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Frustrated with olympus e-p2 noise

dipgang

New member
Hi,

I have been using the ep2 for a month or so. Though am happy overall with the camera, somehow find the noise levels a bit more than my tolerable levels. Even more strangely was fiddling with the noise reduction, noise filter , gradation and shading values and struck a combination which improved the noise levels but goofed it up when I started experimenting.

Would request experienced users to guide and share with some standard setting combination which give the best noise, tonality and overall the best iq for this camera.

Thanks
dipgang
 
Last edited:

Paratom

Well-known member
I would recommend to not look at 100% for noise.
What often looks bad when totally zoomed in the image looks fine in print.
Personally I prefer some noise over too strong noise reduction.
For my taste 800 ISO are fine from the E-P2.
I also do not allways expose for the highlights with this camera, but sometimes accept to blow some highlights if this is necessary to expose the main subject accurate in the first step.
 

biglouis

Well-known member
Apologies if I am underestimating your expertise but are you working in RAW? I am on the fence about noise at iso800 and above using my GF-1. The lighting (obviously) has a big impact on noise and sometimes I am satisfied other times not so.

However, I am surprised how by adjusting the colour/luminance noise sliders even a tad in LR 3.2 (beta) I can turn what on first glance is a very noisy picture into an acceptable one at the pixel level without losing too much definition.

As the other poster mentions, some noise is inevitable and may even contribute to the visual 'ambience' of the shot.

LouisB
 

dipgang

New member
@biglouis : No the noise I was talking about are all for the jpegs which my ep2 makes. I haven't checked out the noise in raw since have been shooting jpegs only. I shoot at the superfine mode thus compression is at the minimum. Will try out the luminance in LR and check the results out. Was interested in understanding the NOise reduction, Noise filter and shading comp features in more depth and the best possible settings for those in the camera. Thanks for your suggestions.

dipgang
 

kweide

New member
Shading comp OFF ( ON increase shadow noise !! )
Noise filter LOW ( up to ISO1250 ) for up to ISO 1600: Normal, above : STRONG
Noise reduction OFF
Gradation NORMAL ( ON increases shadow noise )

Thats the settings i use and:
Sharping -1
Contrast -1
Saturation to 0

That works ! Perhaps it helps a little..

Regards
Klaus
 

madmaxmedia

New member
I think kweide's settings are a good start. But it will depend on your personal preference of noise vs. detail. You should find a significant difference when you adjust the noise filter setting, which I think is a great feature of the Olympus cameras.

I always use low setting because I prefer detail even with some noise, and the EP noise is not at all objectionable to me- it is very fine-grained luminance noise (not unlike my former Ricoh GR Digital camera.) Obviously using higher noise filter level would reduce noise, but I have not experimented with the higher settings.

Another interesting experiment might be to see what works better- noise filter off in camera combined with PP noise reduction, or just using a higher noise filter setting in the camera and be done with it.
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
I always use RAW (ORF) and do noise reduction in post processing (either C1 Pro or LR3). I usually try not to go above ISO 1600.

This works pretty well for me!
 
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