Canon R7 R7 and High ISO

[Jake Shoots Birds]

One thing that seems to have just about everyone concerned with regard to the R7 is how a 32MP cropped sensor would perform with high ISO. I have been dealing with high ISOs for years both with a Nikon D500 and the R7, and have developed a workflow using Topaz Denoise AI as the first step coming out of Lightroom into Photoshop and I've had great success. Given that Lightroom does not yet support the R7, and likely will not for a few months, I've had to use DPP4 and honestly I'm not yet comfortable with it. When I am I'll do something more formal with photos of the noise before and after.

I processed these captures taken at ISO 3200 and 5000. One thing I've noticed with color noise and Topaz Denoise AI is that it sometimes struggles with green backgrounds, and I'm seeing a bit of that here. I've learned how best to deal with it in Lightroom first so I hope to find the same techniques in DPP4. That said, I am pleased with the results and believe I'll be able to improve on them over time.

Side note, I did not do it this time so I could show the results, but I would normally add some Gaussian blur to mask some of the weirdness in the greens.

• Canon EOS R7
• 500.0 mm
• ƒ/7.1
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 5000

• Canon EOS R7
• 500.0 mm
• ƒ/7.1
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 3200

• Canon EOS R7
• 500.0 mm
• ƒ/7.1
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 5000

 

[Tim Mayo]

These look really nice Jake. Would love to see one of the originals before Topaz just for a comparison.

 

[dougsmit]

While I agree regarding pre-Topaz, I'd rather know how much these are cropped. I rarely find an image that can not be improved by Topaz (one or the other of the three relating to sharpness, noise and size) but what I do with an image depends on whether I am working with a full frame or big crop. These birds seem about right for uncropped at about 15' on a full frame so I assume you were farther away with the R7.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

I plan on doing a lot of side-by-side, before-and-after stuff, but I also planned on this arriving a couple weeks from now, and at the moment we're in the middle of a house renovation project, so I'm not getting nearly as much time with the camera as I'd like.

 

[dougsmit]

I'm not getting nearly as much time with the camera as I'd like.

We waited patiently for our R7 to arrive and seemed to have nothing but time and good weather. In the nearly two weeks since the R7 arrived, life has been busy and skies gray at best and pouring on occasion. This is life as we know it. If I were a bird near me, I'd move.

 

[lassevk]

Sorry about resurrecting an old post, but have you compared how DxO PureRAW 2 fares against Topaz Denoise?

I find that Topaz sometimes give me a more plasticky feeling, and that DxO seems to do a better job of just outputting a clean image from the start, without introducing additional artifacts.

 

[Antoeknee]

Can't comment on Topaz but recently shot some high ISO (12800) images under grey skies.
Full image
Gad 1 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Crop
Gad 3 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Crop after DxO PureRaw 2
Gad 4 by tblake2007, on Flickr