ISO 100 to ISO 102,400 samples from Nikon D3s shot in difficult high
contrast conditions.
In the linked gallery you will find full resolution 1000x1000 pixel
crops shot at the D3s Big Apple Circus event on October 20, 2009 at
all full stop ISO settings from 100 to 102,400. The final image is an
uncropped view.
Exposure and processing information is included but the basics are
that the camera was set for lossless 14 Bit NEF mode and High ISO
noise reduction was set to "Low".
The files were looked at in Nikon ViewNX and then sent to Photoshop
for cropping, captioning, conversion to the sRGB color space and saved
as level 12 (i.e. minimal) compression.
No sharpening in the NEF processing or in post processing. Active
D-lighting was turned off in hte camera and D-Lighting was turned off
in Nikon ViewNX. Beyond what is described above no other processing
was done. The HTML Web gallery was created in Adobe Photoshop
Lightroom 2.5
I wasn't allowed to set up a tripod where I was taking these photos
from -- for later shots where I was away from fhe ring of the arena I
used a tripod for long lens shots) so I braced the camera against a
flat surface by putting my hand on top of the camera. The camera was
set to manual focus and Aperture priority and 3D Matrix metering, so
as the ISO setting decreased the exposures became progressively
longer.
ISO 100 = 1.3 seconds @ f/5.6
ISO 200 = 0.66 seconds @ f/5.6
ISO 400 = .33 second @ f/5.6
ISO 800 = 1/6th second @ f/5.6
ISO 1600 = 1/13th @ f/5.6
ISO 3200 = 1/25th @ f/5.6
ISO 6400 = 1/50th @ f/5.6
ISO 12800 = 1/100th @ f/5.6
ISO 25,600 = 1/200th @ f/5.6
ISO 51,200 = 1/400th @ f/5.6
ISO 102,400 = 1/640th @ f/5.6 ( something changed in the lighting,
camera settings remained the same.)
Posted by Austin Booth on November 4, 2009 at 3:55 PM
I'm very impressed by the high ISO performance of this camera. I am a Canon shooter but I will admit that from the samples I've seen the Nikon pro cameras outperform the Canon pro cameras in high ISO noise suppression. You can compare cameras at www.imaging-resource.com and comparing the 21 megapixel Canon 1Ds Mark III to the 24 megapixel Nikon D3X the Nikon appears to be slightly better at the Canon's maximum 3200 ISO despite having 3 more megapixels.
Despite the excellent noise characteristics of the Nikon D3s, based on the samples I wouldn't use anything over 6400 ISO and despite its incredible performance at that ISO even that is pushing it as the noise is noticeable if you look for it. I would still try and stay at 800 or below if at all possible and as low as the light would allow but I wouldn't hesitate to use 1600 or 3200 on that camera if it was necessary to get the shot. The ISOs over 6400 are great considering how high they are but the noise is still too high for any serious professional photography and sorry but 102,400 is actually really ugly, yes its good considering how high it is but still ugly. I am impressed that 12,800 ISO is about as good as 1600 ISO on my 40D but I don't use 1600 ISO on my 40D because it is too noisy and I only use 800 ISO if its absolutely necessary.
Discussion
1 repliesThis site contains the photos explained below
http://www.ellisvener.com/data/web/Nikon_D3s_ISO_samples/index.html
Synposis by author:
ISO 100 to ISO 102,400 samples from Nikon D3s shot in difficult high
contrast conditions.
In the linked gallery you will find full resolution 1000x1000 pixel
crops shot at the D3s Big Apple Circus event on October 20, 2009 at
all full stop ISO settings from 100 to 102,400. The final image is an
uncropped view.
Exposure and processing information is included but the basics are
that the camera was set for lossless 14 Bit NEF mode and High ISO
noise reduction was set to "Low".
The files were looked at in Nikon ViewNX and then sent to Photoshop
for cropping, captioning, conversion to the sRGB color space and saved
as level 12 (i.e. minimal) compression.
No sharpening in the NEF processing or in post processing. Active
D-lighting was turned off in hte camera and D-Lighting was turned off
in Nikon ViewNX. Beyond what is described above no other processing
was done. The HTML Web gallery was created in Adobe Photoshop
Lightroom 2.5
I wasn't allowed to set up a tripod where I was taking these photos
from -- for later shots where I was away from fhe ring of the arena I
used a tripod for long lens shots) so I braced the camera against a
flat surface by putting my hand on top of the camera. The camera was
set to manual focus and Aperture priority and 3D Matrix metering, so
as the ISO setting decreased the exposures became progressively
longer.
ISO 100 = 1.3 seconds @ f/5.6
ISO 200 = 0.66 seconds @ f/5.6
ISO 400 = .33 second @ f/5.6
ISO 800 = 1/6th second @ f/5.6
ISO 1600 = 1/13th @ f/5.6
ISO 3200 = 1/25th @ f/5.6
ISO 6400 = 1/50th @ f/5.6
ISO 12800 = 1/100th @ f/5.6
ISO 25,600 = 1/200th @ f/5.6
ISO 51,200 = 1/400th @ f/5.6
ISO 102,400 = 1/640th @ f/5.6 ( something changed in the lighting,
camera settings remained the same.)
Despite the excellent noise characteristics of the Nikon D3s, based on the samples I wouldn't use anything over 6400 ISO and despite its incredible performance at that ISO even that is pushing it as the noise is noticeable if you look for it. I would still try and stay at 800 or below if at all possible and as low as the light would allow but I wouldn't hesitate to use 1600 or 3200 on that camera if it was necessary to get the shot. The ISOs over 6400 are great considering how high they are but the noise is still too high for any serious professional photography and sorry but 102,400 is actually really ugly, yes its good considering how high it is but still ugly. I am impressed that 12,800 ISO is about as good as 1600 ISO on my 40D but I don't use 1600 ISO on my 40D because it is too noisy and I only use 800 ISO if its absolutely necessary.