Revisiting HI-ISO and Adobe Denoise AI - 25 Jan 2026

At the request of fellow Sony a1 shooters I'm putting together this post with my evaluation of Adobe's Denoise AI feature. I had mentioned that I shoot birds with Auto-ISO 100 - 64,000 so as to maintain a minimum shutter speed of 1/4000 sec wide-open (f/5.6 on the Sony 600mm f/4 GM OSS + 1.4 TCII and f/6.3 on the Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lenses) and have been extremely happy with the noise reduction capabilities even at ISO 64,000!

I first did a review of Lightroom AI Denoise in 2023 and showed the effects of differing levels of denoising on image quality.

In December 2023 I accidentally bumped my ISO to 80,000 and got some pics so I did a comparison to see how well the Denoise AI performed. Impressive. Taken with the Sony 600/4 at f/5.3 and 1/2000s.

Since then I have pushed the ISO on the Sony a1 so as to maintain sharp images of birds in motion at the expense of image grain. Shooting Auto-ISO 100 - 64,000 allows me to concentration of tracking and focusing in all lighting conditions (bright sunlight to dark shadows of morning or evening). And I have been most satisfied. 

Some examples, below:

I recently photographed a Snowy Owl under low-light rain, fog, early morning conditions and captured nice flight shots at ISO 10000. Taken with the 200-600mm at 600mm f/6.3, 1/4000 sec.

Snowy Owl at ISO 10,000 before (left) and after (right) Denoise AI (50%), Zoomed 300%

Final jpg

In late November 2025 I attempted to photograph Screech Owls using just a flashlight and headlamp so as not to disorient them with a flash. Resulting images were taken at ISO 64,000 and were extremely grainy. Denoise AI did a wonderful job at recovering detail and remove noise. Taken with the 200-600 at 200mm (1/50 sec f/5.6):

Eastern Screech Owl at ISO 64,000 before (left) and after (right) Denoise AI (50%), Zoomed 300%

Final jpg

Many more examples can be found on my blog at birdingthroughglass.blogspot.com