XZ-1 noise reduction - is it really that bad?

i am planning to buy a new camera soon, and XZ-1 is my biggest favourite. however, i am really troubled by these stories about very aggresive noise reduction. i've found this sample somewhere on the internet and it looks really disturbing.

i would like to hear opinions of XZ-1 users. is it really that bad?

did you look at the iso? That was taken at iso 1000. Now if you got one of the new sony cams that would be how an iso 200 pic would look like...lol

This shot was forced to be bad. ISO100 would have been enough.

Using ISO1000 in such a bright surrounding is simply unnecessary. Keep ISO below 250 and you're fine.

Ciao,
Michael

I think you'll find that image was taken with one of the high speed drive modes, 7fps or so. It usually ratchets the iso to 1000.

They are not worth using because they pump the iso up even in bright sunlight and then the images taken get extreme noise reduction done to them. The NR is never as bad as your example in the regular Continuous drive mode.

I have a hunch the XZ-1 does this because the imaging pipeline cannot handle the data speed of highly detailed shots at 7fps, so it discards most of the detail in the interest of speed

I've found NR too aggressive at all stages during my search. Also, look at a recent thread I posted in with "low light" in the title. The picture was shot at reasonably low ISO, with severe noise, banding, and detail loss (like faces weren't even visible).

Found the link: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1008&message=38593325

I've found NR too aggressive at all stages during my search. Also, look at a recent thread I posted in with "low light" in the title. The picture was shot at reasonably low ISO, with severe noise, banding, and detail loss (like faces weren't even visible).

Found the link: http://forums.dpreview.com/...ms/readflat.asp?forum=1008&message=38593325

I would have said the faces arent visible because they are sihouetted in an underexposed shot. Almost completely black. And looking at a photo of a painting in a dark room at F1.8 looking for detail? Seriously??

The XZ-1 is a great camera, but its no miracle worker. Sensorwise its still in the same ballpark as other advanced point and shoots. But if you shoot raw and process iteffectively it has more detail than its peers, as many reviews show.

Homl wrote:

I don't know what all the noise is about. Pun intended.

My old Fuji F30 is still one of the better low noise performing P&S. If you pixel peep, the noise reduction is water color like. But if look at the image as a whole, it is very decent. Same as the XZ-1. Look at the image as a whole. Don't expect DSLR noise performance at the pixel level, it is not going to happen. Want to control you own noise reduction, you can always shoot RAW files.

I am happy with the noise performance XZ-1; plus it can shoot at lower ISO than most, if not all P&S, due to its awesome fast and sharp lens. Use it wide open all day long.

All people want is an ability to control the NR level within the camera, to save on any requirement to process RAW at all (especially with being forced to use the very slow OV2 if you want to retain colours/art filters). I think people expect the performance to be less than large sensor cams, but as cxsparc has nicely demonstrated here, the OOC JPEG could be better.

One other point - shooting wide open to reduce the need to increase ISO leads to shallower depth of field and less sharpness - if I want to shoot at f4 or more to improve sharpness or increase DOF, then you do sometimes need higher ISO, so poor noise performance at high ISO is no excuse. There are consequences to large apertures, in addition to the benefits of letting in more light.

maybe this is a dumb question, but agressive NR could be solved with some firmware update, right?

fcz wrote:

maybe this is a dumb question, but agressive NR could be solved with some firmware update, right?

Yes, either a better NR algorithm (less likely), or just a menu item to switch it on/off/hi/low etc (more likely), or both.

The E-PL2 automatically turns off NR in Burst Mode...I am going to test the XZ-1 to see if it does the same...I couldn't find anything in the manual or wsebsite...
--
FlickR Photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46756347@N08/

then let's bomb olympus with mails requesting an option to turn off or reduce NR.
maybe, if we're boring enough, they'll do something.

Marla wrote:

davidaj2003 wrote:

fcz wrote:

maybe this is a dumb question, but agressive NR could be solved with some firmware update, right?

Yes, either a better NR algorithm (less likely), or just a menu item to switch it on/off/hi/low etc (more likely), or both.

That would be great - the option to turn it off. Do you think Oly will ever hear us - and act?

They claim to monitor popular forums for feedback, so I'm sure they hear us - acting on it is another matter. We can only try. Many people have contacted Olympus directly (email/call to their tech support you can find on their website).