Strange "Confetti Noise" on Long Time Exposures with Sony A7RII - Any Idea?

[ijustloveshooting]

wow, that was too much hot pixels,,, i never use Long exp. noise reduction with my A7ii due to doubled processing time which is a big problem during blue hours (i've 20-30minutes of blue hour shooting and can not waste half of it for noise reduction) ... however i never see such hot pixels in my raws,,,i dont remember seeing more than 5-10 hot pixels in any of my long exposure shots...

 

[Jose Viegas]

wow, that was too much hot pixels,,, i never use Long exp. noise reduction with my A7ii due to doubled processing time which is a big problem during blue hours (i've 20-30minutes of blue hour shooting and can not waste half of it for noise reduction) ... however i never see such hot pixels in my raws,,,i dont remember seeing more than 5-10 hot pixels in any of my long exposure shots...

That's a problem with ACR/LR only, maybe a bug, doesn't happen with other converters.

 

[Mlenny]

So checked the same RAW with a different Raw Converter: Capture One

Lightroom ACR CC2015 vs. Capture One Sony

No NR, both at +3 exposure on the same image from above:

Looks like ACR in LR-CC2015 is right now a bit buggy on such long exposures... Glad to see that it can be fixed with software have hope for a ACR update...







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[MustyMarie]

Wow that is dreadful ! 6-8secs should not really need dark NR for a sensor this large.

I wonder if this is typical?

At 100% it really looked almost like hot pixels, and I have never gotten more than a few at 30secs with most of my cams.

I have never seen this type of noise and the sheer # is incredible.

Can't blame no AA for this either!!

GL!

 

[GotoDengo]

So checked the same RAW with a different Raw Converter: Capture One

Lightroom ACR CC2015 vs. Capture One Sony

Thanks for testing; C1 looks much improved. Still, even C1 seems far from excellent. There's plenty of blue/red pixels at 100%.

Is this just to be expected on a sensor of this resolution and density, or are there others that do it better?

It's surprising, but I see far fewer on an RX100 Mk1 ISO 125 night shot pushed 3 stops, than I do on this.

Perhaps both ACR and C1 have a ways to go until they're producing good results from the A7RII?

 

[ncsakany]

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[Tristimulus]

Thanks a lot for posting some illuminating examples - was holding back for my next night sky photography camera and had high hopes for the A7RII. Sadly long exposures in photon starved environments seems to be causing some trouble for this camera (find the camera to be brilliant in every other way).

Going for an astromodded Canon 6D for night sky photography - but still clinging to my Sony cameras for ordinary photography.

Very informative post - made my choice a lot easier.

 

[Nephi]

MLenny,

Was your problem completely solved by switching converters? It looks like an ACR bug if I am not mistaken?

Thanks!

-Brian

 

[Astrophotographer 10]

Nice post. Thanks for the solution. Very handy.

Greg.

 

[ChuckTa]

So checked the same RAW with a different Raw Converter: Capture One

Lightroom ACR CC2015 vs. Capture One Sony

No NR, both at +3 exposure on the same image from above:

Looks like ACR in LR-CC2015 is right now a bit buggy on such long exposures... Glad to see that it can be fixed with software have hope for a ACR update...



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Capture one has a higher default NR, slide the value zero and the image should look more similar.

 

[J A C S]

MLenny,

Was your problem completely solved by switching converters? It looks like an ACR bug if I am not mistaken?

The hot red pixels are clearly visible in RAW. There are some G and B hot pixels but not so bright.

 

[Thomas KP Lee]

Hi Thomas, looking at your image I see a quite a few spots on it , hopfully not oil spots.

Yes, I also notice the spots on the sky, these are probably dust on the sensor. After three days testing on various lenses, and adaptoes, I think I changes over a hunbred times, so dust get in.

 

[Astrophotographer 10]

See the fix post. It appears to be simply a case of the bad pixel map not having been updated. Its easy to update by changing the date 2 months forward, then turning the camera off and then back on and correct the date. Its an auto feature to update the bad/hot/dead pixel map that gets subtracted in images not a trait of the a7Rii.

I would not be so quick to decide. A modded 6D would definitely be nice but a7Rii still holds a lot of promise (but a modded camera will always outperform a non modded camera for Milky Way type shots or astrophotography.

Greg.

 

[robonrome]

See the fix post. It appears to be simply a case of the bad pixel map not having been updated. Its easy to update by changing the date 2 months forward, then turning the camera off and then back on and correct the date. Its an auto feature to update the bad/hot/dead pixel map that gets subtracted in images not a trait of the a7Rii.

I would not be so quick to decide. A modded 6D would definitely be nice but a7Rii still holds a lot of promise (but a modded camera will always outperform a non modded camera for Milky Way type shots or astrophotography.

Greg.

thanks greg for highlighting this simple fix

 

[Mlenny]

MLenny,

Was your problem completely solved by switching converters? It looks like an ACR bug if I am not mistaken?

Thanks!

-Brian

I tried the same RAW file with Capture One for Sony as a Raw converter, with the default settings nearly all Pixeles where gone, so it`s FOR SURE a RAW converter thing too, which adds up... Have to test a bit more, but the results of the "older" Raws i tried in ACr looks much, much more noiseless without hot pixels...

see a screen shot in my post here:

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[Tristimulus]

See the fix post. It appears to be simply a case of the bad pixel map not having been updated. Its easy to update by changing the date 2 months forward, then turning the camera off and then back on and correct the date. Its an auto feature to update the bad/hot/dead pixel map that gets subtracted in images not a trait of the a7Rii.

I would not be so quick to decide. A modded 6D would definitely be nice but a7Rii still holds a lot of promise (but a modded camera will always outperform a non modded camera for Milky Way type shots or astrophotography.

Greg.

Well - then there is this star eating thing (heavy spatial filtering in bulb mode - good for a lot of low light photography but very bothersome in the astronomy domain, and no cure).

Did sit on the fence for the A7RII - but fell off. Just ordered the astromodded 6D and still more than happy with my Sony cameras for anything but the night sky.

 

[J A C S]

MLenny,

Was your problem completely solved by switching converters? It looks like an ACR bug if I am not mistaken?

Thanks!

-Brian

I tried the same RAW file with Capture One for Sony as a Raw converter, with the default settings nearly all Pixeles where gone, so it`s FOR SURE a RAW converter thing too, which adds up...

How can it be a RAW converter thing of the hot pixels are visible in Rawdigger?

 

[polarth]

Capture one has a higher default NR, slide the value zero and the image should look more similar.

Sliders = 0 for both luminance and color has no effect using C1, has nothing to do with default NR. Remaining spots can be automatically removed with the "single spot NR" function in C1 (default = 0)

C1 is a more advanced RAW converter then LR, thats the reason that I switched from LR tot C1 a few years ago.

Any way doesn't mean that it is normal that less advanced converters are showing this hot spots. Sony should look into it.

 

[billzilla2000]

See the fix post. It appears to be simply a case of the bad pixel map not having been updated. Its easy to update by changing the date 2 months forward, then turning the camera off and then back on and correct the date. Its an auto feature to update the bad/hot/dead pixel map that gets subtracted in images not a trait of the a7Rii.

I would not be so quick to decide. A modded 6D would definitely be nice but a7Rii still holds a lot of promise (but a modded camera will always outperform a non modded camera for Milky Way type shots or astrophotography.

Greg.

Well - then there is this star eating thing (heavy spatial filtering in bulb mode - good for a lot of low light photography but very bothersome in the astronomy domain, and no cure).

Several astro photographers here have said it's not really bothersome and pulls out noise that would be accentuated like stars, anyway. The consensus was the 'real star eating' attenuation was fairly minimal. And that's bulb - you can always do multiple 30" or less exposures.

Did sit on the fence for the A7RII - but fell off. Just ordered the astromodded 6D and still more than happy with my Sony cameras for anything but the night sky.

Why post here if you're going with a 6D? Best of luck with that sensor.

 

[Mlenny]

MLenny,

Was your problem completely solved by switching converters? It looks like an ACR bug if I am not mistaken?

Thanks!

-Brian

I tried the same RAW file with Capture One for Sony as a Raw converter, with the default settings nearly all Pixeles where gone, so it`s FOR SURE a RAW converter thing too, which adds up...

How can it be a RAW converter thing of the hot pixels are visible in Rawdigger?

It`s of course a camera issue. what i meant is that with capture one you might 'cure' the spots easier oder better as of today than with acr. The hot pixels ARE there 4 sure due to the camera long exposure without NR... Anyway C1 ist as of today at least a possibility to fix it. A real solution shas to come from sony, if it`s possible to fix that through firmware.