ISO Sensitivity / Noise levels (contd.)

In-camera High ISO noise reduction

The D700 has four different levels of high ISO noise reduction (which are only applied at ISO 2000 or higher); Off, Low, Normal and High (with Normal as the default). High ISO noise reduction appears to work in the same way as on the Nikon D3 and Normal setting offers a good balance between keeping visible noise to a minimum and maintaining fine detail. The four settings provide a good range of options from very low to high enough to keep noise under control right up into the highest reaches of the ISO range.

At the highest settings (above ISO 6400) fine luminance detail is taking a more obvious hit due to the strength of the default noise reduction and you may want to switch down to 'Low' or even 'Off'. However, the best way of truly controlling noise reduction yourself is shooting RAW. This gives you the maximum amount of detail and the freedom to apply whatever noise reduction method you think is most up to the job. Note that even in the 'Off' position some NR is still applied to the JPEGs.

Indicated ISO sensitivity is on the horizontal axis of this graph, standard deviation of luminosity on the vertical axis (note that the standard deviation scale here has been extended 3x compared to the graphs on the previous page).

Noise reduction crop comparisons (ISO 3200 - 25,600)

ISO 3200 NR Off	ISO 3200 NR Low	ISO 3200 NR Normal	ISO 3200 NR High
ISO 6400 NR Off	ISO 6400 NR Low	ISO 6400 NR Normal	ISO 6400 NR High
ISO 12,800 NR Off	ISO 12,800 NR Low	ISO 12,800 NR Normal	ISO 12,800 NR High
ISO 25,600 NR Off	ISO 25,600 NR Low	ISO 25,600 NR Normal	ISO 25,600 NR High