Because my interest in the G10 is heavily weighted toward low light shooting, I took a set of test shots at the local dealer's at ISOs from 100 to 1600. Using the DNG converter, I imported them into Lightroom, and was totally taken aback at how much noise I'm seeing, even at 200. Here's a link to the DNG file:
IMG_0014.dng.
Based on Wayne Fox's
careful conversions using DPP with 0 NR, it seems to me that either
- DPP is applying a pretty significant amount of NR even when NR is supposedly off, or
- DNG somehow amplifies noise, or
- importing DNG into Lightroom somehow side-steps it's own level 0 NR.
Notice that this shot is if anything slightly over-exposed, so it's not is if under-exposure is responsible for excess noise.
I'd appreciate any input as to whether there's something amiss with my test shot, and if not, as to what's going on here. There seems to be two camps on this issue: one that even 200 ISO is seriously noisy and one that 400 is quite usable. Based on what I'm seeing, I'd have to side with the first camp.
I can post other test shot DNGs, or original CR2s, if wanted.