If you check the EXIF info, you'll see that the exposure was +0.70 I'm sure that, had I been shooting more "to the left" the noise would have been quite bad. I've had good results in many situations @ 1600 and 3200, but, as Godders mentioned in another message here, underexposure will make the image, especially at higher ISO settings, quite noisy.
I suspect quite a number of people treat their DSLR exposures as though they were shooting slide film - exposing for the highlights. That often causes under or marginal exposure in other parts of the image, and generates more noise. I think when using RAW you've sometimes got to expose a little differently. Shel > [Original Message] > From: Paul Stenquist > It's excellent. The Pentax only gets noisy when the image is > underexposed at high ISO. I think users frequently try for 1600 when > they really need 3200, hence the reputation for noise. But I too have > found that my *istD is remarkably free of noise at high ISO. I expect > even better performance from the 10D, despite the higher resolution. > Shel Belinkoff wrote: > There were some comments about how noisy ISO 3200 is with the > Pentax DSLR's. Here's a large section from a photo I took last > month @ Godders' reception. > http://home.earthlink.net/~my-pics/IMGP4540-sect.jpg > > Lens SMCP-A 50/1.4 @ f/2.8, 1/20 sec handheld > > > > > > Model - PENTAX *ist DS > > Orientation - Top left > > XResolution - 330 > > YResolution - 330 > > ResolutionUnit - Inch > > Software - Adobe Photoshop CS Windows > > DateTime - 2006:09:08 14:27:06 > > ExifOffset - 220 > > ExposureTime - 1/20 seconds > > FNumber - 2.80 > > ExposureProgram - Aperture priority > > ISOSpeedRatings - 3200 > > DateTimeOriginal - 2006:08:19 20:27:53 > > ShutterSpeedValue - 1/20 seconds > > ApertureValue - F 2.80 > > ExposureBiasValue - 0.70 > > MeteringMode - Center weighted average > > Flash - Not fired, compulsory flash mode > > ColorSpace - sRGB > > ExifImageWidth - 1000 > > ExifImageHeight - 800 -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
