M9 and M9 Monochrom ISO with current noise reduction software advancements

[ymc226]

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I asked this on the M10 forum with regards to the M10R and M10 Monochrom.  With improvements in noise reduction and sharpening software (Jaapv turned me on to Topaz DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI), I am thinking I can significantly increase my maximum ISOs on these 2 cameras.  I believe my ISO limit on the M9-P was 640 but maybe it can be 2500.  How high ISO have people pushed their M9 and M9M? 

[Ray Vonn]

Not high at all, certainly not higher than 800 at night and to be honest preferably no more than 640. I mean, you *can* but the tonality you get at base iso, the reason many of us persist with an M9, will be gone. Obviously, high iso is really for the newer cameras as opposed to the M9, where low light necessitates a very fast lens. 
 

Having said that, if any software really can retain that, for want if a better phrase, “magic” of base iso at, say iso 1,000 or above, I’m all ears.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Ray Vonn

[ianman]

I went all the way up to 160 for this one

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[Topsy]

1 hour ago, ianman said:

I went all the way up to 160 for this one

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Its where I tend to stay. 👍

[pgk]

Low ISO shooters have had great digital cameras for a long time. High ISO shooters have seen dramatic advances from newer cameras though. 

[ianman]

30 minutes ago, Topsy said:

Its where I tend to stay. 👍

Me too… full disclosure, I did use a tripod for this 8 second exposure.

[Topsy]

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14 hours ago, ianman said:

Me too… full disclosure, I did use a tripod for this 8 second exposure.

No amount of high ISO would have made that shot better, tripods are for just these circuumstances. 👍

[ianman]

Indeed and I have to say the in-camera noise reduction on long exposures is very good.

There's a comet coming up very soon.... you just if you wanted to take a shoot of the thing hovering over Hound Tor 

Edited December 3, 2021 by ianman

[CGarrard]

I think there's no free lunch with noise reduction and sharpening. Do agree profiles and raw converters have improved however. 

I don't even use sharpening on cameras without an AA filter like the M9. 

However, I happen to be obsessed with a less is more approach to post processing.  So to each his own of course. I prefer images to look as natural as possible (with few exceptions) in terms of captured light range and tonality. I am okay with the unique character/output of  the M9's CCD. I also choose raw profiles that show the greatest range of captured light in a raw file using the histogram as a guide. I never use Jpegs for my prints. I output to tiff and print from a tiff file. 

I only reduce some chroma noise, if necessary and leave luminescence in tact 100%. Not only for the detail, but for the grain pattern which I happen to think is very lovely on the M9 cameras. 

 

Edit: I do save a small jpeg for web sharing, but don't use them to print.

Edited December 10, 2021 by CGarrard