Lightroom Denoise AI and Vintage Digital Sensors.

Whether crop or Full-Frame I have gone on a bit about vintage digital in this space. In most areas these cameras are quite proficient. Most shortcomings can be overlooked or forgiven when taking the price point into consideration. AF may be slower. Resolution may be lower. But there is one area that Lightroom may have just addressed as a knock on effect to their goal of making modern camera images look better.

Low light/high ISO noise.

I had been happily using the new denoise AI feature to make the images of my shiny new cameras look better. But then I had a thought.

What about these older cameras I like to use?

Started out with a crop sensor. The RICOH GXR to be specific. Low light pics were looking really good… as long as you did not look at it closely. Then I hit it with the Lightroom Denoise AI stick.

Well. Hello there. I like.

Does it replace a sensor that actually performs well with low light? Of course not. But it may squeeze a bit more flexibility out of these older cameras. Next up let’s look at a recent favorite. The Canon EOS 5D. The general consensus?

ISO 1600 is nearly unusable. Do not bother turning on high ISO (3200).

I coped with this by treating it like a film camera, and only selecting ISOs between 100 and 800. A use case assisted by the need to set the ISO for yourself when not using an automated mode. But I had an idea. What if I push LR Denoise AI to an extreme level. In this case that means:

Jump into the custom settings.
Activate extended ISO.
Setting ISO to high (3200).
- I can confirm that 3200 RAW files are unusable as is.
Going out at dusk/late night.
Hitting the RAW files with the Denoise AI stick.

Here are the results.

Conclusion?

I like this a lot.

These are sub 13MP many years old cameras we are talking about here.

Again, this does not compare to a newer sensor. But I am very pleased that if I find myself out and about after dusk or in a cave lighting setting I do not necessarily need a tripod or put the camera away.

Another way to look at it for me is that those who are unwilling or unable to spring for a newer camera… and have access to Lightroom? You have a pretty cool option.

Happy capturing.

-ELW