D4 portraits straight out of the cam at very high iso

[Stany Buyle]

Underneath some occasional portraits of my youngest daugther with Nikon D4(pre-production model) as taken this morning.

The images were taken handhold. Image quality setting was NEF-12 bit and they were converted without additional PP to a 1000px longest side jpeg in Nikon NiewNX 2.3.0

Some info about AWB behaviour of the used D4: The images were taken in an office, under artificial light with big windows while cloudy weather outside

Some more clarification related to these test images:

• These pictures have been taken as test shots to see how far you can go in sensivity while still getting a useable picture and what someone has to expect of pictures and the related characteristics(*) at very high iso straight out of a D4.
  (*)= AWB behaviour, skintone, DR, tonality, colour etc. .
• Of course some post processing can make these images look better, but that was not the meaning with this sample shots.

iso 12800
D4 with 85mm AF-S F1.8 1/500 sec F11 (BTW, the new 85mm AF-S F1.8 is an incredible sharp lens.)
Affiliated forum members can download the full size jpeg here:


iso 51200
D4 with 105 AF-S F2.8 1/8000 sec F7.1


And... iso 204800
D4 with 105 AF-S F2.8 1/8000 sec F7.1 -1.0 EV applied in ViewNX

[Spanjaart]

I looked at the last one and was a bit disappointed @ iso 20480 until I saw the extra 0

[Leen Koper]

And how will the last one look after applying some noise reduction software on the whole image?

[Stany Buyle]

And how will the last one look after applying some noise reduction software on the whole image?

Hi Leen, thanks for your reaction.
There are several people on this forum who can do this much better than I can, but here is my try of post processing the 204800iso file, -a combination of opening the file as RAW file in Adobe camera Raw 6.6 and after that some sharpening and contrast ajustment in Capture NX2.3.1-...



I guess my daugther won't be happy with this post processing though, while for people who don't have a clue about what incredible challenge iso 204800 is for a camera, the result after post processing might look just like a picture with a 1980 polaroid cam ...

Kindest regards,
Stany

[Leen Koper]

This is wonderful!
At this camera speed you can take quality images (with a little post processing) of a black cat in a dark cellar!

[sandor]

Iso 12800 is good, very good. Iso 25600 is still more than good enough but above that Stany needs a lot of NR and the pretty girl seems to have 'gelled out' her hair completely!

I've been testing with new D800 and D4 hi iso files. When it comes to prints, my conclusion is that up to iso 25600 I will not need the D4 at all.
On the contrary, the intrinsic advantage of the higher resolution leads to a jump in quality in D800 prints ( you simple need less NR) with so much more detail and contrast, it will make you drool.

[pam.meier]

What strikes me is the incredibly good dynamic range through the whole series.
Never mind the last picture, to me that would be suitable for forensic photography But the rest is stunning.

[Stany Buyle]

Iso 12800 is good, very good. Iso 25600 is still more than good enough but above that Stany needs a lot of NR and the pretty girl seems to have 'gelled out' her hair completely!.

Hi Sandor, there is no iso 25600 image shown, it's iso 51200 (iso 12800 +2.0) and iso 204800 (iso 12800 + 4.0)

[ADeVos]

You have to see this to believe, I remember some years ago Canon 5D was revolutionary with functional iso 3200... just wonder how close D800 will be to D4 in A3 print.