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This is not actually the case with the M9. The M9 is essentially an ISO-less camera. Pushing ISO 160 three stops in Lightroom 4 yields as good, if not better, results than using ISO 1250. Of course, the more light you get to the sensor, the better, but raising ISO in camera is not actually necessary, in terms of IQ. Granted, if you don't raise ISO in camera, you won't have a usable review image on the camera's LCD, so it may not always be practical.When shooting dark scenes or scenes with deep shadow areas, never (or try to avoid) general brightening. This is what brings out noise... You're always better off getting the exposure right in the first place - or if anything, darkening.
You can also hide noise sometimes by increasing contrast (or bumping down the dark areas anyway).
Obviously, lower ISOs are better for noise as well. I try to keep the ISO to 1250, max.
Nevertheless, proper exposure is perhaps the single most important thing.
If you shoot, say, 1/60, f2 at ISO 800, and then shoot again at the same shutter and aperture, but use ISO 640 and then boost the exposure in Lightroom, the latter will be as good, if not better. The same is the case even if you keep the same aperture and shutter and use ISO 160 boosted in LR.i have been shooting my m9 a lot at iso 800 but after reading some of the threads here am i better off underexposing a bit and shoot at iso 640 and then just brighten in post?
if this is better why?
thank you.
Wow, I'm going to have to try this. How do you meter for this and keep speeds hand-held in low light?This is not actually the case with the M9. The M9 is essentially an ISO-less camera. Pushing ISO 160 three stops in Lightroom 4 yields as good, if not better, results than using ISO 1250. Of course, the more light you get to the sensor, the better, but raising ISO in camera is not actually necessary, in terms of IQ. Granted, if you don't raise ISO in camera, you won't have a usable review image on the camera's LCD, so it may not always be practical.
Hi, Maggie. It's so easy that it almost feels like cheating. You essentially meter like normal with ISO 160, and, whenever you're in light low enough that the meter shows you're underexposing, you can pick whichever aperture and shutter speed that you'd like, of course knowing that, the more light that hits the sensor, the less noisy your image will be.Wow, I'm going to have to try this. How do you meter for this and keep speeds hand-held in low light?
Based on the DxOmark data, there are a variety of native ISO values for the M9. As represented at Sensorgen.info, sensor read noise seems to be very similar at all of them, so it makes little difference what ISO you use as long as you don't choose one which is high enough to clip highlights or low enough that your software can't brighten it enough.Well, yes - of course. There's a sensor's native sensitivity - and then there's everything else. That is usually just an algorithm in the firmware saying "amplify the signal X times to represent ISO Y."
Yep, although this discussion doesn't have that Jaybob guy who couldn't quite get his mind around the concept in use, no matter what any of us tried to explain to him. He got really upset with me in that thread.
Yeah, I've not been able to isolate the causes of occasional banding that I see. I thought that I saw it more when using a high ISO, rather than when pushing in the converter, but Daniel's post is making me second guess that.Well, banding is an interesting issue:
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/256428-m9-banding-noise-issues-gone-4.html
As an aside, Nik Dfine does an amazing job of removing banding like that.I did a lot of testing and pushing scenes with a lot of green/blue gets you plenty of banding. Otherwise neutrally lit scenes push very well.
That's what I use on the rare occasion where the noise is fairly obvious and my other tricks haven't worked well. Though it's very simple. Noise Ninja has worked well for me in the past, but I haven't used it w/Leica images.As an aside, Nik Dfine does an amazing job of removing banding like that.