High ISO Nef files, if anyone wants to look, here they are

[Retief]

High ISO Nefs

These correspond to This Gallery that I posted earlier. ISO values are noted in the file names and titles. Be aware, these are not small files. Not as bad as D810, but 26-29 mb are not little.

NR turned off both in the camera and in LR. Profile Camera Neutral, no other processing done, as should be obvious.

Let me know if you have any problems accessing.

Big Disclaimer:

These are not by any means greater controlled scientific testing. The ones of Lola depict a situation, and cropping, that I would normally expect to be doing. Take them for what they are worth, please

 

[Montec]

Thanks Bill, something to play with while I wait patiently....

 

[TonyW]

Pleased to see that you have the D500 finally in your hands. Images look v. good, but what is your opinion of the highest ISO in comparison to what you have been using?

 

[Retief]

Pleased to see that you have the D500 finally in your hands. Images look v. good, but what is your opinion of the highest ISO in comparison to what you have been using?

That is a DARNED good question Tony, glad you asked! My hope was that I could be happy at ISO 6400. I have no doubts about that at all. So far I am pretty impressed up to 10,000, not sure yet about what I have seen at 12,800. Tomorrow I am shooting at an indoor Dog Agility Meet with really crummy lighting so plan to do more testing there. As that is a "real world situation" I will put a lot more stock into those than my testing. Since I am not being paid for this one, I can do testing and not worry about "shots missed". Once done I'll make some of those available as well.

In comparison I cap my D810 at 3200 and used to cap my D7200 at 2000. I'll cap this puppy at 6400 without worry. Of course I always try to shoot under that, but as you well know, it ain't always Sunny Skies!

 

[Retief]

Thanks Bill, something to play with while I wait patiently....

If you do play around with them, please let me know what you think. Especially if you do any NR. I have not even processed any yet, but I suspect they will respond quite well to NR treatment.

 

[andreasb]

Judging noise levels is very hard. Everyone has different criteria. I know now that using high def displays makes a difference too. I can see a clear difference between noise levels on a 1080p and a 4 K display, less noise on the 4k display with the same file.

My reaction to the ones I have seen is that they are a little better (1/2 stop or slightly more) than the D7200 (24mp) which make sense since the D500 has close to 21 MP and is a newer generation sensor. That is all very good.

The files you have posted are not something I would like to use, too noisy for my taste.

I wonder if you could put the camera on a tripod at F8 and set up a nice subject like a vase with flowers with some shadows and shoot a complete series from ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and so on and post those, on Onedrive so each can make their own conclusion for their shooting style.

Thanks for all the work and testing, much appreciated

 

[Retief]

Andreas, totally agree on the "what noise is acceptable", and to make the matter worse I think it also really depends on the usage. What I do know, and have also seen from comments I have received both here and at DPR along with my own observations, are that for my use I am clearly doing better than the D7200 and the D810. Also born out by another pro guy on DPR who has come to much the same conclusion I have. In his testing he is saying ISO 4000 for the D500 for high detail, I can agree with this but will actually max mine at 6400, I always shoot Auto ISO Manual these days, for those extreme situations. I will accept some degradation in these instances. On the D810 I was maxing at 3200, the D7200 at 2000. For things such as the Indoor Dog Agility, as I note in that thread I will max at ISO 8000 as I need to maintain 1/500. Having now printed one at 12x18 it is not bad at all, again for that target audience. I would not do that for a good high detail bird picture, but we also need to remember that anytime we print we lose detail, just a fact of ink and paper.

As to the vase testing, I really don't bother with those tests as I find them a nice starting point but not really valid for what I do. Plenty of folks will be popping out their charts, I'll be providing Bill Claff with files as well for this purpose, as well as the good folks at DXO and DPReview.

Hope that all makes sense.

 

[Marlene]

I'm thinking I might have a D800 and 7200 for sale. Hope the D500 shows up in Canada soon.

 

[andreasb]

Well if Bill wont help, DPREVIEW just did: http://www.dpreview.com/news/4939144988/nikon-d500-studio-and-dynamic-range-tests-published

Looks very good cleanest ISO 1600 I have seen from a APC camera!

 

[Retief]

Well if Bill wont help, DPREVIEW just did: http://www.dpreview.com/news/4939144988/nikon-d500-studio-and-dynamic-range-tests-published

Looks very good cleanest ISO 1600 I have seen from a APC camera!

Pretty much matches the results from Bill Claff. All these folks actually know how to test this stuff. If I did this the results would suck royal rocks and all of you would then make fun of me .....

 

[andreasb]

We don't make fun of you, we make fun with you....., When BTW are you going to come up and buy me lunch at Tim Hortons as promised, you have avoided the issues for years now...

Pretty much matches the results from Bill Claff. All these folks actually know how to test this stuff. If I did this the results would suck royal rocks and all of you would then make fun of me .....

 

[Retief]

As soon as you have something worth shooting up your way We will probably going somewhere in Canada for the 4th of July, Lola doesn't like fireworks. Crazy that we have to leave our own country for the doggie

I actually owe you 2, at least. Don't want to cheat you out of anything you know.