E-PL1 and 14-42 lens ---> image noise

[Akashi]

Hi,

I recently purchased the E-PL1 but I get noise in the pictures taken with the kit lens. Have any of you come across this? It looks like a high iso pic with grains in the image. look at the image in actual size and check the green pencils behind the yellow one. Also blue and purple pencils suffer as well as the background. Is this normal?

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[revzoom]

Noise

What are your settings? If you are using iAUTO, the camera could very well be using ISO1600. Try the P setting and limit the ISO to 200.

 

[BBW]

revzoom, welcome and thank you for posting and asking about the Akashi's settings.

Akashi, revzoom is correct - please let us know what your camera was set at for the photo. Please let us know what your EXIF data was - f stop, shutter speed and ISO, OK?

 

[Djarum]

Looking at the EXIF, it was taken at ISO 400 at 1/60s at f/5.5.

 

[BBW]

Magic! You must be on Firefox? I wonder if the focus is off a bit - the pencils don't seem to be in focus, whereas the front of the tin holder does seem to be in focus to me. ISO 400 shouldn't be a problem I wouldn't think.

 

[Akashi]

Looking at the EXIF, it was taken at ISO 400 at 1/60s at f/5.5.

Yep you are right. It was in A mode. So I am still wondering what this could be, a faulty camera? Surely such noise should not occur?

I have been playing around with the f value, changing noise reduction, but nothing seems to help. Any ideas?

 

[revzoom]

Dumb question for BB

Thanks for the welcome, BB. Now, I have a dumb question...where is the Welcome and Introduction Forum? I could not find it anywhere. Thanks
Kevin

 

[Vidar]

Hmm. Maybe a little out of focus and a little camera shake?

 

[Brian Mosley]

Thanks for the welcome, BB. Now, I have a dumb question...where is the Welcome and Introduction Forum? I could not find it anywhere. Thanks
Kevin

Here you go Kevin. :smile:

Cheers

Brian

 

[Brian Mosley]

Hi Akashi, do you have the original to post? I can't read the exif on your shot above.

Cheers

Brian

 

[Akashi]

Hi Akashi, do you have the original to post? I can't read the exif on your shot above.

Cheers

Brian

It is the original Brian, I think one of the other replyers read the exif on this image. I can send it to you if you want.

It may be a little out of focus and even cam shake, but that should not cause the grainy image noise.

Link to the gallery https://www.mu-43.com/gallery/lx3-shots/p7508-image-noise.html


This is the data

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[Akashi]

No ideas folks? Is it just my eyes or have any of you experienced this noise thing?

 

[pictor]

No ideas folks? Is it just my eyes or have any of you experienced this noise thing?

I own my E-PL1 since yesterday, therefore I don't have any experience with this camera. But the noise I see in your picture is significant. However, I know, that I can get a rather pleasing result when I shoot Raws with my Canon S90 and process them with Adobe Lightroom 3 (or Adobe Camera Raw 6) carefully. My experience is, that I dislike the noise reduction of my other cameras (Canon S90 and Nikon D90) and prefer a photograph with stronger luminance noise (but not chromatic noise) instead. However, the noise reduction of Adobe Lightroom 3 is great and thus very recommendable. I am sure that it is possible to get a pleasing result with this camera, too, but maybe this needs a different workflow from yours.

Yesterday I tested my camera at home (mostly ISO 1600, but also ISO 500) and the noise of this camera seems to be significant and not as far away from my Canon S90 (about 1 EV better I think) as I wished. I have to test my camera more intensely, however, that's what DxOMark.com suggests, too. At least I liked the result of ISO 1600 very much after converting the photographs to black and white and removing any noise reduction, which gives the pictures a nice grain.

 

[gopack471]

Did you do any post-processing work to this, specifically brightening it up? People always forget that digital cameras still have noise at low ISOs. Noise exists at ISO 200 and 400, and even ISO 100, it's just not as pronounced. When you lighten up an image, it also makes the noise more noticeable. Brightening an image shot at ISO 400 by a stop will give you comparable noise to a stop higher ISO, which would be 800. The best way to avoid noise is to properly expose your image in the camera, and then realize that you will never ever look at your image at 100% unless you're trying to find a problem. The version you posted in your first thread really doesn't have any noticeable noise, and if you print this image even as a large print, you won't see any noise at all.

 

[Akashi]

Just to give you guys and update (if you are at all interested) I decided to sell my camera and have promptly done so. I realized that I would not be happy with the slow focus and lack of primes and the noise drive me nuts although I contribute that now to the lens. I tried the pana 20 mm and the noise was not there anymore. Investing in a D-slr now.