Earlier today, I blogged about the relative qualities of Adobe Lightroom (LR) 1.2 and Phase One Capture One (C1) 4 beta with regards to the processing of high ISO files from the Olympus E-410. Having also recently processed Ricoh GX100 files in both LR and C1 (beta), I thought I'd share an example from the GX100 here as well.

I took this ISO 800 shot with my GX100 earlier this evening to use as an example. I should note first that C1 does not officially support GX100 files, though it has preliminary support for the DNG format and will process Ricoh RAW.

Here is a screenshot of the low-light ISO 800 image being processed in LR 1.2 on the left and C1 4 beta on the right. Click the image twice for the intended viewing size. Both programs preview changes in real time when viewing at 100% like this, so these are how the processed images look as well. As you can see, there is a lot of blotchy color noise in the LR image despite the color noise removal being maxed out. IMO the character of the noise is also less attractive in LR.


Here are the images after processing in Noise Ninja (NN) using the same NN parameters for noise removal and sharpening. As before, the LR image is on the left and the C1 image is on the right. As you can see, the "coarse noise" option in Noisehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif Ninja was able to improve, but not eliminate, the color blotches in the LR image.


I did this all very quickly, so the colors are uncorrected in the case of both LR and C1. If anyone is interested, I have made both the RAW (DNG) file as well as the in-camera JPEG (B&W) available as a downloadable zip file here.

I should mention that although I showed this file being processed with all kinds of sharpening, I never treat my high ISO GX100 images that way. With this type of shot, I generally apply zero sharpening and only the standard level of luminance NR in C1, which is less than zero sharpening in LR terms. I also generally convert to B&W using Alien Skin Exposure. In my opinion, the ISO 800 noise from the GX100 has a pleasant quality when left without sharpening with C1 as the RAW processor. Here's a 50% crop of the image given that treatment (Click image twice for full size):


Here's the resized image:


The default in-camera JPEG for comparison:

Pt. 1 - Appearance and Zoom Range
Pt. 2 - JPEG Noise
Pt. 3 - ISO 80 JPEG Crops at 35mm & Full Aperture
Pt. 4 - Flare Performance
Pt. 5 - Noise Performance Revisited
Pt. 6 - G7 Default JPEG vs GX100 Silkypix Conversions
Pt. 7 - Key Timings
Pt. 8 - Build Quality, Quality Control, and Battery Life
Pt. 9 - Conclusion

The Ricoh GRD has a reputation for "grain-like" noise, particularly with black and white photographs. I was anxious to see whether the GX100 would offer a pleasing quality of noise since noise is such an important part of small sensor digital photography. To me, the effects of over-zealous noise reduction are much more offensive than those of noise itself, especially if the noise can be considered "grain-like." Unlike the G7, the GX100 and D-LUX 2 each offer the option to shoot RAW, with complete control over noise handling. However, before I dive into a comparison of processed RAW files from the GX100 and D-LUX2, I thought I'd compare the default B&W and color JPEGs from the three cameras from a noise standpoint.

Methods: The following are all 100% crops with the camera on a tripod, self-timer, image stabilization on, aperture priority mode at f4 (f4.1 on the GX100 since it won't do f4). All B&W images were taken using default in-camera B&W settings. All sharpening, color, white balance, exposure compensation, contrast, and noise reduction settings were at default.

I didn't get the framing exactly right, and the file sizes of the D-LUX 2 made for a very different field of view. Between that issue and the poor white balance, I think the Leica was made to look worse than it is. However, it's fair to say that the D-LUX 2 is not the best at handling noise when shooting JPEGs.

In the following crops, the D-LUX 2 is on the left, the GX100 is in the middle, and the G7 is on the right. In each case, click on the image to see at full size.

EDIT - Sorry for any inconvenience, the crops have been removed. If you are interested in reviewing the full-resolution files (large), they can be downloaded from this Flickr set.