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Some time ago, I created a set of ISO Specific Noise Reduction pre-sets for the Canon EOS 1DXMK3 and the Canon EOS R3. These pre-sets have since been downloaded, tested and adopted by many other Canon 1DXMK3 and R3 users as their working defaults. The significant analysis and work invested in creating these was absolutely worthwhile, and the pre-sets have been a great time saver for me and others in the field. The feedback we have received to date on our work in this area has been fantastic, and some of it is included below – Thank you.

“Josh, your Noise Pre-sets are game-changing and the best I have found and used to date. Thank you”

“Josh, I recently purchased and downloaded your Noise Reduction Pre-sets for the Cannon EOS R3 and I have to say they are phenomenal. Will you please produce a set for the Canon EOS R5?”

“Hi Josh, Just wanted to say your nose presets for the EOS 1DXMK3 are amazing. Keep up the incredible work.”

A set of pre-sets for the Canon EOS R5 (and now the EOS R5 MK2) has been requested for a long time now. I received the new Canon EOS R5 MK2 a week ago and have been busy analysing its RAW files in great detail to create a set of ISO Specific Noise Reduction Pre-sets specific to the R5 MK2. After spending most of the last few days staring at my computer screens and analysing the files in great detail, I have created what I believe to be optimized noise pre-sets for the Canon EOS R5 MK2. If you want a copy of these finished and optimized pre-sets (including the test RAW files), you can purchase them through my store, Melrakki Publishing HERE, for just $20. These pre-sets represent literally days of work to complete, so we ask that you please support this work by purchasing if you would like to take advantage of these pre-sets.

I previously included some history that is important to the creation of these pre-sets in a detailed post HERE. Much of this information is again included below as it is highly relevant to how these pre-sets were optimised. Before I sat down to make these pre-sets, I reached out to a close colleague and engineer at Adobe who is heavily involved in the coding of Lightroom and who shed some fantastic additional light on what some of the sliders are doing ‘under the hood’. I have been using Lightroom since its beta days and have a better-than-average grasp and understanding of what is happening under the hood with most sliders. However, I was able to learn a thing or two that has helped me significantly optimise these pre-sets, and I want to share this information as it is critical to understanding how to set the Noise sliders properly and how they have been applied in the pre-sets I have created. Even if you don’t own a Canon EOS R5 MK2, 1DXMK3 or R3 this information will be relevant and valuable to you. Importantly, this information has been applied in the production of these pre-sets; so when you purchase and install these specific noise pre-sets you can rest assured you are getting the best possible result.

Detail Panel Settings: Before I get into the methodology, I want to make the critical point that both the Detail panel sharpness and noise reduction sliders in Lightroom are interactive. Adjusting one slider is not enough in most instances, and significant back-and-forth play between the sliders is required to set them optimally.

Methodology: Over the last few days, I have done very extensive testing and analysis in the creation of these ISO-specific noise reduction pre-sets for the Canon EOS R5 MK2. To create them, I photographed a large X-Rite Color Checker (A4 video version) in a D6500 light D6500-controlled graphic light workstation with the Canon EOS R5 MK2 and an 85mm f1.2 L series lens at f5.6 at every single ISO stop from 50 to 51,200. Technically, you can push the EOS R5 MK2 to H1 ISO 102,400, but RAW files at this extreme ISO setting break down so badly that it is little more than a marketing gimmick. Thankfully, this extreme ISO range is disabled by default in the EOS R5 MK2, and that is how I suggest you leave it – permanently. Even ISO 51,200 should be used as an absolute last resort. Whilst ISO 50 is an option on the Canon EOS R5 MK2 and has no noise of consequence, it does have a more limited dynamic range than ISO100 and, as such, is not recommended. You are better off using a Neutral Density filter if you need to shoot at ISO lower than 100.

1/3rd stops are ‘push’ or ‘pull’ ISO stops that use in camera software ‘under the hood’ to adjust the exposure +/- 1/3rd of a stop accordingly. As such, I never use 1/3rd stop ISO increments and have my EOS R5 MK2 and EOS R3 cameras set to full stop ISO only. I also find that when I am shooting in the field, I prefer one click to go from ISO 400 to 800, for example, instead of having to make multiple clicks to gain a stop of light. Noise Reduction pre-sets are included for 1/3rd stop increments for those who like to shoot this way or who prefer to shoot Auto ISO.

Aperture priority was used meter as read (no exposure compensation), and only the ISO and shutter speed were varied. The X-Rite Color Checker was used as it enabled me to carefully monitor and check for noise in the shadows and because I wanted to be able to check for individual colour shifts and bleeding at each specific ISO in very specific colours. It should be said that any differences in colour shift would, in all likelihood, not be visible in normal photographic scenes, but using the X-Rite Colour Checker makes it far easier to visually detect shifts or bleed in colour and thus makes it far easier to apply optimal noise reduction in Lightroom.

The RAW files were then imported into Lightroom with the Adobe Color Profile and very carefully analysed at 100%, 200% 400% and 800% magnification. Unlike sharpening, which must be gauged at 1:1 100% magnification, Noise Reduction really requires additional zooming, and with some of the noise control sliders, it is necessary to zoom in significantly to see the differences as you adjust the sliders. I probably spent the better part of three days just staring at these RAW files at different magnifications and visually comparing them side by side as I tweaked the settings in the detail panel for each ISO. The goal was never to make ISO 51,200 look as good as ISO 100 (that simply is not possible); instead, ISO 100 was used as a reference point for all other ISO RAW files to be compared. Then, the sliders were adjusted for each full stop of ISO difference. In other words, the goal was to make ISO 200 look as close as possible to ISO100, ISO 400 as close as possible to ISO200, etc., all the way up to making ISO51,200 look as close as possible to ISO 25,600. Once this was done and checked I then went back and compared the results two full ISO stops difference and then three full stops difference and tweaked further. Finally, I rechecked my settings and results over three days to satisfy myself that I could not optimise them further. It is worth noting that ISO 51,200, in particular, looks very different (horrible) to ISO 25,600 and is the most difficult ISO to make look ‘good’ – don’t even try ISO 102,400. Hence, it has the highest degree of tweaking in the pre-set. Even with this optimised pre-set for ISO51,200, I would strongly encourage you to avoid this ISO at all costs. In real practical terms, I recommend setting a virtual ceiling of ISO 6,400, pushed to 12,800 when you have no other choice. Exceed 12,800 and things begin to significantly break down, and by ISO 25,600 start to become quite horrible. In real-world practical use, I personally try not to exceed ISO 6,400 with the EOS R5MK2 and have a preference to shoot at ISO100 or 200 as my baseline. I will happily go to ISO 3200 and even ISO 6400 before I start worrying too much about noise, with ISO 12,800 being my absolute ceiling.

To visually analyze the RAW files, I used two different high-end displays: the BenQ SW272U, which I reviewed HERE, and an Eizo Colour Edge CG2700X. Both displays are high-end Adobe RGB, 4K, and were optimally calibrated to D6500K with a setting of 80 candelas, which is appropriate for the light levels in my viewing studio. I utilised two different monitors as I discovered that different displays render slightly differently, and it was necessary to optimise and average across the different monitors. It should be noted that if you are using a laptop screen, you are at a very significant disadvantage for rendering colour and analysing noise. In fact, making any sort of colour-critical decisions on a laptop display is a really bad idea. If you do not own a high quality photographic display and you care about your images then this should be your very next purchase.

Noise Reduction and ETTR: When setting the sliders in the Detail panel for sharpness and noise reduction I erred on the side of caution and was very deliberately cautious and judicious in the amount being applied. The primary reason for this is I did not want overly aggressive noise reduction in these pre-sets. Since exposing to the right (ETTR) is optimal in the field (without clipping the highlights), tweaking the exposure down in Lightroom during post-production results in lower levels of noise than under-exposing or even exposing ‘meter as read’. In other words, the pre-sets are optimised for RAW files that were optimally exposed in the field. If you are applying these pre-sets to an under-exposed photograph that you are ‘brightening’ considerably in Lightroom, you may well need to apply additional noise reduction. Thus, the pre-sets will work optimally when you have exposed optimally in the field.

Problem Files: If you have a particularly noisy and problematic file, you may be better off using a third-party Noise Reduction program in addition to the ISO-specific pre-sets I have created. I am currently using both Lightroom AI Denoise and Topaz De-Noise for any file that is particularly problematic in addition to the ISO-specific pre-set. Think of the ISO specific pre-set as a starting point for problem files. Don’t try and apply them to a file you have already processed and expect a magical result.

Camera Profiles: Adobe encountered some difficulties building camera-specific profiles for Canon models (including the EOS 1DXMK3 and R series cameras) because of the switch to the new CR3 file format. Adobe has since resolved this issue and resumed offering camera-specific profiles. For these pre-sets for the Canon EOS R5 MK2, I used the standard default Adobe Color profile. I recommend not getting too hung up on Camera profiles as changing profiles may improve the look of specific files in certain situations, but once you start twiddling the processing dials in Lightroom, all bets are off as to which may give a better result. Since ‘Adobe Color’ is the default, it made sense to use this as the baseline for the Noise Reduction pre-sets.

Sharpening Amount: The pre-sets do obviously vary from ISO to ISO, and some of the ISO pre-sets include a component of Sharpening above the default setting of 40. Since Sharpening and Noise Reduction are interactive and affect each other (that is why they appear together in the Detail panel of Lightroom), it is necessary at some higher ISO settings to add additional sharpening to counter the ‘digital smoothing’ of the RAW file that results from higher amounts of Noise Reduction. This additional sharpening kicks in from ISO800 in the pre-sets for the EOS R5 MK2. The sharpening amounts applied in the pre-sets are a cautious baseline. In other words, where sharpening has been applied at a given ISO pre-set it is only enough to counter the digital smoothing applied by the noise reduction algorithm. You will still need to add additional capture sharpening to your file. The amount of additional capture sharpening you will need to apply will vary depending on the quality of your lens, the sharpness of the capture and the atmospheric conditions at the time of capture.

Sharpening Radius: None of the pre-sets alter the Radius since the correct setting will vary depending on your particular capture. Photographs with a lot of high-frequency information will generally want a lower Radius (less than 1), and photographs with mostly low-frequency information (think portraits) will necessitate a higher Radius. The default setting of 1 is a good general setting and, thus, is not touched in the pre-sets.

Sharpening Detail: Sharpening detail is quite a complicated slider requiring more explanation. When adjusted to the left, toward 0, the Detail Slider applies halo suppression, which limits how strong the halos are in your number settings. Moving the slider past 25 (the default) causes the slider to change its behaviour and apply a type of deconvolution sharpening similar to the de-blur tool in Photoshop. Deconvolution sharpening attempts to de-blur an image based on what type of blur it detects in an image. The thing to keep in mind is that excessive use of the sharpening detail slider will substantially increase the sharpening of the noise. Generally speaking, if you set the amount and radius correctly, there is little need to change the detail slider, and the default setting of 25 is appropriate.

Sharpening Masking: None of the ISO-specific pre-sets include any masking component. Since masking is image-specific, you will need to apply this based on the requirements of your specific image.

Luminance Noise Reduction: Lightroom does not apply Luminance Noise Reduction by default, so the pre-sets mainly optimise the Luminance, Detail, and Contrast sliders. No luminance noise reduction is applied below ISO 400 in the pre-sets. It simply is not required in Canon EOS R5 MK2 files. Even ISO400 pre-sets only have a very low setting for luminance noise reduction, and it could be argued that this is unnecessary in some cases. Visible differences in grain structure are only discernable with RAW test images at high magnification (200%, 400% and 800%). Nevertheless, a small amount of luminance noise reduction is beneficial in ISO400 files when correctly exposed. Underexposed files may require additional noise reduction.

Luminance Noise Detail: This control sets the noise threshold. Dragging the slider to the right will preserve more detail; however, it does cause some noise to be incorrectly detected as detail and, therefore, will not be ‘smoothed’. Decreasing the slider will increase ‘smoothing’ but cause some details to be incorrectly detected as noise and smoothed out. The Luminance Noise Detail slider is only activated when some Luminance Noise reduction is applied. The default value once activated is 50, and setting this slider optimally for high ISO images is a bit of a balancing act. Luminance Detail kicks in at ISO3200 in the pre-sets for the EOS R5MK2 (it kicks in at ISO 6400 for the Canon EOS 1DX MK3 and EOS R3). At extreme ISO settings such as ISO 25,600 and above, less luminance noise detail is applied to reduce noise being incorrectly detected as detail. A lot of testing and a lot of care went into the amount applied in the pre-sets. This is where a lot of high magnification zooming (up to 800%) was used to discern differences in the settings.

Luminance Contrast: Like the Luminance Noise Detail slider, the Luminance Contrast slider is only activated when some Luminance Noise reduction is applied. Dragging this slider to the right preserves image texture and contrast but results in the potential for mottling in high ISO images and re-introducing noise. Leaving it at the default setting of 0 helps with fine-grained, smooth results. Like the Luminance Noise Detail slider, setting this slider optimally at higher ISO images is a balancing act between adding contrast, enhancing surface texture and avoiding mottling and more noise. Luminance Contrast kicks in at ISO6400 in the pre-sets for the EOS R5 MK2. Because of the tendency for mottling and additional noise at higher ISOs, the Luminance Contrast is actually used more sparingly at extremely high ISOs. Again, a lot of testing and a lot of care went into the amount applied in the pre-sets.

Colour Noise Reduction: Lightroom does apply a default Color noise reduction of ’25’. What is critical to understand is that the default of 25 for RAW files is a baseline of colour noise reduction. You should think of the value of 25 not in an absolute sense but in an ISO-normalised sense.  What this means is that for a very clean image, like an ISO 100 RAW file from the Canon EOS R5 MK2, the Colour Noise Reduction slider in general is doing very little, because the image is so clean to begin with.  On an ISO 6400 image from the same camera, though, Color Noise Reduction of 25 is going to do quite a bit more.  In other words, how much work goes on under the hood for “Color Noise reduction = 25” depends both on the camera model and the ISO, because Adobe calibrate each camera model and ISO, and the Color Noise Reduction slider is “aware” of this. This means that even on a very clean image like ISO 100 from a Canon EOS R5 MK2, you don’t have to worry about damaging the image quality by leaving Color Noise Reduction at 25, because Colour Noise Reduction will do very little in this case. Since the Colour Noise slider at its default setting of 25 is applying adaptive noise reduction that is both camera and ISO specific it is not altered in any of the pre-sets from its default setting. I did spend quite a lot of time trying to tweak this slider at various ISO settings, but came to the visual conclusion that the results are optimal at the default setting of 25 (Adobe have done excellent work in this area). Applying more than 25 very quickly results in colour bleeding that is sub-optimal. Be very careful if you start tweaking this slider.

Colour Detail: The colour detail slider is most useful for extremely noisy images. It allows you to refine colour noise reduction for thin, detailed colour edges. In essence, at very high settings of 75+, Lightroom tries to retain colour edges but at the expense of colour speckles. At lower settings, the slider works to suppress colour speckles, but thin features may become desaturated (colour bleeding). In order to see the effect, it is really necessary to zoom in at least 200% or 400%. Colour Detail kicks in from ISO 6,400 in the pre-sets.

Colour Smoothness: The colour smoothness slider defaults at 50, and at moderate settings above 50, it can be used to suppress colour blotching or mottling. At very high settings, it may cause some desaturation of colour at the edges, so a lot of care needs to be taken when setting this slider. Colour smoothing kicks in only from ISO 25,600 in the pre-sets.

Lens Corrections: No lens corrections are applied in any of the ISO-specific noise pre-sets.

Canon EOS R5 MK2 Comments: With the ISO-specific noise reduction pre-sets applied between ISO 50 and ISO 400, there is no appreciable difference in noise in real-world RAW files – for most purposes, they are close enough to be identical. Between ISO 400 and ISO 800 there is only the smallest of differences discernible at 200% in the ultra finest surface texture (You would never ever notice this in real world captures). By ISO 3200, the tiniest ultra-fine surface textures are just starting to disappear from the RAW file when viewed at 100% or more on-screen (again, you will never notice this in the real-world captures). At ISO 6,400, the finest surface textures continue to disappear, and ultra-fine detail is also starting to disappear. Fine hairs are still visible and look good, but the finest minute detail is now obscured. Again, you would likely not notice this in real-world RAW captures (You really have to look for it in a test image at 100% or more magnification). Nevertheless, my recommendation is that ISO 6,400 is a realistic workable limit. Above ISO 6400 both texture and detail continue to disappear as the ISO increases. ISO 12,800 has a noticeable loss in fine detail compared to ISO 6400. At ISO 25,600 the finest surface textures are gone. Fine hairs are no longer visible and are lost in the increased grain structure. At the top end at ISO 51,200 we have lost all surface texture and all fine hair detail. ISO 102,400 is an absolute last resort and is to be avoided at all costs. I strongly recommend you leave ISO 102,400 disabled (Canon is correct leaving this disabled by default). The pre-sets do their best to make this extreme ISO look as good as possible, but in reality, there is no helping ISO 102,400.

Side Note: Canon EOS R5 MK2 vs. Canon EOS R3 vs. Canon EOS 1DXMK3 Comments: RAW files from the Canon EOS R5MK2, EOS R3 and the Canon EOS 1DXMK3 were compared and analysed at 100%, 200%, 400% and 800% magnification side-by-side in Lightroom. Directly comparing the RAW files shows no discernable or appreciable difference in noise between ISO 50 and ISO 51,200 for the EOS R3 and the EOS 1DXMK3. Side by side, it is impossible to pick one from the other in a blind test. At ISO 102,400, the Canon 1DXMK3 has a very slight advantage in grain structure, although it is likely this difference would never be visible in real-world photographs. What this demonstrates is that noise levels have more or less plateaued in digital sensors of this 24-megapixel resolution. Despite the Canon EOS R3 having a brand new engineered BSI sensor with a few more pixels, there is no real advantage in noise over the sensor in the Canon EOS 1DXMK3. The Canon EOS R5 MK2 has more noise than both the Canon EOS R3 and EOS 1DXMK3 because of its higher pixel density. It should be noted that the performance of the EOS R5MK2 is exceptional for a camera with 45 megapixels, however, it is not in the same league as either the EOS R3 or the EOS 1DX MK3 when it comes to high ISO noise performance. Of course, we will test the Canon EOS R1 later this year and compare it to all three cameras as soon as possible. We will also produce a sert of noise reduction pre-sets fo the EOS R1 in due course.

Demonstrable Visual Results: In case you are wondering why I have not dotted this long post with visual examples comparing various ISO’s pre and post ISO specific noise pre-sets, it is because the images, once converted to jpeg and resized for the web, are not representative of the RAW file results. Conversion to jpeg and downsizing to something suitable for the web has a very significant effect on the visual noise in an image. Downsizing removes visible noise and thus distorts the visual results significantly. However; I have included a copy of all the RAW files I photographed of the X-Rite Color Checker in the creation of these pre-sets from ISO 50 to ISO 102,400; so you can visually see the differences yourself. Just import the RAW files into Lightroom, apply the pre-sets and do a before/after comparison. You may need to zoom in to 200%, 400% or even 800% to see differences.

Conclusion: Creating these ISO-specific noise reduction pre-sets for the Canon EOS R5 MK2 was a worthwhile investment in time and energy. It has been very educational (although time-consuming), and It should considerably speed up any workflow for someone that is shooting with this camera as the pre-sets can be applied on import. As they are ISO specific, Lightroom will then apply them correctly to each different ISO file you import. Since significant time and effort went into optimising these pre-sets, you will not have to worry about whether you are setting your noise reduction optimally. Just make sure you expose optimally in the field, apply the pre-set on import into Lightroom and you can then focus on processing your photograph. Just remember, you still need to apply an appropriate level of capture sharpening for your RAW file in addition to the ISO-specific sharpening that may be being applied in the pre-set. Happy processing!

PURCHASE THE OPTIMISED CANON EOS R5 MK2 NOISE REDUCTION PRESETS