I shot 2 basketball games back to back last week completly at 6400 ISO and it turned out great.

plus, i took almost 1100 shots (plus 3 5-min videos) and the battery reads 45% which is shocking

full res pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=302709&id=717236200&l=92ae92bde3

The images have been reduced to 1800x1200 with some light NR in lightroom, in addition to the standard jpeg NR in-camera.

I can see what you mean; there's more red stuff at the bottom than in other parts of the image.

But honestly, it's ISO HI2 for a reason. I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you (mostly because I wouldn't even touch those ISOs).

"So...
1. Why are you shooting with your lens cap on and think a good image comes from it"

LOL

I have similar results with my D7000, at iso 25600 the noise seems to be mostly at the bottom of the image.

I wonder if updating the firmware helps.. I don't really mind that noise at such high iso. I know that if I shoot this, I'll make it b&w anyway

Magenta from sensor heating starts creeping toward the center from the corners and remains stronger in the corners. If it evenly covers the sensor then it is something else.

heartyfisher said:
??? What ?? That red stuff cant be normal!! can you take a photo with the same settings with the lens cap on and show us?

That red stuff is very normal. My D80 looked like that at 1600 with the lens cap on or just normal for anything over 30sec night sky exposures. From what one tech told me was that it was the sensor heating up that somehow showed it. I think he was full of BS - I think red and magenta shows because of the color's spectrum wave lengths. That is why they use IR for night vision. (It's filtered green.)

So...
1. Why are you shooting with your lens cap on and think a good image comes from it
and
2. What is your need to shoot at 25600?

My D7000 looked similar at that high ISO. I don't think ISO above 3200 is very useful except in emergencies.

The first pic had the lens cap on. Both of them had NR set to normal. At iso 6400 with the lens cap on, there was also a "red band" (not enough to bother me but it's there).

I'm just concerned because the noise/red band whatever that is shows up in the general area (bottom) at high iso + dark/black stuff.

On the 2nd pic at my first post, that is a black computer case but you can see the red noise... on the right of it is a black mesh thing it's not supposed to be red. Also, that pic was the bottom part of the full size image maybe resized a little too i forgot.

Looks like noise is quite well under control overall with some amp noise showing on the lower part of the picture (uppper part of the sensor). Very acceptable for that ISO, esp. considering it is HI-2.

??? What ?? That red stuff cant be normal!! can you take a photo with the same settings with the lens cap on and show us?

Notice how the redness is under the envelope, was is darker under there? I see nothing wrong, you are using it at it's highest iso, what are you expecting to get?

did you try another D7000?

thouygh I agree using 25,000 is about pushing D7000 to its limits .

You guys have got to be crazy! That is very, very good noise for a speed that doesn't even exist in film. There are very rare situations anyone ever needs to shoot above 3200 and if you do, you shouldn't expect too much or just convert to B/W. You start to loose allot of detail above 1600 on almost all cameras. (Shoot some Macro shots to see this.)

The one thing to keep in mind when looking at noise and what "testers" show. They almost never try to show noise in the real situations of very low light. Noise levels on a perfectly lit scene are always going to show very little nose. Take a picture of friends in a bar and that is where noise really happens.

That is noise from the amplified sensor signal. It is common in the dark areas or underexposed areas of a picture that is shot at high ISO. Most cameras do not produce good results even at the highest in spec ISO's once you are out of spec it goes ugly fast. I tried a few shots at HIGH 3 108,000 on my d-3s and they were really ugly more noise thatn picture in the dark areas.

Maybe it's my monitor, or maybe it's my glasses, but I don't see anything out of the ordinary in these pictures, at least nothing I wouldn't expect at ISO 25,600. The second photo also looks like you've got flash going in conjunction with the high ISO, which I'd expect to up the noise a bit, as well. Still looks better than my Kodak at 1600. :)

Not every sample taken at ISO 25600 is going to be the same. I don't see anything wrong really. It's ISO 25600 for crying out loud. You're pushing the camera to the limits so don't expect spotless images at that high of an ISO.

Perhaps it's a faulty camera. Looking at several samples at ISO 25600 on the web, I can't see that red band of yours.

Saludos!

Do you have NR turned on

25600 is cool as B/W :-) The grain looks really nice then.

I think the 25600 is useless, looks like as a mobile ;)

I took these using the highest iso (h2) setting and if you look at the bottom part of the pics there's a bunch of red dots. They only show up at the bottom and only when that part is dark. I cropped the 2nd pic just to show the noise and i'm just wondering if this is normal?