ccyeung
Active member
My new Z9 seems to produce a lot more noise than my D850. Is it normal?
Nikon Z9 ISO performance
- Thread starter ccyeung
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I don't have either camera, but I'm pretty sure the Z9 must be at least equal to the D850 in terms of noise, if not better. So no, if your Z9 is more noisy there must be something wrong, like a wrong setting. I trust you're comparing similar settings in both cameras, as well as having both in full frame mode or both in DX mode?
hrv
Well-known member
Since the Z9 does not have a shutter, it can be completely silent. You can go into the menu and choose the sound it makes as well as the volume, or set it to silent alltogether.
ccyeung
Active member
hrv
Well-known member
Ah... that kind of noise 
I have mixed results so far. It isn't as good as my D6, but I have found relatively good results with some scenes over others. Better light with a higher shutter speed for songbirds for example seems to work well. More dim light overall with a lower shutter speed to keep ISO relatively low, I do find it more noisy than I would have expected given all the "positive marketing" by Nikon.
But I guess I am spoiled by the D6
I have mixed results so far. It isn't as good as my D6, but I have found relatively good results with some scenes over others. Better light with a higher shutter speed for songbirds for example seems to work well. More dim light overall with a lower shutter speed to keep ISO relatively low, I do find it more noisy than I would have expected given all the "positive marketing" by Nikon.
But I guess I am spoiled by the D6
The dynamic range tests show the d850 about a third of a stop better in the lower iso range, but equal at the "low light" levels. Since dynamic range is mostly impacted by noise, I'd say on paper they shouldn't be much different.
I had a D850 for years and now use a Z9. I tended to shoot a little brighter with both cameras and darken in post. I haven't seen any significant difference in noise levels EXCEPT when I sho in high efficiency raw and imported into LR, I saw a lot more noise. I'm shooting lossless compressed raw and noise is not an issue.
The Bill Claff data show that the Photographic DR of the D850 at base USI (ISO 64) is slightly higher than that of the Z9.
To investigate noise differences I photographed a ColorChecker with both cameras using 1/20s @f/8 and evaluated the noise of the second square of the bottom row, noting the G1 and G2 σ (standard deviation) and μ (mean) G1 and G2 pixel values in this square using RawDigger. Since Rawdigger does not support Z9 NEF, I converted all of the files to DNG using the latest DNG converter (14.2.0.1028).
Here is a photo of the chart:
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Here is the Rawdigger evaluation of the Z9 G2 raw channel with the second square of the lowest row selected. The stats are shown second from right. I used the green channels since green constitutes the majority of the human visual response.
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I then evaluated the green channels for the D850, the green channels of the Z9 using both lossless compressed and HF*. The results are shown in this table. σ is standard deviation and μ is the mean. With lossless compressed, the noise with the Z9 is slightly better than with the D850. With lossless in the Z9 noise is slightly less than with the D850. I don't think that these differences are visually significant.
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Bill
Last edited:
Interesting. What was the iso? Did you compare analysis where you converted every image to DNG?
ccyeung
Active member
Anything about ISO 1200. The photos seem to be at least one stop worse than files from D850. I haven’t tried any work around yet.
John Navitsky
Well-known member
i know it's not overly helpful, but make sure you are exposing well and have an appropriate amount of shutter speed for your subject.
good exposure makes a big difference in terms of noise, motion blur and missed focus can look like noise.
good exposure makes a big difference in terms of noise, motion blur and missed focus can look like noise.
That seems to prove there isn't much bad going on with the z9. What else could the OP be experiencing to see as a noise problem?
ccyeung
Active member
The exposure was correct or very close and I am seeing color noise not just noise.
Rich,
Sorry that I didn't post the ISO. The ISO was 64 on both cameras and this is shown in the Rawdigger camera data section. I don't understand your second question. Could you help me out?
Bill
Checking the low light iso in the chart I linked above, which is where the iso is when the curve hits a certain point, the d850 was 4115 while the z9 was 4144. So basically no difference and they both should have good performance using the full frame to that 4000ish range. . A lot of cropping can make a difference, for example a DX sized crop on the z9 shows only iso 1893 as the low light iso.
Convert raw to dng and then analyze
Strodav
Well-known member
I have both a D850 and Z9, so I am interested in the differences in sensors. I went to PhotonsToPhotos.net to look at their Dynamic Range and Read noise curves. Their data shows the D850 has a greater DR and better noise performance from ISO 64 to 400, after that they are pretty much identical.
Roy
Well-known member
It could be the way its being transferred to the computer - Photoshop etc still are quite there yet...
peter wolf
Member
are you using Lightroom ? I suffered the same problem for two weeks until I read this. lightroom-profile-sharpening-noise-reduction-and-lens-profile-defaults-for-nikon-z9 basically need to go into preferences and change the preset tab to camera settings instead of adobe and I was back to good, I really hope this helps
ccyeung
Active member
Thank you for this article. I changed my LR preferences. I will do some tests to verify.
JerryF
Member
After doing my own DR test on my D850 vs Z9 I saw virtually no difference at all in the two sets of images. The low point and high points were less than a third of a stop different and the gain switch was exactly at the same exposure value. And in practice I have seen no difference at all between the two in normal shooting. Some have said the color noise is worse on the Z9 but I rarely ever need to adjust for that so have not noticed it in practice yet. It almost makes me think that it might be a Sony sensor after all in the Z9. Maybe someday we will know for sure after someone takes apart a Z9.
peter wolf
Member
I’d like to know if it helps you to keep me posted
A series of images just post to the facebook Nikon D5 / D6 - that compares several back to back same scene photos with the D6 and Z9. Street night lighting, both using the 24-120 lenses. Interesting to see. He is a professional news photography and is at a demonstration.
O
Well-known member
Not in my case as of yet, i shoot them side by side at night for sports all at 2.8 2000 2500 ss up to12800 iso and you can throw a blanket over them.
I had an issue with my first D850 producing lots of noise even at 500-1000 iso especially in the shadows in non challeging light and that was an issue that eventually saw it being replaced with a new one.
I have seen similar examples but only with slight issues, it could be that you may have the same issue, its to do with the processor, I cant remember..........
I know if the settings are not perfect you can get noise especially in the shadows more than you would like.
Also it can be the lenses your using............!!!!
I did a side by side identical settings shot with another camera, i would do the same with another Z9.
This is from the coal face not the Net.
I would have it checked by Nikon that its in spec.