The Fujifilm X-H2 High ISO Noise vs the X-T2

yomimoi wrote:

Jerry-astro wrote:

Nebell wrote:

I'm too early to the party, it's in 360p. Gotta wait for HD processing.

Anyway, while it's informative, if ISO performance is important, then FF is an option. There are plenty of FF cameras that are at the same price as X-H2.
It's not the same in case of FF cameras. If you want to go up your option is medium format which is both a lot more expensive and limiting.

It's easy for someone to recommend changing or upgrading cameras, and that might solve the problem, but at a significant expense. Before taking that route, I would recommend that the OP try something like Topaz DeNoise (one of a number of good NR solutions out there). I've had really great results in reducing noise while still retaining fine detail. I would certainly recommend taking that route first rather than simply selling existing gear at a loss and then reinvesting in expensive (and likely more bulky) gear. If that doesn't meet the OP's needs, then selling gear and upgrading always remains as an alternative.

I tried Topaz Denoise on the 6400 ISO RAW files from the XH2 in the studio comparison scene here and, while it made the image better, I couldn't for the life of me make it look as clean or detailed as the non-processed file from the A7III. If anyone can do it and post the results here and, more importantly, explain how they did it, that'd be awesome.

Maybe I'm not proficient with the denoising tools yet, but I think people are putting too much hope in their ability to make high ISO files from this new sensor much better. From what I've seen so far, anything above ISO 4000-5000 is worse than what the X-T2 produced, let alone the A7III. And these are 5-6 years old sensors. I can't help but think these new sensors are rather disappointing for low-light photography.

While the older X-Trans IiI sensor is cleaner at very high ISOs, the new 40MP sensor does OK with a little processing finesse and looks plenty clean if compared at the same viewing size.

Here's the X-H2 at full size with Lightroom/IXT and Topaz DeNoise (A.I. Clear mode) vs. the full-frame Sony A7III with Just Lightroom at ISO 12800. Is this better than you're getting?

X-H2 full-size (L), Sony A7III (R)

X-H2 resized (L), Sony A7III (R). Printed at the same size, the X-H2 would have the same noise, but better detail than seen here.