Camera with the least noise in the image

P

Polaroid22

Well-known member
Hello,

What camera has the least noise in the image? If you compare it too other camera's say iso 400, fstop 5,6 (without over exposing like 2 stops on the A7S). Everybody thinks it is automatically the A7S, but is it really? I find the image quite noisy. Sure you can overexpose, and use crazy high iso settings, but I will probably never need anything above iso 6400. The blackmagic pocket camera seems to have clean iso's. I read an article stating that the black magic pocket has less noise then his RED scarlet. The GH4 has a lot of noise. Im not sure about the 5D III. Any other camera's in this pricepoint? (NX1, d800,...)

They should create some algoritme that calculates the amount of noise of an image. So they can advertise it Noise Value: 500 as the same as DR and iso.
 
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I wouldn't say a7S, at least not shooting slog2, that's for sure. There are worse cases (GH4) but even my 5N had less noise at low iso than my a7S (of course the a7S has more DR, which means it's lifting the shadows, and sometimes that's going to make more noise creep up).

My answer would be Alexa, but that's probably out of the question...

On a budget, and as a good balance of "is very sharp", "has good DR" and "has low noise", I would bet on the Samsung NX1.
 
Well, generally speaking Full Frame sensors perform the best in low-light, and that's what we're really talking about when we discuss noise. All the noisy cameras like my GH2s perform wonderfully in bright scalding daylight.

I got my Canon 6D specifically for lower light interior shooting as it will easily out perform my GH2s and Cinema Camera when I don't have the option of bringing in tons of studio lighting.

Following this path leads us directly to the Canon 5D mkiii running Magic Lantern Raw.
For the price I don't think there is any camera that can match that combination of image quality and low-light performance.
The 5D mkiii in ML RAW is very similar to the image from the BMCC. The BMCC may have about 1 stop better dynamic range - but it's really really close.
But the light gathering of the 5D mkiii allows it to generate that same image in much dimmer situations.

Magic Lantern is really a Top-Notch product. It's in like its 50th version and it really works very well.
I use it on my 6D - and while the 6D won't do RAW in full 1080p, it will do about 800p, and that 800p in RAW loks better than the 1080p even using a Atomos Ninja Blade bypassing the internal compression and getting it in ProRes.

[EDIT: The Samsung NX1 is a great camera and its low-light performance is better than many, but it's H.265 codec and Samsung lens mount just killed it for me. I was keen on getting one but the lens situation was just not good. I would have to by duplicate lenses, and if I got the better Samsung lenses for it then the price would get so high that it would be up there with a whole higher range of cameras.... so there goes that one...]
 
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Sony F5/S7 in CineEI rated at 800 EI (or F55 at.. hmm not sure about this). Man, images coming out so, so clean :O :O :O
 
what morgan said....
and the FS7 cine-I is, when exposed correctly (when in doubt, let the highlights go) squeaky clean....no trace of noise....
discussing noise tends to be pointless....i used to own red scarlet and epic and never got anything as clean as what i get with the FS7...but most red owners i discussed this with considered their cameras too clean....noise/grain/texture...it's very personal....
 
My vote goes to the NX1... in my limited experience. Of course, I limit my iso settings to below 1600, and at 800 iso or below, I can't believe how noise free the video is. My Gh2 displays noise even at 400 iso. The Lumix G7 that I tested for a week is much better, but didn't satisfy. I also think h264 is much better than h264 in regards to holding detail at lower isos.
 
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