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ISO Sensitivity / Noise levels (contd.)In-camera High ISO noise reductionThe D3X has four different levels of high ISO noise reduction (which are only applied at ISO 500 or higher); Off, Low, Normal and High (with Normal as the default). The Normal setting offers a good balance between the desire to keep visible noise to a minimum without sacrificing fine detail, and the four settings provide a good range of options from very low to high enough to keep noise at bay right up into the highest reaches of the ISO range. With NR set to 'High' the loss of fine detail at high sensitivities (ISO 3200+) becomes fairly obvious so you might want to avoid this setting. However, if you want to have real control over noise reduction the best thing to do is shoot RAW. Note that even in the 'Off' position some NR is still applied to the JPEGs at all 'Hi' ISO settings.
Noise reduction crop comparisons (ISO 800 - 6400)
Raw noise comparedFinally let's take a look a the raw output of the D3X next to the Sony A900 and the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III. Removing any in-camera noise reduction and processing the images using Adobe Camera Raw (again without NR) gives us the nearest thing to a 'level playing field' for assessing the relative noise levels of each camera's sensor. There is not an awful lot between these cameras but at all higher ISO settings shadow chroma noise levels are higher on the Sony A900 than on the Nikon D3X and Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III - also visible in JPEG output - where the latter two's imaging engines can work with better 'raw material' to start with.
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