Canon 7D: High ISO Noise Reduction

category: Cameras • 1 min read

The Canon 7D has a setting with the C.Fn II-2 to reduce the noise in high ISO photos. It’s very simple: Custom Function II-2, set it on and…

Nothing. Nothing happens. I don’t see any noise reduction when in high ISO. Why?

  1. The C.Fn II-2 High ISO Noise Reduction only works in JPEG.
  2. The C.Fn II-2 High ISO Noise Reduction does nothing in RAW. Almost. Actually in RAW mode the C.Fn II-2 High ISO noise reduction is only a flag, to be processed by the raw converter1. I understand that DPP does some extra processing when it finds the High ISO Noise Reduction flag. Neither Lightroom LR2 or LR3, Photoshop CS42 do process the High ISO Noise Reduction in RAW mode.
  3. I have tried it a couple of times in JPEGs. All the extra processing does slow down the Canon 7D. From my almost 7 frames per second, it went down to slightly more than 4 frames per second. Impressive considering the amount of CPU work involved.
  4. The High ISO Noise Reduction in JPEGs does reduce noise but it’s not even in the league of Noise Ninja.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a waste for anybody that uses RAW.

  1. Please note than I don’t know much of DPP. I have removed it from all of my computers ↩

  2. I haven’t upgraded yet to Photoshop CS5 ↩

Canon 7D