New HMC Owner Requests Help - Defective Camera or Me Dumb?

[AGMedia]

I'm now on day three or four with the HMC-150...

I read the manual for weeks leading up to buying it, and I've been following this forum very carefully. All I've shot is PH 720/60p...

The noise on this camera is significant -- way more significant than the worst of all moments of HDV. My footage doesn't come close to as nice as some of the sample stuff posted -- in fact, it's so awful that I can't imagine that my camera is from the same planet as the one that gets all these glowing reviews.

QUESTION: Is there some standard, basic, general thing that I'm missing? OR -- it is possible I have a defective camera?

In other words -- I'm looking for a second opinion before I return it to B&H.
I'm grateful for your thoughts.

[Hidef1080]

There are a number of settings that can increase noise.
High detail levels can increase noise.
High V detail levels can increase noise.
Low detail coring can increase noise.
All of the above work with or against each other along with gamma and the matrix setting and your lighting.


Before you return the camera try some different scene files and try different detail, gamma and coring settings.


After all of that you may find that this is not the camera for you but I think you'll find some settings that will give you the look you like for different lightings.

[ANTshooter]

what camera did you come from before the HMC?

[ullanta]

Also, the master pedestal affects perceived noise tremendously. Drop it a bit!

[ilauzirika]

check the gain switch, is it on? that happened once to me and I got crazy ....... till I realized that it was that switch that was in its highest settting.

Other than that, is DSR on? if not maybe try changing user settings as th others suggested.

[MrFluffy]

Mine is noisy. Havent tried all the manual adjustments yet though.

[Justyn]

ALSO guys... the other biggest factor on this is how you are viewing your footage. My del 2405 is a terrible monitor to view video on. Shows noise that isn't there and shows artifacts and macroblocking that aren't there as well. Great comp monitor.. aweful video monitor...


That might be one thing among others suggested. This camera is way cleaner than the old HVX so it's not a noisy cam by comparison... but you do have to tweek it quite a bit.. I still haven't found the settings I"m totally sold on. I did with the HVX and then never touched them again.. I still have a few more weeks or months till I get that with the 150

[MrFluffy]

I have been measuring my noise by recording the scenes then viewing them on the comp after downloading. Noisy as hell.

[Stevet]

My del 2405 is a terrible monitor to view video on. Shows noise that isn't there and shows artifacts and macroblocking that aren't there as well.

I also have this monitor. I agree, the component inputs are not the best. So, if you are using these inputs to monitor with this monitor, this may be the issue.
Another issue with this monitor is accurately setting up gamma and color.

If you are running the footage from your computer using DVI, this is digital so there is no additional noise added. I've played back blu-ray movies & high quality HD movies using the DVI input and the image is stunning, very clean.

[MrFluffy]

Here is a shot taken with the 151 in F1 720/25p, no gain, extracted raw from AfterEffects from the AVCHD file. No processing at all.

The noise is ghastly.