09-29-2011, 10:49 AM
Since ACR 3.5 has become avialable today, I tried to process the dpreview files to judge for myself. I compared only the alpha to the 7d at ISO 1600 for time constraints. The emphasis was to mirror my usual file workflow. here is what i did:
- Increase fill light to +30
- increase clarity to +20
- increase dynamic to +30
-Leave everything else untouched.
- Adjust sharpening, colour and lumisance NR in ACR to find the optimal compromise for noise vs sharpness for each camera individually. (yes, not scientific but practical !!!)
- Open files in photoshop.
- Interpolate 7d image to the size of the sony (6000x4000) This important to judge which camera actually allows for larger prints.
-compare on screen at 100%.
Results:
- the strong chroma noise of the sony as shown on dpreview is not present in the final version of ACR. With C NR set to +35 chroma noise is virtually gone. No difference to 7D
- the sony shows far more lumiscane noise than the 7d. I had to increase Lum NR in ACR to +35 to bring it down to sane levels. For the 7d I used only +7. Comparing the two images, the 7d was not only a bit sharper but also showed much less noise than the alpha image even though I had used far less NR. remember that the 7d files was also interpolated, which decreased actual pixel sharpness. Thus, image quality is indeed lower with the sony at ISO 1600.
if you want an image as sharp as the 7d from ACR you have to live with much, much more lumisance noise or sacrifce detail for smoothness.
- Increase fill light to +30
- increase clarity to +20
- increase dynamic to +30
-Leave everything else untouched.
- Adjust sharpening, colour and lumisance NR in ACR to find the optimal compromise for noise vs sharpness for each camera individually. (yes, not scientific but practical !!!)
- Open files in photoshop.
- Interpolate 7d image to the size of the sony (6000x4000) This important to judge which camera actually allows for larger prints.
-compare on screen at 100%.
Results:
- the strong chroma noise of the sony as shown on dpreview is not present in the final version of ACR. With C NR set to +35 chroma noise is virtually gone. No difference to 7D
- the sony shows far more lumiscane noise than the 7d. I had to increase Lum NR in ACR to +35 to bring it down to sane levels. For the 7d I used only +7. Comparing the two images, the 7d was not only a bit sharper but also showed much less noise than the alpha image even though I had used far less NR. remember that the 7d files was also interpolated, which decreased actual pixel sharpness. Thus, image quality is indeed lower with the sony at ISO 1600.
if you want an image as sharp as the 7d from ACR you have to live with much, much more lumisance noise or sacrifce detail for smoothness.