An interesting article about the noise characteristics of the F-mount dSLRs at The Luminous Landscape. And as a special bonus, it features a cameo by none other than Scorpio Fish...

And the winner is... hard to tell, but it looks like the S2 is a real contender (as is the 14n).

Before Craig Jones runs out of the room holding his nose at the mention of Luminous Landscape, you should mention that it's an article written by Thom Hogan.

I thought the teasing mention of the 14n being a contender would keep Craig in the room long enough for the page to load and discover that Thom wrote it. Then, perhaps, he might go look at some of Michael Reichman's articles too ( )

Thanks for the link Craig.

Cheers
James

You should have mentioned that he used a 70-180 for the tests. That would have drawn me in.

Besides, I keep LL bookmarked. I like to check it periodically to make sure it's still bad.

Ah, had a free moment to check out the article this morn.

Wow!, if nothing else, that first chart tells us DO NOT shoot the D100 in JPEG mode. Almost 2x as much noise...

And look, the Pro 14n has the same noise characteristic as the S2, and BETTER than the S2 (at base ISO).

Cheers
James

You have to keep in mind that the 14n is deliberately underexposed by Kodak's firmware. Thom mentions this when he says the camera should really be rated ISO 50 (it's rated at 80). If you add 1 stop to his graphs (as you would once you knew to) you can see that the 14n's noise performance is quite good. Thom knows that and currently prefers to use the 14n most of the time. You need to learn how to do the RAW conversions properly, too.

I've been saying that the 14n would make a great underwater cam. It's hard to house it in a ziploc bag, though. Perhaps the S3 will deliver what the 14n promised.

Just saw the article. The professional model used in the Death Valley shot is yours truly.

Notice me leaning over over the tripod? That's because my Bogen tripod crapped out on me and one of the bottom leg sections wouldn't function properly. I couldn't field repair it. I couldn't fix it either. It was kind of embarassing, since Thom authored a tripod tutorial saying, "Don't waste your time with cheaper tripods, just get Gitzo to begin with." Of course I defended my Bogen, because I prefer clamps to twist locks for speed. Then it crapped out. Fortunately, he didn't gloat.

Buy Gitzo.

P.S. While I'm happy with the D100 and have no plans to upgrade anything, it does make we wonder if the S3 will change my mind.

Always have :-)

Buy Gitzo legs but Kirk Photo heads and mouting plates

M