Sony A7R II High ISO NR

Sony A7R II High ISO Noise Reduction

The Sony A7R II offers only three High ISO Noise Reduction settings: "Off", "Low" and "Normal" (default). The user manual doesn't say at what sensitivity High ISO Noise Reduction begins to be applied, so we've included crops from ISO 50 on up to find out.

See for yourself how the the default and lowest noise reduction settings compare to RAW files with no noise reduction or sharpening applied. Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

As you can see, the Sony A7R II's default High ISO Noise Reduction is applied at all ISO sensitivities, and the "Off" setting really isn't off (which is almost always the case), as the A7R II still applies fairly strong noise reduction with that setting at high ISOs. The Normal setting does a very good job at removing almost all chroma noise, but it does start to impact fine detail in our difficult red-lead swatch already at low ISOs. The "Off" setting on the other hand preserves more detail but leaves a lot of chroma noise behind, and it also produces more objectionable luma noise in flatter areas with a peppered effect at moderate to high ISOs. Unlike the A7R, though, the Sony A7R II's high ISO noise reduction does not suffer from the issue of blurring our red-leaf fabric more with the "Off" setting than the Normal setting at moderate to moderately high ISOs.