Canon 7D – Noise Handling

This noise test was done after getting some poor results shooting a time lapse sequence at iso 1000 on my Canon 7D.

I produced a Raw test image on the Canon 7D by removing the lens and putting the body cap back on, I then shot a Raw image at iso 1600 for 30 seconds with all High Iso and Long Expsoure noise reduction functions turned off.

The raw file was then processed in turn by Adobe Camera Raw, Digital Photo Professional and DxO Optics Pro 6 to produce 16-bit Tiff files with no sharpening or noise reduction. The Tiff files were processed through Photoshop CS5 in an identical same manner shown next.

An Exposure adjustment layer was applied and the exposure increased by 2 stops to increase the visibility of the noise. A 1000 x 667 pixel rectangle was then cropped from the centre of each image and saved as a jpeg file. If you click on each photograph you will be able to see the 100% versions of the images.

Adobe Camera Raw conversion - 30 sec x 1600 iso

Digital Photo Professional conversion - 30 sec x 1600 iso

DxO Optics Pro 6 - 30 sec x 1600 iso

To produce the image above processed by DxO I had to turn off all the default auto settings as the resulting image was absolutely appalling!

I know what I’ll be using in future.

If you wish to carry out your own tests the 20Mb Raw CR2 file from the Canon 7D is available here. Right click to save the image to your hard drive.