In camera noise reduction - Do you use it?

[Soundgeek]

Being the owner of a 350d for around 6 months or so, I have used the camera quite a bit and found it a very capable piece of equipment. Occasionally the need to shoot indoors under low light (without flash) arises, which requires me to boost the ISO to 800 or 1600.

The camera produces very usable results at 800 ISO and 1600 results aren't bad either when compared with many other cameras. However, sometimes the images at 1600 can be a bit too noisy to be usable straight out of camera. In those cases i have resorted to using Noiseware software to remove unwanted noise.

I was wondering how many of you use the noise reduction feature in the custom functions section of the 350d menu or similar camera and how people think it performs at reducing noise.

I have never used it before myself and am wondering whether it would be worthwhile next time i shoot in low light situations at 1600 ISO.

Thanks

[Ultima]

I never use it in camera.I use Noise Ninja plugin for PS and this seems to work fine.

Martin

[kavster]

The noise reduction feature is only enabled for shots over 1 second. It will take a bit longer as it takes 2 shots.

Some shots showing noise on screen, came out perfect in print

K.

[Nick Cartwright]

I think that if you shoot jpegs then there may be some amount of NR applied whatever.

In a recent review I saw, that compared the 400d with the Sony Alpha and the Oly E400, the Canon had least noise, but softer picture at high ISO. They thought this was due to some default noise reduction applied in camera. The Oly had poor noise, but more detail (which could be lost when NR was applied later). Think the Alpha was somewhere in the middle.

I don't think any NR will be applied in RAW. I shoot in RAW and then use the Noise reduction facilities of Capture One to help reduce the noise. It works well with my camera, which has a reputation as a noisy little B**gg*r at high ISO. The Noise profiles are camera specific and work well.

[mr:w]

I've always shot in RAW with no NR and used CS2 to edit out any noise probs

[Soundgeek]

Thanks guys, I think I will continue doing things the way I have been since noisware does work well when needed.