Railfan Technology > DSLR long exposure noise?

Greetings...

I am currently using a ca. 2008 Canon Rebel XS. It usually meets my needs well.

One spot that I do struggle with is noise in long exposures. For example, the attached was a 30s exposure at ISO 200. No post-processing has been done to it and the long exposure noise reduction custom function was off. No stars were actually present in the sky ;)

I do usually use the long exposure noise reduction custom function. It does help the images, but it also takes as much time to process as the exposure was long. The extra wait between shots while the NR algorithm is running is irritating at best; it's caused me missed photo opportunities a couple times, and cost me a hard-worked-for photo once when the battery (fully charged when I started the shot) ran out during the noise reduction process after a >1 hour exposure (at <0°F...maybe I should have seen that coming...)

Anyway, my question for the photographers out here is, has sensor noise on long exposures improved over the past ten years? Could I expect less noise on a similar image from a new Rebel-level Canon SLR, or is it just something inherent in recording images to semiconductor chips that isn't going to go away?

Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/17 23:42 by Nomad.

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I use a Nikon D610 with the long exposure noise reduction setting off. Then I clean my photo up in Lightroom 6. When I'm done there is little or no noise in my picture. As far as the one you have posted, that is a very acceptable photo. But we may not be seeing what you're seeing because of the upload to TO or like most of us, we are our own worst critics. For the photo, I think it's an outstanding picture with train headlight and the lighting. Well done.
Wes

Wes Chiles
Topeka, KS

You've got a 9-10 camera there, and sensors have
improved just a bit over the years... From time
to time I still use my older cameras, but just
at ISO 200 during the day :-) You might try a
newer model for night shooting. The sensor will
be quicker and less noisy, and you'll have more
megapixels, if you care about such things.

John.

Yes, to answer your question directly. A modern camera at an equivalent level (Digital Rebel etc) will have less noise in long exposures.

I get some noise in both my 5D MkII and my T6s and do not use the noise reduction setting. Once I've processed an image (size, contrast, sharpness, etc) I will use the 'Filter' drop down menu in Photoshop Elements 14 before saving the image. I recently did some low light photography of volunteers in a museum where I volunteer shooting at 1600 ISO. The 'Noise' filter worked well to reduce the noise in the images... It seems to work well for me in either long exposures or high ISO shooting.

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

There is a series of lectures at Google by Marc Levoy on digital photography.
This includes sections on noise, and tips for long exposure photos.
There is a lot of good information... perhaps too much.

https://sites.google.com/site/marclevoylectures/home

Bill