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Sony A7r noise reduction

ChrisM
I recently got a Sony A7r to use with my Zeiss ZK lenses. I was struck by the quality of the noise reduction in CO1, especially the color noise reduction, where I used to get only OK results with CO1 noise reduction on Apsc cameras, reason why I kept using Imagenomic Noiseware.
Now with the A7r the results of the noise reduction of CO1 are better than the results of Noiseware. This is only good because it removes another step outside of CO1, but has anyone noticed improvements in CO1 noise reduction overall
My guess is, that because CO1 is optimized for high resolution digital backs (MF), the noise reduction may be optimized for files with high pixel counts, and less so for smaller Apsc files. If that is so, and also goes for sharpening and other edits, than I may be doing more and more in CO1 with the Sony A7r.

Another thing that I noticed: the moire tool works on moire of course, but it also seems to works very much as the color noise reduction tool when there is no moire, removing color noise in higher iso shots just like the color noise reduction tool, and even with the same effect of the slider setting. Is color noise interpreted as moire?

Chris
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Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • Paul Steunebrink
    Hi ChrisM,

    Interesting observations, in particular the use of the moire tool. Had not noticed this or considered the option. Thanks for letting us know.
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  • SFA
    If the conditions of the colour noise are appropriate the moire tool can be useful. I find it will often work in quite a narrow band of noise type that is similar (seen at 100% or more) to the results that reveal themselves as obvious moire noise.

    It is also rather handy that it is available as a local adjustment ...


    Grant
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  • Keith Reeder
    [quote="ChrisM" wrote:
    but has anyone noticed improvements in CO1 noise reduction overall?

    Yep, I have.
    My guess is, that because CO1 is optimized for high resolution digital backs (MF), the noise reduction may be optimized for files with high pixel counts, and less so for smaller Apsc files.

    I've seen significant improvement in the quality of the NR on my (Canon) crop camera files - that Godawful "chequerboard" rendering that used to be the bane of my life is gone, replaced by a much more palatable random noise distribution.
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  • ChrisM
    [quote="Keith Reeder" wrote:
    [quote="ChrisM" wrote:
    but has anyone noticed improvements in CO1 noise reduction overall?

    Yep, I have.
    My guess is, that because CO1 is optimized for high resolution digital backs (MF), the noise reduction may be optimized for files with high pixel counts, and less so for smaller Apsc files.

    I've seen significant improvement in the quality of the NR on my (Canon) crop camera files - that Godawful "chequerboard" rendering that used to be the bane of my life is gone, replaced by a much more palatable random noise distribution.

    That's good to hear. I've been pleasantly surprised by the NR on the A7r images, as well as the CA removal and the color accuracy.
    Chris
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  • Keith Reeder
    For a long time I considered Lightroom's noise reduction to be superior to Capture One's, as were Photo Ninja's and DxO Optics Pro's (on my cameras, and to my needs) - Optics Pro being the best of the bunch.

    These days, although Phase One has not announced changes to its NR (or its sharpening), I'm clear enough in my own mind that something is different, and the difference is significant enough that I now consider Capture One easily to be the equal of Optics Pro's "standard" NR - and that's as good as it gets outside of Optic Pro's PRIME NR, which is too resource-intensive and slow to be routinely useful.

    I really like Capture One's NR now - whether it's the NR or the sharpening that has changed, the "cross-hatch" rendering that Capture One used to generate is history, and the results make it easy to use (say) my Canon 70D up to five-figure ISOs without much trouble - and sometimes without any need for additional NR to be applied outside of Capture One.

    10,000 ISO, with only Capture One's default NR - that's pretty damn' good, I reckon.

    Exif: 200mm, f/2.8, 1/40 - very low light. (200mm because I was testing the image stabilisation on my Sigma 70-200mm OS, handheld).

    This is how the rendering looks at 100% view. For completeness I'll point out that this is "only" 6400 ISO, and is of a 70D mRaw file, but it's still a good indication of how nicely the software renders noise, even at default settings.
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