Hypothesis: Electronic Shutters Produce Greater Color Noise

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

I had been doing some experimenting with different types of shutter usage in the R6 Mk II in light conditions that require the use of ISO 3200+, to see there is a noise difference between mechanical shutters and EFCS and E only.

So far my hypothesis from my LR observations of the .CR3 files (CRAW) is that electronic shutter usage to include EFCS, produces more color noise than mechanical shutter usage. I shot a corporate event at ISO 3200 using EFCS and the color noise in some of the images was noticeable without correction.

On the flip side I shot an ice hockey game at ISO 3200, and a wrestling match at ISO 6400 in mechanical shutter mode and the noise production was mostly luminance noise, color noise was minimal to non existent. Such little noise that I did zero noise reduction on my hockey photos and 25 strength denoise AI in LR on the wrestling photos, though frankly, they didn’t really need it. The reduction took out the small amount of color noise that was present and did a bit of tidying on the luminance noise.

Now, the difference is I shot both ice hockey and wrestling at +1/3 to +1 EV and the corporate event and -1/3 to 0 EV. To test this hypothesis I am going to set up a controlled shot at a slight + EV using all three shutter modes. Then we can all pixel peep to our hearts content and decide if there is any difference.

 

[Archibald]

Consider shooting some shots at ISO 3200 and +1 EC, and some at ISO 6400 with 0 EC, and compare noise.

 

[ctitanic]

Very interesting topic.

 

[d__b]

Could this also be due to the fact that in electronic shutter mode the raw files are only 12 bit, while with mechanical shutter they're 14 bit?

Only the R3 has 14 bit ES raw files thanks to the stacked sensor...

 

[Only RF]

Could this also be due to the fact that in electronic shutter mode the raw files are only 12 bit, while with mechanical shutter they're 14 bit?

Only the R3 has 14 bit ES raw files thanks to the stacked sensor...

I'm still on the fence with this one. I would prefer to shoot in 14 bit but the R7 shutter is a little noisy and you can feel the slap in your hand so I used ES with it. I have no issues shooting EFCS with my R6II.

14-bit vs 12-bit RAW - Can You Tell The Difference?

12-bit image files can store up to 68 billion different shades of color. 14-bit image files store up to 4 trillion shades. That’s an enormous difference, so shouldn’t we always choose 14-bit when shooting RAW? Here’s a landscape I snapped, then found out later I had shot it in 12-bit RAW. Better...

photographylife.com

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

I’m going to set the test shots up, I just haven’t had a chance to do so.

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

Ok, I was able to get some test shots off tonight. These are shot with only a neutral grey color checker card. I took each setting 3 times. One with mechanical, then one EFCS, then one electronic. I will post each group in its own post. I will skip 400 and 1600 ISO as both of these groups of shots looked identical. All photos converted to 100% JPEG with zero edits in LR. I couldn't post the .CR3 files. All shots are CRAW format. I shot all shutter types at the same settings same exposure value of 0 and I think the mechanical shots are brighter than the electronic shots.

I think the mechanical shots look a bit cleaner than the electronic shots, but that might just be confirmation bias towards mechanical shutter.

R6 Mark 2, RF 50mm STM

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

ISO 3200 0EV

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

ISO 6400 0EV

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

ISO 12800 0EV