[pugsypoogirl]

Hi guys,

I have recently upgraded my nikon d3100 for the pentax k5, and am very disappointed with the amount of noise in the pictures. when I compare my nikon shots to the k5 it is shocking! I have turned of all unnecessary in camera settings and played with every setting available, telling myself I just need to get to grips with it but I then compare them and the Nikon is ridiculously better, so much so that my husband who knows nothing about photography can see the difference! I am now thinking there is something wrong with the camera, has anyone else experienced this? The Dog is obviously the pentax and the plant the nikon, know the exif is not exatly the same, but the pentax is shot with main lights on there is only a lamp on in the nikon shot! HELP!

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[repaap]

Hi there, sorry to bump in and don't take me as expert, but there is some things that does not work. At first, lenses are too different. Da 18-55 is not at it's best @55 end and WO. Second that other lens is longer and shot @65 mm. More close giving it more Oof, so noise is not showing so much. Also dog shot's exposure is not making favor to shot. Maybe fiddle little a bit more with adjustments? I have seen great results from K-5 before(I have K-7) . This is absolutelly not to ment to critisice your shots. Just try to help

[Adam]

You mention that you turned off all unnecessary settings- could it be that the Nikon's noise reduction was on while the Pentax's noise reduction was off?

The Pentax K-5 has a slightly better noise performance rating than the D3100, so the RAW files or in-camera processed JPEGs should turn out a bit cleaner overall.

I'd recommend shooting the same scene in RAW and then posting the results. We'll then be able to conclude whether or not in-camera settings are to blame for the discrepancy in JPEG mode.

[JinDesu]

Several comments here:

1) The k-5 shot is shot with an exposure bias of -1EV. What was the Nikon? Shooting the k-30 at -1EV effectively increases the noise by 1 stop when you try to make it equally bright in post processing.

2) What are you shooting, RAW or JPEG? What are your noise reduction settings on either camera?

3) Can you do very equal shots between the two? Make sure the aperture, ISO, and shutter speeds are the same. Seeing two different subjects with different white balance, shadow/lit areas, etc, does not make for fair comparisons.

[kiwi_jono]

Agree with earlier comments. And the scenes are very different - the first one has a lot darker (underexposed) background for a start which is going to result in more noise (for either camera).

The only way is to set up both cameras on a tripod with exactly the same scene and lighting. Also ideally need to have comparable lenses because although the lens does not effect the noise levels, they do effect how the scene is captured (and this in turn can effect noise levels).

I have often thought that my camera generates more noise that other peoples copies but when I look into it, it is almost always to do with the set up and scene.

[pugsypoogirl]

Hi there, sorry to bump in and don't take me as expert, but there is some things that does not work. At first, lenses are too different. Da 18-55 is not at it's best @55 end and WO. Second that other lens is longer and shot @65 mm. More close giving it more Oof, so noise is not showing so much. Also dog shot's exposure is not making favor to shot. Maybe fiddle little a bit more with adjustments? I have seen great results from K-5 before(I have K-7) . This is absolutelly not to ment to critisice your shots. Just try to help

No worries, this is just one shot of hundreds, and all sorts of subjects and all sorts of settings, no shot is without noise? noise that never appeared with my nikon even at the highest iso's so was expecting much better but so far I can't match the nikon no matter which settings I use?

[SlamDesiAK]

I had to jump in on this with probably less than two cents worth. IMHO... neither image looks very good and, I wouldn't expect very good results from either camera, with either lens, considering you've got the ISO jacked up to 1600. My suggestion would be to "lose the grip" on shooting at such a high ISO with a kit lens. And, every time I think it's the camera or the lens when I take "more than" an occasional noisy, blurry, diseased image, I come in here and see people producing wonderful looking photos using the same crappy equipment I'm saddled with. This too shall pass, Pugsypoogirl. Good luck and take heart.

[kcmadr]

Enable the Noise Reduction setting on the K-5 and see what it produces. It might be disabled.

Also, the K-5 has been touted as the best performing APS-C sensor/camera combination of its generation in terms of image quality and noise performance. There is a reason for this.

If you still have the Nikon, take side by side shots with the same shooting settings and then compare them.

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

What I notice when looking at those two images is not noise, but the fact that they are both underexposed.

[pugsypoogirl]

Hi there, sorry to bump in and don't take me as expert, but there is some things that does not work. At first, lenses are too different. Da 18-55 is not at it's best @55 end and WO. Second that other lens is longer and shot @65 mm. More close giving it more Oof, so noise is not showing so much. Also dog shot's exposure is not making favor to shot. Maybe fiddle little a bit more with adjustments? I have seen great results from K-5 before(I have K-7) . This is absolutelly not to ment to critisice your shots. Just try to help

not really a good comparison, I know but all nikon shots are just so smooth compared to the pentax in all sorts of situations. there is so much more grain but maybe more detail?

[pugsypoogirl]

Thanks to you all for replying, I know the two shots are not great or comparable but the nikon is still so much smoother. I have shots all different settings etc.. but the nikon pics are always smoother and the pentax grainy( which I feel comes across in the comparisons). This may be due to the pentax showing greater detail in pics? maybe i just need to get to grips with the camera better? was just wondering if anyone has had any issues like this?

[pugsypoogirl]

I had to jump in on this with probably less than two cents worth. IMHO... neither image looks very good and, I wouldn't expect very good results from either camera, with either lens, considering you've got the ISO jacked up to 1600. My suggestion would be to "lose the grip" on shooting at such a high ISO with a kit lens. And, every time I think it's the camera or the lens when I take "more than" an occasional noisy, blurry, diseased image, I come in here and see people producing wonderful looking photos using the same crappy equipment I'm saddled with. This too shall pass, Pugsypoogirl. Good luck and take heart.

I shoot a lot of gigs so high iso is good for me, and I shot them with my nikon kit lens without any problems at all. Maybe I thought I would be able to jump from one to the other without any problems but the images seem so different! frustrated but wont give up!

[crewl1]

Just curious why both files say they were taken in 2011, but file dates are recent. Are these old shots from a K-5 you bought two years ago or did you pull up old examples from your hard drive?
Can you confirm with newer shots, and reset K-5 to factory settings first if you are going to use JPEG, otherwise shoot both in RAW and compare.

[enoeske]

You should definitely try to get a good exposure first. Both of those shots are underexposed. Bringing this exposure up to "normal" (we don't know what software you are using, but some do this automatically) will increase noise a great deal. Couple that with the fact that the Pentax shows a -1 exposure bias means surely your are under exposing. Don't make any judgements without using the camera properly.

As others have asked, are you shooting RAW or jpeg? If RAW, you must apply your own noise reduction in your software. If jpeg, what is your NR set to?

A properly exposed shot will look a lot better than an underexposed shot.

Here's a K-5 shot at ISO 5000 -- so this camera can certainly deliver better than you are doing so far.

[VisualDarkness]

Have you tried shooting in RAW? That with some editing skills and a program like Lightroom will give you a lot better performance out of any camera that supports it.

All RAW-files from the K-5 developed and often pushed (brightened!) in Lightroom.

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