| Joined: | Thu Apr 19th, 2012 |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 4424 |
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Can we put this in perspective? A D3 is less noisy than a D300, they are both the same generation of sensors so a bigger pixel is less noisy than a smaller one. The D4 is less noisy than a D3, a later sensor with smaller pixels but better (lower) noise at a given ISO. I haven't used any of the DX bodies since the D2X so I can't give an experience based assessment however, it is likely that the newer 24MP sensors are less noisy than the 12MP sensor in the D300, again for any given ISO.
Yes the D500 is the lineal descendant of the D300 and 20MP is probably more than adequate but, that isn't the question. The question is "what is a cheap upgrade from a D300?". I don't know because I use only FX bodies and I have the lenses I want for what I do. For birds I rely on getting close enough to fill the frame, last week I was too close to a Heron with a 300 f4 AF-D, a 24-70 proved more suitable.
So as a "cheap upgrade" either a D7NNN or a D800, I would have thought the latter used in DX crop mode giving a 15MP image might have less noise. However the reason for wanting to upgrade is also of some importance. If the reason is to get more pixels at the same or less noise the D7NNN series offers a greater increase in pixel count and should be no more noisy than the D300. The D800 offers a modest increase in pixel count, in DX mode, again with no more noise than the D300 but also has the option of operating in FX mode giving a huge increase in pixel count for suitably close subjects.
I'm not going to say what I would do because I am biased.
Geoff...quick question. I assume you are using a D4. If that's so, at what ISO do you discern noticeable noise and at what ISO do you feel it becomes necessary to intervene with noise reduction software?
I realise it's subjective but never having gone beyond the D3 I am interested to see what improvement there was in the more usual ISO range of (say) under 4000.
The D850 (and D500) have noticeable noise out of the camera at 2500ish which very quickly needs attention at 4000.
Whilst this is an improvement over the D3, it's surprisingly little, given the development period elapsed. I wonder if the cramming of more pixels, even though as you say they have been improved, is still inferior to the D4/D5 sensors?
Last edited on Mon Feb 4th, 2019 06:43 by Eric
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Eric