Best ISO's?

M

mikecazzx

Well-known member
I am a bit confused here. On the GH13, are there native iso's like on the Canons?

Are there ISO's that are noisier due to processing multipliers?
 
there's videos on youtube about this - notably 500, 1000 being bad offenders.

One thing I notice is the kit lens, the 14-42 is grainier than other lenses at the same aperture and same manual settings. I can underexpose my Oly 14-54 on a high iso and not have grain. Anyone know what film mode presets have the least noise? Usually I avoid Dynamic, use smooth in good light, nostalgiac in low light. Cinema seemed a bit cleaner when underexposed, but I just got the camera, still testing.
 
Ok EVERYONE, check out this link

http://vimeo.com/18580410

Some guy did a test and said (as witnessed by the video)
avoid ISO 250, 500, 1000, 2000
Noticed 640 looks cleaner than 400 for some reason, so maybe avoid 400 and use 320/640 instead.
 
Psynema said:
Ok EVERYONE, check out this link

http://vimeo.com/18580410

Some guy did a test and said (as witnessed by the video)
avoid ISO 250, 500, 1000, 2000
Noticed 640 looks cleaner than 400 for some reason, so maybe avoid 400 and use 320/640 instead.
Click to expand...

I'm the guy who did the test, but I'm skeptical about my own conclusions. Somebody in Germany did a test that shows ISO 320 and 640 to have a ton of chroma noise in the shadows. I did my own follow-up and sure enough, in real world shooting (as opposed to shooting the lens cap like I did in my first test), ISO 640 looked noisy. Honestly, in real world shooting, I've found every ISO from 160 to 400 to look gorgeous. Above that, 800 and 1600 are my favorites. I avoid 640 because of chroma noise, and I avoid 1000 and 2000 because of how bad they looked in my original test. 2500 and 3200 are for absolute emergencies only.

Here's the other guy's test that shows 320 and 640 to look bad:


However, like I said above, in my experience 320 is fine.
 
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I've done film mode testing on my GH13 and found that even at the GH1's noisy 1600 ISO, Vibrant film mode with saturation and noise reduction at +2, and contrast and sharpness at 0, dramatically reduces noise. I would assume the film modes would interact with noise similarly in the GH2, even though my impression is that the GH2 is far less noisy than the GH1. On my GH1 with the film mode I described, the well-exposed areas of the image have no noticeable noise, and the underexposed areas suffer more from the AVCHD codec falling apart than from sensor noise. The only drawback to that film mode is that it has higher contrast by default, so the overall image brightness is not quite as high as it would be with Standard at the same ISO. However, having little-to-no noise is my preferred option. You can recover the stop you lost in the film mode when you're grading.
 
CColton said:
I've done film mode testing on my GH13 and found that even at the GH1's noisy 1600 ISO, Vibrant film mode with saturation and noise reduction at +2, and contrast and sharpness at 0, dramatically reduces noise. I would assume the film modes would interact with noise similarly in the GH2, even though my impression is that the GH2 is far less noisy than the GH1. On my GH1 with the film mode I described, the well-exposed areas of the image have no noticeable noise, and the underexposed areas suffer more from the AVCHD codec falling apart than from sensor noise. The only drawback to that film mode is that it has higher contrast by default, so the overall image brightness is not quite as high as it would be with Standard at the same ISO. However, having little-to-no noise is my preferred option. You can recover the stop you lost in the film mode when you're grading.
Click to expand...

I'll check that out - honestly don't use the other modes in low light, always stuck with nostalgia or smooth mode in poor light.
 
Good luck in your testing! I don't pretend to be an expert, so I've found those settings to be helpful, hopefully they help you or you find a better combination. If so, please share!
 
Also, can someone tell me just how bad the noise is above 1600 ISO? Or upload a test? I'm interested in getting a GH2 because of the low-light advantage over my GH1, but I want to make sure the difference is enough to warrant a second body.
 
ISO 800 is generally accepted to be the safe limit of the GH1. However, that general recommendation doesn't account for playing with film modes like I did, so film mode tests would be good.
 
CColton said:
ISO 800 is generally accepted to be the safe limit of the GH1. However, that general recommendation doesn't account for playing with film modes like I did, so film mode tests would be good.
Click to expand...

After my test (uploading right now), I think 640 is quite better.
 
Thanks for the test! May I ask how you composited the noise to look like that? Just curious.

Also, could someone do something like that for the GH2? That would be a very good test.

abelniteroad, I agree, I consider 640 acceptable and 800 if absolutely necessary, until I turn on the film mode I described earlier. If you describe how you did your test I'll do a comparison of the film modes I use.
 
dvbrother said:
I'm the guy who did the test, but I'm skeptical about my own conclusions. Somebody in Germany did a test that shows ISO 320 and 640 to have a ton of chroma noise in the shadows. I did my own follow-up and sure enough, in real world shooting (as opposed to shooting the lens cap like I did in my first test), ISO 640 looked noisy. Honestly, in real world shooting, I've found every ISO from 160 to 400 to look gorgeous. Above that, 800 and 1600 are my favorites. I avoid 640 because of chroma noise, and I avoid 1000 and 2000 because of how bad they looked in my original test. 2500 and 3200 are for absolute emergencies only.

Here's the other guy's test that shows 320 and 640 to look bad:


However, like I said above, in my experience 320 is fine.
Click to expand...

Judging by that video (downloaded the full 1080p file), looks like ISO 200/400/800/1600 is the best avenue
 
Apparently I need to read more carefully. Thanks for the GH2 noise test! I'll be doing a GH13 noise and film mode comparison shortly.
 
Another test. Dynamic vs Nostalgic.

Nostalgic, like Standard works fine until ISO640. Above ISO800 is noisy.
Dynamic can be boosted to ISO1000 without too much noise.

 
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