Noise never bothered me before.....

[Phill D]

Previously I used to read the noise discussions with interest but had never really seen much noise in my FZ20 shots. So I was very suprised to find that when shooting aeroplanes at Farnborough on Wednesday all my shots seem to be suffering from noise. They were all taken at iso 80 in bright sun (on the hotest day ever here in the UK 36.3 degrees centigrade!) with f stops between 8 & 4, so I was expecting pin sharp low noise shots. Unfortunately all the sky shots show noise in the blue sky & on the aircraft at screen size. If I crop them even only ~20% some look horrible. I suspect they will print OK at smaller size but as I usually only view 95% of my shots on the screen I was quite dissapointed with the FZ20's performance on this occasion. I wondered if the temperature had affected the camera as it got very hot. Does the ambient temperature increase the electronic noise that cameras generate? Also if anyone has any tips for getting good airshow shots let me know. I had terrible trouble getting the camera to focus quickly on the fast moving aircraftand the EVF screen delay after taking a shot is also a real pain for this situation. All in all it was much more difficult than I was expecting.

[tim11]

.......so I was expecting pin sharp low noise shots. .......
Pin sharp? Always. Unfortunately noise always comes with it.
I know exactly what you mean. When shooting the clear blue sky, I always see dirty grey dots when cropping/viewing at 100%.
Check out the sample images here at FULL RESOLUTION:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fz20-review/P1000026.JPG
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fz20-review/P1000014.JPG

And the rest here:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fz20-review/gallery.shtml

[genece]

It has been reported that If the sensor is hot the noise is worse.

As for tips ...if I were you I would check with MightMike at dpreview as he is into aircraft.....

And I do not believe sharp means noise at all, but there is always noise at 100%

And one good aid for subjects in motion is a Kwik aim sight to avoid the EVF delay ...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kwik-Aim-Red-Dot-Camera-Photography-Sight_W0QQitemZ290007130490QQihZ019QQcategoryZ1521 5QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

One way to eliminate most noise is too turn down the sharpening in the camera and selectively sharpen when PP to avoid the sky or to use Neat image to sharpen.

[Phill D]

Thanks guys I'm going back at the weekend with a bit more time & it should be a bit cooler so let's see what the difference is. Good idea Gene I'll try reducing the sharpening as I usually have it on high. I have never tried high noise reduction either so will try that as well.

[genece]

I am not a fan of high NR but it is a good Idea to try different settings.....I also felt the FZ20 produced more noise with the saturation on high .....try a few shots with it on low and see what you think......Also give some thought to that sight ...it can make a huge diffference on cameras with a EVF.

I always used one for Birds in flight and whats a plane but a big bird.

Now I just use the DSLR for that type of photo now...much easier.

[Phill D]

Well went back, but the weather was pretty dreadful, dull & rainy so even though I played with a few settings I didn't get any good comparisons worth posting. Still enjoyed the day though - besides the aircraft I've never seen so many dslrs with masses of glass attached in one place at one time. They were everywhere.

[Phill D]

Thought I'd better post a shot after all. Not a comparison though just a aircratft shot I liked of an F16 (I think it is) taking off in the rain with a Lancaster & Spitfire in the background, & very appropriately for the weather, a Catalina flying boat waiting to display.

[genece]

I have never tried those types of photos but its my guess the the 1/200 SS may not be enough to freeze a jet taking off ,but I am not sure.

It also seems to me maybe the focus point in that photo was way back by the black building. If you are using 9 pt AF change it to center or spot ....I preferred spot on the FZ20.

That is the type of conditions that DSLRs really shine at. and they are so easy to capture the planes in flight with an optical viewfinder.....But I have seen lots of nice photos of airshows from the FZ cameras but they do need more light.

[lincoln30]

Thought I'd better post a shot after all. Not a comparison though just a aircratft shot I liked of an F16 (I think it is) taking off in the rain with a Lancaster & Spitfire in the background, & very appropriately for the weather, a Catalina flying boat waiting to display.


It looks more like a chinese Chengdu J-10

[tim11]

Whatever it is; it's not F16. I thought it was a Brit's jet.
Chengdu J-10? hmmm....... that certainly looked like it? But in the UK?

[lincoln30]

Whatever it is; it's not F16. I thought it was a Brit's jet.
Chengdu J-10? hmmm....... that certainly looked like it? But in the UK?


Looking further it may be a EuroFighter Typhoon / 2000

[Phill D]

I went back & looked at the flying list & my other shots & Lincoln I think you are right it was the Typhoon in good company with the Lancaster & Spitfire. Gene yes you were correct about the focus I swapped between spot & centre on the day so I think this one was spot focussed & I just missed the front of the plane & got the Spitfire in the background. I usually use spot mode for most things but was having a bit of trouble following the planes so changed it to centre for some shots. I think this was a missed spot shot though. As for the shutter speed it was a quick snatched shot between heads & I didn't have time to take the camera off programme mode so it chose the settings. Most of the shots were faster than that one, I just posted that one as I liked the combination of new & old planes.

[Gil ab ca]

It's a Eurofighter Typhoon

[andyn]

Back to the original question.... I suspect this has nothing to do with temperature but just that large areas of blue sky always show up the inherent noise of the camera. If you compare the noise in the main subject - the plane - you'll probably find it acceptable. The best solution therefore is likely to be to work in editing software and apply noise reduction to the sky only (select the subject/plane, invert selection to select the sky, then use noise ninja or whatever). The other thing is that you can use really aggressive noise reduction on the sky because there's no detail to lose.