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Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

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Tim Holden
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Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by Tim Holden » Mon May 26, 2014 9:47 pm

Hi All

My Canon 7D is giving me very noisy/grainy images particularly in bright sunlight. On previous cameras I have only experienced this when shooting at 400 ASA or higher. I spoke to a fellow 7D user and he finds the same.

At Duxford on Sunday I was shooting in Shutter Speed priority mode at between 250 - 320 shutter speed. I was using the Swiss army knife of lenses the Canon 100 - 400 zoom. As it was bright, the camera was selecting quite high F-stop numbers around F13 / F22. On dull days when I have the aperture open as much as possible I get less grain.

Any ideas how to prevent this? I have tried the noise reduction "despeckle" option in Photoshop but it has the effect of softening the shots and they never really sharpen up nicely after that. Would shooting RAW rather than Jpeg be the answer?

nigelblake
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by nigelblake » Mon May 26, 2014 10:24 pm

Can you show a screen grab of an unadjusted file open with the unaltered levels histogram showing, also post the EXIF too!

POL
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by POL » Tue May 27, 2014 5:51 am

The answer seems to be buy a different body, it's a common issue with 7Ds.

jonny99
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by jonny99 » Tue May 27, 2014 11:20 am

I found similar results with my 7D and almost gave up with it! However I have persevered and am now very pleased with it.

I shoot mainly in AV with auto ISO (limited to 1600), spot metering, 19 point autofocus points, between ⅓ and 1 stop overexposure, tracking slightly faster, AI servo, RAW only. If you can get used to using the Custom settings it is best to set the camera up in three different ways and experiment with it.
Happy to help if you want to PM etc.
Last edited by jonny99 on Mon Jun 02, 2014 7:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Skip
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by Skip » Tue May 27, 2014 5:03 pm

I had a Canon 7D, for a week! I used it once to shoot Peregrines. I was shooting 1/1250 sec at f5.6 and iso 100 and the noise was so bad I sent it back! The noise of my 7D was as bad at 100iso as my 60D was at 1600iso. I always shoot in RAW but even that couldn't save the images. Apparently its a fault with certain 7D bodies. To be fair the company took it back no questions asked and gave me a full refund. Having said that I look at some images taken with a 7D and I'm amazed with the quality!
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Sparts99
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by Sparts99 » Tue May 27, 2014 6:36 pm

Sounds like a rogue camera. I do lots of concert photography with mine, up to 4000 ASA, I use Lightroom 5 for sharpening and noise reduction, pics are very good, never experienced any noise issues at low ASA. I never bother with jpeg, always shoot the largest RAW files, are you saving as the smallest size jpeg ? I was told by a Canon trained engineer that they are actually least noisy at 200ASA, not 100, but he didn't explain further. As said above, post up an example with all the details.
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Richard B
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by Richard B » Tue May 27, 2014 7:29 pm

Seen a lot of reports of the noise with this body, even 2 of my friends that have said body do not like the noise,
thou they have found that upping the ISO too 400 and above clears things up. this does seem a very very common issue with this body.

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The Phantom
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by The Phantom » Wed May 28, 2014 6:36 am

Yes i also find the noise very bad with this camera - which is a shame as everything else about it is great.
It seems noticeably bad in certain situations - which unfortunately includes shots with blue skies!

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Trenchard
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by Trenchard » Wed May 28, 2014 6:45 am

I've read this with interest, and I'm quite surprised. I've had a 7D since March, and certainly had no noise problems. Am I just lucky?
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Bobbster
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by Bobbster » Wed May 28, 2014 8:36 am

I also had a 7D, it was the main reason I switched to Nikon, worst camera ever in my opinion for noise. May be I had a bad one, Lol

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nick197
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by nick197 » Wed May 28, 2014 4:04 pm

Can't say I've ever really experienced this problem with my 7D, I sometimes see that an image is a little noisy when using ISO 400+. The way i overcome this is just by reducing the luminance noise when i'm editing the RAW image, I also zoom in 100% to get a more accurate amount of reduction on the noise. I reduce the noise after I've adjusted the exposure, Contrast and vibrancy etc.
This was shot with my 7D and 300mm F4 lens
Image
F-15C soaked by R.S. Photography, Thanks for 300k+ views, on Flickr
Shot at ISO 1000 and the aperture was at F4, I love my 7D espeically the focus settings and the way it shoots 8/9 frames per second.
Hope this helps :)
Image

barrykap
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by barrykap » Mon Jul 09, 2018 1:24 pm

Hi

Have had this trouble ever since I bought my 7D Mkii 2 years ago, only occuring when taking shots of aircraft in the sky and get exactly the same results as you do. Very noisy pictures and pretty dark and blurry aircraft. I have always been under the 'misconception' in this case, that the lower the ISO the better the quality (ie less noise) so always used 100 ISO if possible or more frequently 200 ISO if weather is poor. But the 100 ISO shots are worse than the 200 and I had no idea the mid-settings groups were so important (160, 320 etc). I took some shots of a Lanacster bomber on Saturday with my old settings but had to work very hard post-snapping to get anything useful. Working in RAW and my procedure in PS would usually be (as starters) ; Levels, auto-colour (which gets rid of the over-saturated blue sky), then using various 3rd party filters to reduce noise, then sharpen. Eventually I might get something presentable, but definitely not what I expected from the original. How come Canon can pass off the MkII with such terrible results? If I had known when I bought it, that these results are due to the camera and not my own technique etc I would have returned it.

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Mark
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by Mark » Mon Jul 09, 2018 2:13 pm

Had the same issues with my 7d, but so far my new 7d mkII is great. Shot some concert images up to 6400iso this weekend and really happy with the quality..

This ones at 6400

ImageShane MacGowan by Mark Holt, on Flickr

There's a touch of graininess, but I can live with it..
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reheat module
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by reheat module » Mon Jul 09, 2018 2:19 pm

An interesting read throughout.
I had a 7D and it lasted less than a month. Diabolical ISO handling - I preferred my wife's 60D (at the time). Anything above 400 ISO was like watching TV with a dodgy aerial. This was the case, even using the Canon DPP software in RAW for noise control.
The 7Dii was much improved, and would be (and remains) a unit of choice if I wanted the 1.6 crop factor.
I used a 5D Mk3 for a year which was great, - even cropping in the image was better than the noise of the earlier camera.
Currently, my 5D Mk4 has a phenomenal dynamic range, even with exp comp applied with no visible impact on the ISO. This suits my context of work (I would like the 1DX Mk2, but viewing side by side, high ISO and resolution at A3, sees no discernible difference for £2.5k+).
Be aware that the sensor used in the camera remains at a given value, by increasing the ISO you are in fact altering the voltage applied across the sensor; the misconception is that the sensor sensitivity is affected by turning the ISO wheel. This is the consequence of the voltage change across the sensor.
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ChrisCwmbran
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by ChrisCwmbran » Tue Jul 10, 2018 11:54 am

In my experience with my 7D Mark 1 I found that ISO values 160, 320 and 640 were less noisy than the values around them. I have no idea why this would be or whether it was only my camera.

barrykap
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by barrykap » Thu Jul 12, 2018 6:18 pm

I am using those ranges from now. Did a few test shots at Manchester Airport the other day using the same lens (Canon L 70-200) on two different cameras (Canon 7D2 and my older Canon 50D). Both set up the same. 1/800th (priority), ISO 160, spot metering. I tried for two different aircraft basically the same to get as close as possible for comparison. The results differences are astounding, as the older 50D had no noise at all but the 7D2 was both noisy, unsharp and 'dirty'. The small crop samples are below.

7D2;-

Image

50D;-

Image

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The Phantom
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by The Phantom » Sun Jul 15, 2018 3:33 pm

Wow that's way too noisy! Must be a fault surely.
50D is good - mine was always noisier than that with any sky in the photo.

barrykap
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Re: Noisy/ grainy shots, low ISO on a Canon 7D

Post by barrykap » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:00 pm

Funny enough, when I first got the 7D2 I noticed the noise and lack of sharpness, using my standard Canon short zoom I had then. I notified the supplier and he told me to return it for examination. He didn't tell me he sent it back to Canon in Japan though! So it took six weeks to come back and guess what? They said there was nothing wrong with it and must be my lens! So I bought a new short lens which improved it a bit as it was an expensive Sigma Art one, plus later I bought the 70-200 Canon L long zoom. I always noticed this lens produced pretty awful results until I tried it on my 50D to get the results you see. So yes, it well may be a fault in the camera as I am sure it should produce better results than it does. Trouble is it is out of warrantee now. :-(

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