[Leica] D700 added to ISO testing folder

[hlritter at bex.net (Howard Ritter)]

Thanks, Peter, I will. I'll have to have a look at Neat Image.

?howard

On Dec 28, 2009, at 12:34 AM, Peter Klein wrote:

> Howard:
> 
> Whenever I see high-ISO D700 shots, I want one.  Except that I don't want 
> to carry it around  :-)
> 
> Just for laughs, I ran the your M8 ISO 2500 and 1250 pictures through Neat 
> Image.  I did the kind of noise reduction I prefer--aggressive on chroma 
> noise and sparing on luminance noise.  I usually don't shoot my M8 above 
> ISO 640, so this was an interesting exercise for me.
> 
> Results here: 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/album170/M8_ISO_2500_filtered.jpg.html
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/album170/M8_ISO_1250_filtered.jpg.html
> 
> Compare the filtered M8 file at 2500 with the your Nikon ISO 3200 file.  
> The Nikon is still better, but now things are a bit closer than they were 
> before, probably within 1 stop.  If you view them both at 1:2 or 1:3, 
> which is how they will look when printed, then you can see that while the 
> Nikon is still better, the Leica is still usable for reasonable print 
> size. Things stay pretty gritty in the low tones unless I really smear the 
> detail, which I don't want to do. 
> Whatever Nikon is doing with on-chip noise reduction is pretty darned 
> impressive. Neat Image can do some pretty amazing things with the noise in 
> the midtones and highlights. But the M8 does seem to fall off the digital 
> cliff at 2500, especially in the darkest tones.
> 
> At ISO 1250 (M8) vs. 1600 (D700), Neat Image on the M8 picture evens 
> things out pretty well. I think the filtered M8 file is pretty  comparable 
> to the D700 file, even at 100%.
> 
> After what I've seen, I think I will be less reluctant to use ISO 1250 
> when it's needed.
> 
> I'll leave the two filtered files up up for a few days.  Howard, if you 
> want to grab the full-sized files and add them to your test folder, feel 
> free.
> 
> --Peter