Should I sell my T2i for a K-r?

[HPS3]

I bought my T2i back in Nov. thinking I would use the video mode all the time. Anyway I rarely use the video mode and love taking photos. I shoot in raw and notice that even at iso100 I have to use noise reduction in LR3. Is this normal to have noise at iso 100 in raw? I dont know what to do b/c I saw a K-r this week and love the style and feel it wasnt as plastic feeling. would i have the same problem with raw noise editing?

 

[disneyboy2003]

I bought my T2i back in Nov. thinking I would use the video mode all the time. Anyway I rarely use the video mode and love taking photos. I shoot in raw and notice that even at iso100 I have to use noise reduction in LR3. Is this normal to have noise at iso 100 in raw? I dont know what to do b/c I saw a K-r this week and love the style and feel it wasnt as plastic feeling. would i have the same problem with raw noise editing?

It does sound pretty unusual to have a lot of noise at ISO 100. Do you have any sample pictures you can post? Perhaps some "before" and "after" pictures? (ie. "before" pictures straight out of the camera, and "after" pictures after going through Lightroom)

The only thing I can think of is if you were shooting in a low-light situation at ISO 100, brought the pics into Lightroom, and brightened them a whole bunch in Lightroom, thus bringing out any noise.

If that's the case, then changing cameras actually won't solve the problem.

When you use ISO 100 and take a photo with proper exposure, there really shouldn't be any noise / grain. I typically don't see any noise in my properly-exposed photos at ISO 100, 200, or 400. I only start seeing noise in my photos at ISO 800 in low-light photography, and only when I pixel-peep at 100% view.

If you could post some sample photos, that'd really help us figure out if your camera's having problems.

 

[bob100]

I bought my T2i back in Nov. thinking I would use the video mode all the time. Anyway I rarely use the video mode and love taking photos. I shoot in raw and notice that even at iso100 I have to use noise reduction in LR3. Is this normal to have noise at iso 100 in raw? I dont know what to do b/c I saw a K-r this week and love the style and feel it wasnt as plastic feeling. would i have the same problem with raw noise editing?

Something is wrong!
I don't use noise reduction even at ISO 1600 and that's with an older Canon XSi

for example -
ISO 1600 - (XSi (450D)
"straight out the camera" - no noise reduction

 

[PrincessInOz]

^^^
Ditto

I have the T2i. This was taken in January this year at ISO 3200; but I'm still shooting in jpeg and haven't started shooting in raw yet.

 

[JoeDif]

Does the T2i have a gradation setting? My Olympus cameras have this and I know if I set it to auto gradation, that while it will open up the shadows a bit the shadow noise can sometimes be a problem even at ISO 200. I keep it on normal gradation and don't experience noise problems at lower ISO's

 

[HPS3]

If I shoot in jpeg I don't notice it but for some reason in raw I do. I'll try to post some pics. You really notice it when zoomed in 1:2 or really bad at 1:1

 

[HPS3]

these are both exported from raw to jpeg in LR3

the first is the non noise reduction and the second has NR

 

[HPS3]

its hard to tell without blowing it up but i promise you its really bad when blown up 1:1 in LR

 

[HPS3]

when enlarged you can really tell around the elevator doors and the trees

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Due respect but I have a T2i and a 60D and there is no noise at ISO 100. Period. Something else is definitely in play here.

No camera out there has noise at ISO 100. It just ain't there. I'm not trying to just produce noise (no pun intended LOL) with no solution, but I just can't even imagine what the problem might be.

You've got to be ultra sensitive and really have a photographer's (professional) eye, IMO, to even start seeing noise at ISO 1600 and even that's a stretch.

As far as I know, there's no way to post your RAW images unless you do them as an attachment we can DL and look at and I'm not sure DIS even allows that. You can certainly post a link to an FTP or hosting site somewhere and drop the RAW file there. Looking at the jpg's produced doesn't help much, unfortunately.

I'd really like to see what you're talking about with your explanation of what to look for in the file.

 

[disneyboy2003]

its hard to tell without blowing it up but i promise you its really bad when blown up 1:1 in LR

when enlarged you can really tell around the elevator doors and the trees

Yeah, it's really hard to tell any noise there because of the sizes of the pictures that you've posted.

Does your Photobucket account allow you to upload pictures at 100% size? If so, can you provide a link to the full-sized pictures?

Otherwise, without being able to see it ourselves, I guess we'll have to trust your judgement that there is noise at 100%.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

If you can't post full size pics, can you at least post some 100% crops of the areas you think aren't coming out right?

It might not be noise you're actually seeing; perhaps jpeg artifacts or maybe there actually something wrong with your camera (the demosaic filter not working right?!?)....

Also, since you say you don't notice it in JPG, just RAW, is it possible you're not using the latest RAW processor for your version of LR?

Have you tried using the DPP 3.9.2.0 (Digital Photo Professional) that came with your T2i? Although it's not as full-featured as LR, the general concensus I've read about it is that it does have the best output (IQ-wise) for Canon camera RAW files (not really a big surprise as it's written by Canon and they know everything about their RAW data).

I'll just chime in with the other users -- I've got a T2i and regularly use ISOs 1600 and 3200 without any significant noise issues. It's the main reason I bought it!

 

[Experiment_626]

OP, maybe you should post a 100-percent crop of a small part of the photo -- perhaps around the doors where he's perceiving the problem is worse.

Scott

 

[WilsonFlyer]

<snip>Also, since you say you don't notice it in JPG, just RAW, is it possible you're not using the latest RAW processor for your version of LR?

Have you tried using the DPP 3.9.2.0 (Digital Photo Professional) that came with your T2i? <snip>

Great point. That's EXACTLY what I was about to ask. I'd love to know if he sees the same issues with the LATEST VERSION of DPP too (available via DL at Canon).

 

[photo_chick]

when enlarged you can really tell around the elevator doors and the trees

Are you sure you're not confusing noise with fringe? I'm not seeing noise in the images but it is hard to tell at this size. What I do see is a lack of contrast and sharpness in general. Fringe, softness and low contrast along with a sort of soft, grainy look that some people notice is common with entry level glass at higher resolutions... what lenses are you using?

Given the way frequency modulation works for sensors... think tuning a station on a radio. When you're spot on it's clear and the farther away you get from the station the more static you have.. well, the "station" for most cameras is 100-200 ISO. It's not until you get away from those that you really start to see noise.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

We gotta see the native RAW files here folks. Looking at crops of the JPGs proves nothing since any JPG is a loss format anyway.

The only way for us to be able to look at anything real is that we have to have access to the native RAW file. Anything else is just hocus-pocus. Seriously.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Are you sure you're not confusing noise with fringe? I'm not seeing noise in the images but it is hard to tell at this size. What I do see is a lack of contrast and sharpness in general. Fringe, softness and low contrast along with a sort of soft, grainy look that some people notice is common with entry level glass at higher resolutions... what lenses are you using?

Given the way frequency modulation works for sensors... think tuning a station on a radio. When you're spot on it's clear and the farther away you get from the station the more static you have.. well, the "station" for most cameras is 100-200 ISO. It's not until you get away from those that you really start to see noise.

I think you've hit the proverbial nail on his itty-bitty head with paragraph one. Nice catch. Sometimes we tend to look for solutions more eloquent than the real problem really is.

I suspect you're exactly right. Even L glass pointed at those doors that far away is going to leave some residual unless you're jumping to the 300mm $5k fixed length stuff. Those doors are just too far away.

 

[Shutterbug]

Something is wrong!
I don't use noise reduction even at ISO 1600 and that's with an older Canon XSi

for example -
ISO 1600 - (XSi (450D)
"straight out the camera" - no noise reduction

I actually do see some noise in the background of the pic but for 1600 its a great pic.

OP, looking at your pic it looks like the tower is under exposed and that could be a reason it has noise to it.

Can you post another pic where the exposure is overall even through the pic?

 

[Shutterbug]

Have you tried using the DPP 3.9.2.0 (Digital Photo Professional) that came with your T2i? Although it's not as full-featured as LR, the general concensus I've read about it is that it does have the best output (IQ-wise) for Canon camera RAW files (not really a big surprise as it's written by Canon and they know everything about their RAW data).

I'll just chime in with the other users -- I've got a T2i and regularly use ISOs 1600 and 3200 without any significant noise issues. It's the main reason I bought it!

I cant remember where but on another board someone else mentioned that DPP handles noise much better than the other editing programs out there.

Also what about your custom settings? Do you have sharpening turned up?
That would also bring out any noise.

 

[bob100]

Are you sure you're not confusing noise with fringe? I'm not seeing noise in the images but it is hard to tell at this size. What I do see is a lack of contrast and sharpness in general. Fringe, softness and low contrast along with a sort of soft, grainy look that some people notice is common with entry level glass at higher resolutions... what lenses are you using?

Given the way frequency modulation works for sensors... think tuning a station on a radio. When you're spot on it's clear and the farther away you get from the station the more static you have.. well, the "station" for most cameras is 100-200 ISO. It's not until you get away from those that you really start to see noise.

^^
that explanation gets my vote !

I actually do see some noise in the background of the pic but for 1600 its a great pic.

if you look hard enough you will always see something !


Canon Rebel XSi (450D)
ISO 1600