Past and present
Sometimes it's not until you look back that you appreciate quite how far things have come. A few weeks ago while editing and inspecting some high-ISO images I'd taken in low light, it hit me just how lucky we are to be able to push the sensitivity on modern cameras so high, and achieve plausible results using settings we could have only dreamed of dialing in a decade or so ago. Many of us, myself included, are guilty of forgetting just how far sensor technology and noise response has come, to the point that we often take our camera's high-ISO values for granted without a second thought of how things used to be and where the limitations used to lie. In an AP issue that's dedicated to the subject of noise, how best to remove it and how the size of an imaging sensor has an effect on the level of noise that's created, it seems fitting to cast our minds back and take a close study of what was once deemed an acceptable noise performance, before comparing this to where we are today and briefly commenting on the future.
Camera selection
Initially I thought one of the best ways of illustrating how far noise has come would be to study a mirrorless system from infancy through to today. It was only when I walked past my bookshelf, where I dedicate a
