D700 vs D800 Image noise

[Lance B]

It seems that one of the lessons from all of this is, if you can't avoid high noise,then, defeat it later using good noise reduction software ( which is what Mongo has had to do).

Mongo, that has always been the case, even with my D700 and D7000, however, with the D800/E, I have less noise in comparison for the same given ISO. At the end of the day, we bask in the ability to use ISO's right up to at least ISO6400 which was completely undreamed of 5 years ago. If someone had said to me, when I was shooting Pentax way back then, that I could use ISO6400 and get results I posted above, I would have scoffed at the notion and would have told them, as Michael Caton says in The Castle, "Tell him he's dreaming".

[Wayne]

I'll concur with Lance and Sar,
As a former D700 user, I have found the D800 appears to have greater noise at 1:1, but down sampled, it is superior. I have also noticed that correct exposure makes a much bigger difference with the D800 given the tiny pixel size, and you need to be diligent, just the same as you do with focus at very wide apertures.

I will go as far as saying that when properly exposed and down sampled to the same size as images from my D4, it is not that far behind in performance to ISO6400.

[Goatch]

Thanks so much for all the info and input on this , I am using CNX2 2.4.1 which I thought was the latest , I encountered issues previously when I tried downloading from the US site to upgrade to the latest US version of CNX2 and have to admit I'm hesitant to do it now , but the latest version with the improved noise reduction is compelling

[arthurking83]

I haven't update my 2.4.0 to 2.4.1 .. as my understanding is the update is simply for a couple of new cameras .. which I don't have.
(I may update for no real reason one day soon tho .. but it's CNX3 that I'm hoping for in the next few weeks )

No new features between those two versions, and no bug fixes that affect me.

The better quality 2012 noise reduction has been available since one of the 2.3.x version .. just can't remember which.

As long as you're getting good quality noise reduction properties for your needs then all is good.