Nikon D7500 DSLR in Low Light – High ISO Sample Images

The Nikon D7500 has a very wide ISO range. In its standard range, it goes from 100 to 51,200. There are also extended settings on both ends, from Lo 0.3 to Lo 1 (Lo 1 is equivalent to ISO 32) on the slow end and from Hi 0.3 to Hi 5 (Hi 5 is equivalent to ISO 1,638,400) on the fast end.

The catch with ISO, of course, is that while the higher numbers are better for capturing subjects in very low light, they also bring the risk of degraded image quality.

Firstly, there’s the problem of grainy, noisy images that is the digital equivalent to the old film grain.

Secondly, as you get into the very high ISOs the sensor’s response to color degrades. So you tend to end up with images that have both noise and harsher colors. Whether that’s a problem depends entirely on what you’re shooting and the look you’re aiming for.

This is an area that the leading camera manufacturers have been improving constantly for a long time now, and the latest cameras are very impressive. The D7500 is no exception, and I’ve been very impressed with the results up to at least ISO 6400 from the D7500, and, in practice, even all the way up to an extreme setting like ISO 51,200 can result in surprisingly usable images in the right circumstances. As you can see from the example below, once you get up into the extended range above that, particularly up around the Hi 5 setting, the images start to become much less useful for anything other than quite niche uses.

To give a sense of the D7500’s high-ISO performance, I’ve put together the shots below. And related to this, I’ve also put together a quick guide on how to change the ISO on a Nikon D7500.

Nikon D7500 DSLR

• 20.9MP DX-Format CMOS Sensor
• Native ISO Range: 100 – 51200
• Extended ISO Range: 64000 – 1640000
• 8 fps Shooting for Up to 100 Frames
• EXPEED 5 Image Processor

How These High-ISO Examples Were Shot

There are no fancy setting settings here-deliberately so. To get consistent exposure across the frames, I mounted it on a tripod and put it on the Aperture priority setting. So the aperture remained constant, with the shutter speed adjusting to compensate for the ISO I was setting.

But there is an important aspect to note. By default, the Nikon D7500 applies noise reduction to high-ISO photos in-camera. You can turn that setting off or change its aggressiveness, but by default, it’s turned on. That in-camera noise reduction doesn’t, technically, affect RAW images as such, just JPGs. But it is applied to the JPG preview images that are embedded into the RAW files and that are the versions you see when you view the image on the back of the camera. Those are also the initial versions you see when you import the images into apps like Lightroom or PhotoMechanic. If you open a RAW file and see the obvious effects of in-camera noise reduction, that’s why. To bypass that, I’ve made sure to regenerate the images below directly from the underlying RAW file. That was done in Lightroom, and I disabled Lightroom’s noise reduction and sharpening functions.

ISO 100

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 2500

ISO 3200

ISO 6400

ISO 10000

ISO 16000

ISO 25600

ISO 32000

ISO 40000

ISO 51200

Extended High ISO

Hi 0.3 / ISO 64508

Hi 0.5 / ISO 81275

ISO 102400

ISO 204800

ISO 409600

ISO 819200

Hi 5 / ISO 1638400

Tools for Fixing Image Files

I deliberately haven’t applied extensive corrections to these images. And the general rule of thumb in photography is that it’s better to get the shot right at the time of capture rather than trying to fix it after. That’s a great aspiration, but it’s not always possible to do if you’re bumping up against limitations or flaws in gear, conditions, or technique.

But it’s worth mentioning that there are some excellent tools available to help address common issues with digital images. And they’re getting better and better all the time as the power of AI ramps up. They can deal remarkably well with anything from high-ISO noise to lens issues like distortion and sharpness. (Note: I’m focusing here on corrections related to image quality, not image enhancement tools.) All-round image processing apps like Lightroom Classic and Capture One have solid tools built in. But it’s also possible to take it much further with more specialized tools.

There are specialized image editing apps available that can do pretty remarkable things in cleaning up image noise at high ISOs, correcting lens barrel distortion or lens vignetting, or other optical issues that image quality out of the camera. Here are some apps worth a look (and have free trials).

For Image Noise & High ISO Artifacts

• DxO DeepPrime
• Topaz Labs’ DeNoise AI
• DxO PureRAW (it works a bit differently and isn’t only focused on image noise, but it can yield impressive results)

For Lens-Related Optical Issues

• DxO PureRAW (again offers an impressive suite of automatic fixes that are applied before you start editing the images)
• DxO ViewPoint (correcting for distortion and geometry)
• Topaz Labs Sharpen AI (in addition to standard unsharp tools, includes focus correction and shake reduction)

Price & Availability of the Nikon D7500

It’s sold in a variety of configurations, from the body only to bundles with kit lenses and accessories.

Buy New

Check the current price and availability of the Nikon D7500 DSLR at:

Nikon D7500 DSLR

• 20.9MP DX-Format CMOS Sensor
• Native ISO Range: 100 – 51200
• Extended ISO Range: 64000 – 1640000
• 8 fps Shooting for Up to 100 Frames
• EXPEED 5 Image Processor

Buy Used

Images and product information from Amazon PA-API were last updated on 2023-04-10 at 17:09. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon Site at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.