Elhashmyphotography: Nikon D7100 Image Quality

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 24.1 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 10Mb.

The Nikon D7100 produced images of outstanding quality during the review period. The D7100 produces noise-free JPEG images at ISO 100-1600, with ISO 3200 also looking pretty good. ISO 6400 only shows a little noise, while the fastest settings of ISO 12800 and 25600 are quite a lot noisier and suffer from softening of fine detail and a loss of saturation, but the images are still perfectly usable for small prints and resizing for web use. The images were a little soft straight out of the D7100 at the default sharpening setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting for JPEG files. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds and bulb mode allowing you to capture plenty of light. Red-eye was not a common occurrence with the built-in flash, and when we did encounter it, it was very moderate and easily cured by setting the flash to red-eye reduction mode. Active D-lighting managed to squeeze most of the dynamic range captured by the sensor into the JPEGs the camera produced.

Noise

There are 9 ISO settings available on the Nikon D7100 and the ISO speed can be adjusted in 1/3 EV increments. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and RAW on the right.

The Nikon D7100 also has ISO Sensitivity Auto Control, activated from the shooting menu. If set to On, the camera will automatically adjust the sensitivity if proper exposure cannot be achieved at the value chosen by the photographer. The user can put a limit on the maximum sensitivity selectable by the camera.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)


ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)


ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)


ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)


ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)


ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)


ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)


ISO 12800 (100% Crop)	ISO 12800 (100% Crop)


ISO 25600 (100% Crop)	ISO 25600 (100% Crop)

File Quality

The file quality settings available on the D7100 include Basic, Normal and Fine for JPEGs, plus you can also store your photos in Nikon's proprietary raw format (NEF). Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

Fine (10.2Mb) (100% Crop)	Normal (6.95Mb) (100% Crop)


Basic (3.81Mb) (100% Crop)	RAW (27.8Mb) (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes by changing the Picture Styles.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Flash

The pop-up flash on the D7100 has several settings including Auto, Fill-in flash, Red-eye Reduction, SlowSync, Red-eye Reduction with Slow Sync, Rear-curtain Sync and Off. The mode of operation can be TTL, Auto or Manual, and there is Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) available as well. These pictures of a white wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m using the kit zoom.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (27mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (27mm)


Flash Off - Telephoto (157.5mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (157.5mm)

And here are a couple of portrait shots. Neither the flash on or the red-eye reduction mode casused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)


Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Nikon D7100 lets you dial in shutter speeds of up to 30 seconds and has a Bulb mode as well for exposure times of practically any length, which is very good news if you are seriously interested in night photography. There is an optional long-exposure noise reduction function that can be activated to filter out any hot pixels that may appear when extremely slow shutter speeds are used. Do note that this works by way of dark frame subtraction, which effectively doubles the exposure time. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 25 seconds, aperture of f/8 at ISO 100. We've included a 100% crop for you to see what the quality is like.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Image Stabilisation

The Nikon D7100 does not offer body-integral image stabilisation, but the 18-105mm kit lens bundled with the camera features Vibration Reduction, Nikon's proprietary lens-based optical stabilisation system. This allows you to take sharp hand-held photos at slower shutter speeds than with lenses that lack this function. To illustrate this, we took two photos at the short and long end of the zoom, with VR turned on and off.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Image Stabilisation Off (100% Crop)	Image Stabilisation On (100% Crop)
1/6 sec / 27mm

1/6 sec / 157.5mm

HDR

The Nikon D7100 has a HDR mode with four levels of manual exposure and an Auto setting. The camera only combines two shots, one under and one over exposed, to produce the final image, and it's only available when shooting JPEGs.

HDR - Off	HDR - Low


HDR - Normal	HDR - High


HDR - Extra High

D-lighting

D-lighting is Nikon's dynamic range optimisation tool that attempts to squeeze the full dynamic range of the sensor into JPEGs. The available settings are Off, Low, Medium, High, Extra High and Auto. The following examples demonstrate the differences between the various settings.

D-lighting Off	D-lighting Low


D-lighting Normal	D-lighting High


D-lighting Extra High

Picture Controls

Nikon's Picture Controls are akin to Canon's Picture Styles in being preset combinations of sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue. The available choices are Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape. The following examples demonstrate the differences across these options.