Noise reduction for Canon 5d markII and 7d

[CynthiaM]

Debating on upgrading my camera to one of these two.  Curious to know how users are processing noise; in particular, serious noise at high iso settings.  At what point and for what iso are the tools in Camera raw or Lightroom just not effective? Do you use in camera noise reduction and if so, at what settings?  Are you better off not to use in camera noise reduction and bring it into Photoshop to run a 3rd party filter?  Is in camera noise reduction a moot point if shooting raw?  What about settings that can be made through custom functions such as long exposure noise reduction?  And of course, I am open to consider anything about which I have not specifically asked.  

Thanks and regards,

[Paul2660]

I have not shot the 7D but have used the 5D MKII for over a year now.  I have found noise levels to be very acceptable up to around 2000 iso.  Pretty much after that
unless the image is going to be on the small side the noise to me is harsh.  It may just be my camera also.  Of course coming from the 1ds and 1ds MKII, what you can
get from the 5D MKII is still amazing, I think that the new Nikon D3s and Canon 1D MKIV have much higher thresholds.  

With the 5D MKII, I tend to use the standard settings for noise reduction in camera for raw.  There is a setting you can change out for higher ISO noise reduction, I leave
mine at standard, but have also used the high setting.  For long exposures, there is a setting for noise reduction also, and I just leave it on, not auto.  I recently did some 50
and 40 minute star trail exposures with the 5D MKII at ISO 100 and the results were amazing.  The camera will write a dark frame after each exposure which does take
some time.  I did find that on a 40 minute exposure after about 20 minutes of the dark frame I was able to free up the shutter and take the next frame.  Nice buffer work
there from Canon.

I think that you will be most impressed with the noise or lack of noise with the 5D MKII.  

Paul Caldwell

[CynthiaM]

I have not shot the 7D but have used the 5D MKII for over a year now.  I have found noise levels to be very acceptable up to around 2000 iso.  Pretty much after that
unless the image is going to be on the small side the noise to me is harsh.  It may just be my camera also.  Of course coming from the 1ds and 1ds MKII, what you can
get from the 5D MKII is still amazing, I think that the new Nikon D3s and Canon 1D MKIV have much higher thresholds.  

With the 5D MKII, I tend to use the standard settings for noise reduction in camera for raw.  There is a setting you can change out for higher ISO noise reduction, I leave
mine at standard, but have also used the high setting.  For long exposures, there is a setting for noise reduction also, and I just leave it on, not auto.  I recently did some 50
and 40 minute star trail exposures with the 5D MKII at ISO 100 and the results were amazing.  The camera will write a dark frame after each exposure which does take
some time.  I did find that on a 40 minute exposure after about 20 minutes of the dark frame I was able to free up the shutter and take the next frame.  Nice buffer work
there from Canon.

I think that you will be most impressed with the noise or lack of noise with the 5D MKII.  

Paul Caldwell

Thank you.  Do you do anything in post to make higher iso noise more acceptable?

[bill t.]

I've been using the Lightroom 3 Beta to process 5dMkII raws.  The noise reduction function and overall processing quality is miles ahead of anything else I've used.  I don't think you would need anything else even for very heavy noise, provided of course that you swat the noise in raw processing which is the best place to do it.

You can download the beta version for free from Adobe, it's fully functional until June or whenever they make the official release.  Be sure you opt for the "2010 processing" mode by clicking the exclamation point button that will appear to the lower right of the image when it is first loaded.  Presumably the same functions will be part of the ACR 6.0 released with CS5.

FWIW the 5d doesn't really need much noise reduction at any reasonable ISO, but for instance if you have to raise underexposed shadows a few stops then yes you want some noise reduction.   The best noise high ISO noise reduction technique is of course proper exposure to begin with.  

For noise reduction in Photoshop I sometimes use the Imageonic Noiseware Pro plug-in.  It was great in it's time.  But now I think if I ran into serious noise while working in PS I would go back and reprocess the raw files.

Some here like the Topaz noise reduction package, which I have not tried but which looks good for heavy duty noise.  There's a free demo available.

[CynthiaM]

I've been using the Lightroom 3 Beta to process 5dMkII raws.  The noise reduction function and overall processing quality is miles ahead of anything else I've used.  I don't think you would need anything else even for very heavy noise, provided of course that you swat the noise in raw processing which is the best place to do it.

You can download the beta version for free from Adobe, it's fully functional until June or whenever they make the official release.  Be sure you opt for the "2010 processing" mode by clicking the exclamation point button that will appear to the lower right of the image when it is first loaded.  Presumably the same functions will be part of the ACR 6.0 released with CS5.

FWIW the 5d doesn't really need much noise reduction at any reasonable ISO, but for instance if you have to raise underexposed shadows a few stops then yes you want some noise reduction.   The best noise high ISO noise reduction technique is of course proper exposure to begin with.  

For noise reduction in Photoshop I sometimes use the Imageonic Noiseware Pro plug-in.  It was great in it's time.  But now I think if I ran into serious noise while working in PS I would go back and reprocess the raw files.

Some here like the Topaz noise reduction package, which I have not tried but which looks good for heavy duty noise.  There's a free demo available.

Thanks for the response
Regards,