P: R5 colour noise slider

@fredf_6hou7t9fecc1c

You are most welcome. Since they are free to download and try out, you might have a different opinion. 

Thanks Bill. That's very helpful information since I have been contemplating which AI product to purchase.

People, can we get back on topic please?

There is no question that there is a bug in Lightroom affecting the R5. You don't have to believe me: DPR found the same thing when they tested the R5 - see this example from their exposure latitude test (using Lightroom as the RAW processor):

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/image-comparison/fullscreen?attr144_0=canon_eosr5&attr144_1=sony_a7riv&attr144_2=nikon_z7&attr144_3=panasonic_dcs1r&attr146_0=100_5&attr146_1=100_5&attr146_2=100_5&attr146_3=100_5&attr177_0=efc&attr177_1=efc&attr177_2=efc&attr177_3=efc&normalization=full&widget=784&x=-0.344412222082125&y=0.1654458798444751

I'd love to hear from Team Adobe: has this bug been captured and are you working on it? This seems to be the only way I can report a bug to you.

@fredf_6hou7t9fecc1c

For me, I don't find a need for individual adjustments. By setting the noise reduction to 100 instead of 98 and recover details to 10-20, I get results that are pleasing.

At first I thought that it might overdo the adjustments to low ISO shots but it just nicely cleaned up the shadows and left everything else alone. By keeping the recover detail no higher than 20, sharpening artifacts are minimal though I'm starting to use 10-15. More experimentation needed. 

I also have the Topaz AI tools. It takes 1-2 minutes per image to hand adjust the noise reduction and another 2-5 minutes to adjust sharpness because the sharpness tool inside the noise reduction tool is poor. This has to be done one at a time for each individual image. When done, the results are no better to my eyes than using ON1. 

This is on a 6-core Xeon with 64GB of RAM and only a Quadro P2200 video card. 

OK, got ya.
But I'd think each individual image would still need to be tweeked individually, no?

@nick_tompson

I've got to reread your Dpreview posting and try again but too busy with the garden right now. All I can state for sure is that the ISO 8,000 image had no color noise that I can see on calibrated 4K monitors at 100% and 200%. 

fredf_6hou7t9fecc1c

Batch processing thru ON1 NoNoise AI performs all the noise reduction and sharpening in a single pass. Then those steps are no longer necessary in Lightroom. 

@bill_3305731
I am slightly confused. I always work with raw (NEF) or (CR2) images. Are you using Lightroom when batch processing all your raw images into DNGs "first before importing into Lightroom", or some other application, since using Lightroom will convert the raw images AND import them in the same process?

Also, I ran a test on a few raw (NEF) images and fail to see why these would save me any time when editing. What am I missing please? 

Thank you.
 

Bill, I don't think we're on the same page.

No it's not the video card, and no it's not plugins. It's a bug. We're not looking for colour noise, we're looking for the colour getting smeared in specific places, caused by an incorrect handling of the colour noise slider.

Did you read what I wrote over at DPR? Have you seen the multiple voices agreeing with my observations?

I downloaded the ISO 8000 image. It could be your plugins.

While unlikely to be your Mac, it could be the video card. Apple does a better job of testing video card drivers than Microsoft but still I'd test without the video card active in preferences. 

The ISO 8000 image did have lots of luminance noise but no color noise.

Side issue, I now use ON1 NoNoise AI instead of the Lightroom noise reduction and sharpening sliders. By batch processing all my raw images into DNGs first before importing into Lightroom, I'm getting results that I prefer as well as saving time editing in Lightroom. Even low ISO shadow noise is nicely cleaned up.