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Point and shoot grainy
Sep 24, 2015 10:02:48 #
johnst1001a
Loc: West Chester, Ohio
I am going to Europe on a cruise vacation, traveling to places including Greece and Turkey. As I am sure there are some areas where theft of cameras is an issue, I decided to buy a Canon SX710 camera. To get a little practice, I took 50 or so pictures in my yard, and looked at them on my computer, and to my disappointment they have more grain then I had expected, even at low ISO's such as 80 or 100. The grain is not really noticeable when I look at the uncropped picture, but when I zoom in the grain shows up quite a bit, even in the sky. I have the contrast set to normal, not high, and have shot in both AUTO and program mode with a fixed aperature. Is this to be expected with a point an shoot? Perhaps my reference of my 5d Mark III is too much of a stretch, as I don't get any grain with that camera until I get up to ISO 3200.
Sep 24, 2015 10:15:24 #
Cropping will bring up the noise especially with a camera with a small sensor. Try to use the zoom when taking the photo so you won't have to crop. And yes you can't compare a small sensor to the FF sensor in your Canon when it comes to noise.
Sep 24, 2015 10:23:13 #
johnst1001a wrote:
I am going to Europe on a cruise vacation, traveli... (show quote)
If you are accustomed to a DSLR, you'll never get a photo out of that P&S that you'll be happy with. At least, that's been my experience.
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Sep 24, 2015 10:41:21 #
When using a P&S camera, simply keep cropping to a minimum. Get closer to the subject to avoid extensive cropping later on. Make composition decisions at time of shooting, rather than at the editing stage. With my small sensor cameras, I rarely crop more than 15% of the image, and most times only so that the final image will correspond to a desired size ratio. Grain/noise is then not an issue, at least not with low ISO settings.
Sep 24, 2015 13:23:32 #
Did you shoot in full daylight? If you did, expect even more noise when shooting in even moderately darker conditions, and don't expect it to handle extremes of lighting well. And don't assume that since Canon have been making professional cameras for quite a long time that they make the best P&Ses.
Sep 24, 2015 15:55:59 #
I'm not familiar with the Canon, but I can tell you that my Sony RX100 point and shoot is not grainy at low iso. No ifs, ands, or buts. With that said, here's a review I found for the SX710. By my reading, it should be quite acceptable at iso 80-200, but not a stellar performer.
Imatest also checks photos for noise, which manifests as splotchy grain and false color in digital cameras. It actually scores quite well on our basic noise test, keeping it under 1.5 percent through ISO 1600, but a close look at images from our test scene on a calibrated NEC MultiSync PA271W shows that there's an incredible amount of in-camera noise reduction going on behind the scenes. The aggressive approach to curtailing noise blurs details. Things are fine at ISO 80 through 200, but even at the moderate ISO 400 sensitivity you can notice that fine lines in our test scene have started to run together. It's worse at ISO 800, and at ISO 1600 our test image is a fuzzy mess.
Full review is at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2477896,00.asp
Imatest also checks photos for noise, which manifests as splotchy grain and false color in digital cameras. It actually scores quite well on our basic noise test, keeping it under 1.5 percent through ISO 1600, but a close look at images from our test scene on a calibrated NEC MultiSync PA271W shows that there's an incredible amount of in-camera noise reduction going on behind the scenes. The aggressive approach to curtailing noise blurs details. Things are fine at ISO 80 through 200, but even at the moderate ISO 400 sensitivity you can notice that fine lines in our test scene have started to run together. It's worse at ISO 800, and at ISO 1600 our test image is a fuzzy mess.
Full review is at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2477896,00.asp
Sep 24, 2015 16:20:23 #
unclebe1 wrote:
I'm not familiar with the Canon, but I can tell yo... (show quote)
The RX100 has a 1 inch sensor which is much larger than the 1/2.3 inch sensor in your small Canon.
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Sep 24, 2015 16:45:56 #
MarkD wrote:
The RX100 has a 1 inch sensor which is much larger than the 1/2.3 inch sensor in your small Canon.
True...I was just responding to the question of whether the graininess was inherent in p&s cameras. Your response provides more useful info for the OP. Size matters (at least wrt sensors). 8-)
Sep 24, 2015 18:46:13 #
Welcome to m4/3. Our cameras are small and light but have all the features of high end dslrs. The large prints (24 x 36 and 30 x 40) on my office walls from the 16mp sensors look like they came from a ff camera. Grab an omd em10ii and a couple of primes and/or compact zooms and enjoy going light. I haven't looked back to a dslr since 2012/13.
Click on my user name and you'll find my website with plenty examples taken with my "little" camera.
Click on my user name and you'll find my website with plenty examples taken with my "little" camera.
Sep 25, 2015 06:20:12 #
Cdouthitt wrote:
Welcome to m4/3. Our cameras are small and light but have all the features of high end dslrs. The large prints (24 x 36 and 30 x 40) on my office walls from the 16mp sensors look like they came from a ff camera. Grab an omd em10ii and a couple of primes and/or compact zooms and enjoy going light. I haven't looked back to a dslr since 2012/13.
Click on my user name and you'll find my website with plenty examples taken with my "little" camera.
Click on my user name and you'll find my website with plenty examples taken with my "little" camera.
Your photos are some of the best I've seen on here. Can I take photos like that with an Olympus or do you PP all of these. Would love to take photos like that.
Sep 25, 2015 07:40:21 #
johnst1001a
Loc: West Chester, Ohio
Thanks everyone for your comments. I bought the camera purely as a lower risk of being a target for theft than using my 5dMk3 and expensive lens, when traveling in places that are of concern to me. I will be shooting in the daylight for the most part, so I will be using a low ISO. I have found that the Topaz DeNoise software I have does a reasonable job at reducing graininess. I do not plan on printing any or very few of my pictures, as I have a tendency to just look at pictures on the computer other than some of family, in which case I use my DSLR anyway. I'll see how things go, and if I find something worth sharing with my experiences, I will. Perhaps imbed a few pictures too.
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Sep 25, 2015 08:20:55 #
I have that same camera. I bought it so I can don't have to lug my Canon 70d and lenses in airports. I really like my SX710. I've printed out and framed some great pictures from this camera. I can do more with my 70d, but this camera works great. I always use AV, or TV modes. I haven't noticed the noise even with 400 ISO. I haven't gone above 400.
Sep 25, 2015 08:43:14 #
WessoJPEG wrote:
Your photos are some of the best I've seen on here. Can I take photos like that with an Olympus or do you PP all of these. Would love to take photos like that.
Thank you. I'm a firm believer in post processing to get the most out of your images. Every photo of mine is edited in LR. That said, I don't spend a ton of time editing them. A lot of times I just copy and paste settings from from one photo to another. So I'd spend 5 minutes getting one right, then 30 seconds to a minute pasting and tweaking. Since I shoot raw only i have to at the very least convert to jpg.
Sep 25, 2015 09:23:25 #
Down load two Topaz programs on a 30 day basis.... deNoise you will prob use strong pre-setting. Then you will bring back detail with Topaz Detail. What the heck,,, get Clarity also and that puts snap in colors.
Have you seen the beautiful photos with Canon SX50 or Sony HX50. Both have very small sensors; both have noise that can be controlled with Topaz deNoise.
Have you seen the beautiful photos with Canon SX50 or Sony HX50. Both have very small sensors; both have noise that can be controlled with Topaz deNoise.
Sep 25, 2015 10:52:13 #
romanticf16
Loc: Commerce Twp, MI
johnst1001a wrote:
I am going to Europe on a cruise vacation, traveli... (show quote)
Set the print quality to high jpeg and do some test prints. You do know you won't be able to make big enlargements, right?
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