[illdefined]

Just got my K-5 Silver from Adorama, been playing it with for a while, but i'm a little concerned. The high-ISO shots i've taken so far seem noisier than i thought they'd be. from all the reviews and samples i've seen online i expected 1600 and 3200 shots to be significantly cleaner, and i'm coming from a K-7.

My question is, is it possible that i got a bad "batch" of sensor? are there sensor variations like with lenses? has anyone ever returned a camera for the same model and got better ISO images from it?

thanks, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Raybo]

Can you post some images?

[snostorm]

Just got my K-5 Silver from Adorama, been playing it with for a while, but i'm a little concerned. The high-ISO shots i've taken so far seem noisier than i thought they'd be. from all the reviews and samples i've seen online i expected 1600 and 3200 shots to be significantly cleaner, and i'm coming from a K-7.

My question is, is it possible that i got a bad "batch" of sensor? are there sensor variations like with lenses? has anyone ever returned a camera for the same model and got better ISO images from it?

thanks, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi ID,

If you're shooting jpegs at default settings, I had the same impression. Try turning the High ISO NR OFF and turning the Sharpness in the image properties down to -4. I can comfortably shoot up to about ISO 10,000 in jpeg with these settings. Shooting RAW and using a converter with good NR would probably accomplish about the same thing. . . of course each individual's noise tolerance and final output requirements are different, so YMMV.

In-Camera Sharpening, even at the default 0 setting introduces quite a bit of visible noise artifacts, even at modest ISO settings, and IMO, you'd be better off doing NR and sharpening in PP with some of the more sophisticated programs or plugins. I like Topaz Denoise and InFocus for these.

Scott

[Wheatfield]

Hi ID,

If you're shooting jpegs at default settings, I had the same impression. Try turning the High ISO NR OFF and turning the Sharpness in the image properties down to -4. I can comfortably shoot up to about ISO 10,000 in jpeg with these settings. Shooting RAW and using a converter with good NR would probably accomplish about the same thing. . . of course each individual's noise tolerance and final output requirements are different, so YMMV.

In-Camera Sharpening, even at the default 0 setting introduces quite a bit of visible noise artifacts, even at modest ISO settings, and IMO, you'd be better off doing NR and sharpening in PP with some of the more sophisticated programs or plugins. I like Topaz Denoise and InFocus for these.

Scott

Sage advice. If shooting jpegs, imaging settings as well as NR needs to be done carefully. The K5 allows for a lot of flexibility this way.

[Smeggypants]

I've used 3 K-5s now and all 3 have had the same great IQ.

I always turn in camera NR off and shoot RAW. Upto 6400 is great and even 12800 shots can more more than acceptable sometimes

[illdefined]

Thank you snostorm, that totally did the trick. I had sharpness at default on my jpegs but had Extra Fine Sharpness up and it really exacerbated the noise. Ironically enough, setting the sharpness down made the actual image *sharper* without all the noise in the way.

Great tip.

Hi ID,

If you're shooting jpegs at default settings, I had the same impression. Try turning the High ISO NR OFF and turning the Sharpness in the image properties down to -4. I can comfortably shoot up to about ISO 10,000 in jpeg with these settings. Shooting RAW and using a converter with good NR would probably accomplish about the same thing. . . of course each individual's noise tolerance and final output requirements are different, so YMMV.

In-Camera Sharpening, even at the default 0 setting introduces quite a bit of visible noise artifacts, even at modest ISO settings, and IMO, you'd be better off doing NR and sharpening in PP with some of the more sophisticated programs or plugins. I like Topaz Denoise and InFocus for these.

Scott

[Ash]

Interesting behaviour with the sharpness setting. I wouldn't have expected that, but then again it's how the D7000 images looked (sharper but noisier) in the DPreview comparison review of those cameras.