FPN shows mainly in Shadow areas of Canon Eos: 5d-III 6d-II 7d-II... included Eos 5D Bias-Map Fixed Pattern Noise, FPN - Click Image, Ctrl+ to Enlarge
The way the sensor is designed lead to high Pixel Response Non Uniformity;
Power Supply corrupts sensor Analog Signal before ADC: Electronic Noise?
Even a 30sec Long Exposure at ISO 100 in Low Light is a Banding disaster: Canon Eos DSLRs mostly Unusable at Low ISO setting in Low-Light
Lifting Shadows was very touchy in PP with almost all these Canon DSLR. In
AstroPhotography, we used to Subtract a Bias-Map (offset frame) from each
Raw file. So, it was more of a pain to deal with the Amp-Glow at bottom-right.
High Conversion Noise, Signal Corrupted fore ADC: Canon Eos (x)xD ..2019 FPN unseen by Dxo method is added here - Clic Image, Ctrl+ Enlarges
Pentax K5 Revolutionary imx071 Exmor, see this 5 min. ZWO Dark-Frame imx071 Dark-Frame 1000x less Noise, 0 Amp-Glow - Click Image Enlarges
The way the sensor is designed cancels 99% Pixel Response Non Uniformity
Nothing really can Corrupt sensor Digital Signal output = close to Zero Noise.
Long Exposures in Low Light at ISO 80 protecting High Lights are a pleasure
The frame is totally free of Amp-Glow even on a 300 seconds Long Exposure.
--The howto both images are from and made is written in their IPTC infos.
Dark Current levels have been Divided by Millions since 1st 1990 CCDs Astro: CCD ST4 of 1991 compared to Pentax K5 Pixel Response non Uniformity Levels have been Reduced a lot. Tartan Fabric,
Fixed Pattern Noise and Banding were totally absent since the Pentax K5 Sony
imx071 "Exmor" sensor. An analog Correlated double Sampling circuit before
the Analog to Digital Converter and a digital CdS after the ADC lower the PRnU
levels to never seen levels. Astro Pics from Exmor Sensor w/o any other Frame www.DPReview.com/Galleries/Tags/Pentax-K5-astro-ISO-80
that 3,4 Flat-Fields and only a few Sub-Frames are far better than what I got w/...
... my Eos 20d-5d w/ Bias-Maps, Dark-Frames, Dark+Flat-Fields, Sub-Frames: Canon Eos-20d and Eos-5d Astro-Photography, Tests ISO-100 vs 1600
Sometimes more than 100 Frames total and the Results were just acceptable w/
Huge Amp Glow ruining each Sub-Frame. Pentax K5 is the very First CMos ILC
that totally gets rid of any Amp-Glow, even after 25 min. Exposures (I tested) !
Stacking is very efficient to Maximize the SNR of low Light Raw files that include
an imperative " Only Random Noise " Condition.
RAW Smoothing Destroys the ' Random Noise Only ' Condition by introducing
Artifacts and by Erasing many Faintest True Stars from the Raw files. Astro-Pics Pentax Q10 w/ 4 min. exposures and w/o Raw-NR beats Sam. NX mini
require True RAWs, avoiding any Raw Smoothing or Star Eating, the Smoothing
of K5's RAW files begins at ISO 2000. Who will use the Pentax K-5 at ISO 2000
knowing that it doesn't have any Analog Amplification after ISO 80. It's far Easier
to get very Hight SNR Stacking a handful of ISO 80 Long Exposures than with 60
ISO-1k6 30sec. Expos. Am I still the only one using the PK-5 at its best ISO 80 ?
For Astro, Birds Photography, there are not so many APSC cameras available with a Crop Mode down to 4:3 or 1" format for stills. Now that they all get Fully Addressable CIS, CMos Image Sensor, RoI - Region of Interest - is a totally CostLess Option, but very useful for AstroPhotography of Deep Sky Small Objects or Birds photography !
Let's examine 2 pairs of APSC DSLRs through P2P.net, a Used and a New one :
Click Image, Ctrl+ to Enlarge
Used APSC Cameras : Pentax K-5(II(s)) betters the Eos 60d in every characteristic, except for the Read Noise where the 60d's slightly better. Canon DSLRs were Champs of the Conversion Noise : Eos-60d = 8.5 v PK-5 = 0.6 ! Red Layer especially suffers from that Huge Conversion Noise level : a Stock Pentax K-5 with an UHCS filter shows www.dpreview.com/challenges/Entry.aspx?ID=1195990 at least equivalent Red Performance than an Expensive Eos-60dA, the proofs here : www.dpreview.com/galleries/7467909648/photos/4208343/pentax-k5-rosette Note that the 52mm secondary mirror of my 200/1000 SkyWatcher is way too narrow ! Pentax K-5's body is Weather Sealed, its specified min.operating temperature is -10°C. The Pentax K-5 also has a very low Dark Current level so that you can Expose until 30 minutes at ISO 80 by 12-25°C ambient Temperature and get so Clean Raw files that the Bias Maps, Dark Frames are useless and, in most cases, you'll only need 3-8 Raw files: www.DPReview.com/Galleries/Tags/ISO-80 17 min Exposure through an UHCS filter to darken the target, then pushed 6 Ev : www.cloudynights.com/gallery/sizes/32054-pk5lv-5-6/large/ Not a bit of Banding, nor any Fixed Pattern Noise. The Pentax K5 is IsoLess, far better results are achieved by stacking ISO 80 subs to get a High SNR picture that you can easily Push a lot than shooting at ISO 1600 as you have to with a Canon camera very Noisy at base ISO. 1st exceptions the last Eos R5 and R6 ! the imx071 exmor sensor inside the PK5 is so fine that chinese camera assemblers did not hesitate launching their Asi071, Qhy168C and so on, at the high price of $3000€ = 3 times, 3x the Price I bought my Pentax K-5 New in Spring 2011 ! Some models are still available at ~half their launch price, see how Low is their imx-071's Dark Current level: Zwo-astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/Asi071mc-Pro - 1st CMos Exmor sensor, still in the Race after ~15 years on the market QHY 168C Medium Size Cooled CMOS Camera The very 1st sensor w/o any Amp-Glow.
Click Image, Ctrl+ to Enlarge
New APSc Camera: if I had to buy an APSc camera for Long Exposure in Low Light or Astro-Photo today, I would certainly choose a Nikon D7500 over a Canon Eos 80d - the Eos 90d has not yet been tested by DxoMark. Pentax K3 I, II, III are Not at the DR level of the K5 ; they do Need Hard Raw Smoothing to follow Modern Dual-Gain BSIs. Proof, the K3-3 Mono w/ imx571 doesn't need that Strong Raw NR to gain 2+ Ev DR. The Eos 80d, now very close to the Pentax K5 is a high progress over the Eos 60d(a). The Nikon D7500 beats them all in all characteristics except for Long Exposure Noise. www.brendandaveyphotography.com/more/Long-Exposure-Sensor-Tests The Pentax K5 is still the Long Exposure King, far less Noisy than either the D7500 and the D500 which share ~very similar sensors, if not exactly the same. Canon Eos 80d is roughly in between both for long exposures, but way more noisy than both the Nikon and the Pentax for Exposures of 30 seconds or shorter.
Click Image, Ctrl+ to Enlarge
Now DxoMark don't allow comparing more than 3 camera. But that wasn't too difficult for me to add the Canon Eos 60d over the screen shots of the 3 APSc DSLRs, Canon Eos 80d, Pentax K5 and Nikon D7500, here sorted by their IQ performance rate.
Nikon-D3X-vs-Sony-Alpha-850-vs-Pentax-K5-Perfs-Compared Incredible, the Pentax K5 beats all these Flagships in almost every criteria measured by DxoMark ! Exception, the Nikon D3x is better of 1 bit Color-Depth in Portrait Mode, but, was launched at $8800 in the UK - more than 8x the price I paid for my new K5 ! The better ISO score of the Full-Frames is logical, it's because their 2,33x sensor Area, all other things being equal, the Dxo-ISO score is function of the sensor's 2 dimensions : Low-Light Photography and Sensor Sensitivity Comparison Tools for Astronomy You see the 24x36 are far from reaching ISO 2707 ! The Sonys are only 1,2x the K5 ! Dynamic Range: the ability to show NoiseLess Details, even in the Deepest Shadows, and here, the Pentax K5 shines: 2,4 Ev better than the 2012 Eos 5D III, 1,8 Ev better than the Sony Alpha-900, first camera to implement an On-Sensor ADC, an Analog to Digital Converter which prevents aSaP the Signal to be Polluted by Conversion-Noise : External ADC, Weak Filtering Power Supply, Weak Shielding ruin the Dynamic Range
DxoMark Print-Mode comparison from 2010: D7k, K5 - to 2015: D7200, K3II
Click Image, Ctrl+ to Enlarge
Despite having 50% More pixels (print) + being 5 years younger, the K3,II show slightly lower performance than the D7k ~5 years ago. The 2015 D7200 has an overall Score 7 points better than the K3II. The D7200 and the D7500 are 1 - 2 steps
upward from the K3 in Image Quality, especially for the DR and ISO rating. Building a DSLR costs much more $ than an EVIL camera, and Ricoh is saving Ricoh will kill Pentax if Not investing in EVILs
on sensor's cost to Reduce that Annoying Penalty. With a Better sensor, the K3 could easily have reached a score of 84 as D5200-5600 did. Please. Note that these belonged to Nikon's affordable class $700-900€, but they sell in sufficient number to Lower their sensor's cost.
This is no longer the case for Pentax since the K3s. Their last Best-sellers were the K5s. The K7 was a slight regression in Image Quality vs
the K200D which had the 10MPx last CCD from Nikon D200. Last CCD from Nikon D200 vs First 1" BSI CMos from Samsy NX-mini For
Long Exposures: the K3 has by far the Noisiest Sensor, compared to the K1 and, to the K5 which values are between ~0.26 and ~0.71 these of the K3.
Pushed +5 Ev, the 5 min. Long Exposure of the Pentax K3 is Bright Light-Pink. Take a look at B.Davey's Long-Exposure-Sensor-Tests in this §
~~~~~ tbc... ~~~~~
K3 III Raw-NR, Mono Dual-Gain, K5 in between
The K3-III Mono w/ an imx571 let us see the big step-up from the K3-III Bayer:
Mono: Dual Gain boosts DR, thus No Need for Destructive 2 Steps Raw-NR.
No interest to cripple a basic CMos w/ Raw-NR, too low Mono Sales Volume
Plus we do know its Dark Current level is very low vs unknown in K3 III Bayer,
but as its basic sensor is just a Cost-Killer to lower the High price of a SLR...
Its Quantum Efficiency is TOP at 91% with the lack of any Bayer Mosaic !
Drawbacks are the Fixed LCD + the fact Pentax won't earn $1 with it.
Click Image, Ctrl+ to Enlarge
Bayer: 2 Stages Raw NR starting at ISO-200 as on a Q-Q10 boosts the DR,
but it kills one part of Stacking Bonus which is based on Random Noise only,
high DR Numbers will never get the Stacking Efficiency of a Dual Gain CMos Pentax Q10 Raw-NR kills Stacking Efficiency vs Samsung NX mini is 5/5
Even by Multiplying the subs, the gain tends to a limit, a Glass Ceiling effect !
Don't know if ISO-100 is really it. Not ISO-75 as it is more and more the case
No idea of its Dark Current level, can be very high, See K3, II chapter Above.
Dont't know its Quantum Efficiency, could be just a bit better than on the K-5. For $2k, better buy a Pentax EVIL, but w/ the imx571 inside
