csuzor]

Interesting, but the conclusion is strange: I see that the resolution of the d2x is clearly superior to d50 and d70 at 1600... Noise can mostly be removed with software, but you can't bring back resolution.

 

But if it makes someone feel good about their d50, fine.

 

I think we all know already, d2h and d2x are both very noisy at high iso, and this reduces usable dynamic range. The d2 series is about getting the shot (exposure, focus, white balance, flash, handling, all are optimised), and the d50/d70(/d200?) are excellent cameras in a different way.

[wogears]

Yeah. The D50 hits the NR harder than the other two. Big deal.

[briany]

Les, big deal indeed. This camera is marketed at those who may not have the savvy or desire to perform noise reduction themselves and would look elsewhere if the camera were noisier than the competition's. Good for Nikon for knowing their audience.

 

Christophe, I'm with you on the resolution - clearly higher on the D2x, despite the noise. Looks like the D2x resolves to the "6" level on the cross type figures, while the D70 barely resolves the "5" level.

[andrew robertson]

Seems like an easy thing to explain.

 

The pixels on the D2X are tinier, and would therefore (naturally) exhibit more noise.

[cjfraser]

These results aren't really meaningful, because they are incomplete. The test conditions specify that each camera was set to "Nikon defaults." The D2X has a special high ISO noise reduction function, but it is NOT enabled as a default. This is presumably because many D2X users will prefer to trade off noise for resolution at the capture stage and then carry out further NR in post-processesing. So a meaningful comparison would include a fourth shot with the D2X's high ISO NR feature enabled.

 

Chris

[alex_ferraris]

Bill,

very interesting indeed. By the way, what firmware do you have on the D70? The original or

the 2.0 released with the launch of the D70s, supposedly better with noise at high ISO?

Thanks

Alex

[cjfraser]

I was just looking at Thom Hogan's D2X book, and from his test shots, it really does appear that the best way to handle high-ISO NR in the D2X is to turn in-camera NR off completely and then use a good NR program in post-processing.