NOISE in BLACKS

Has anyone had the same experience of owning an HVX-200 and the blacks getting progressively noisier?

I was one of the early adoptors of the HVX-200 here in the UK. Had it for a considerable time now but I've noticed the blacks seem to be degrading to such an extent that I have no confidence in using it for clients now.

Is there a life span to the sensors on these cameras? has anyone else had the same degridation in their content? Is it something Panasonic would likely fix?

Thoughts and comments?

I've attached a couple of stills from a music video I DOP'd showing you, what I think, unaceptable noise levels.

[Barry_Green]

Are you sure anything's progressively changed? Can you dig up similar-style footage from early on, and see any differences?

[ROne]

We've had ours about the same time as yours. I can remember you getting it.

Two things, have you done a complete reset of all settings? Also I reckon your eyes 'learn' to see stuff over time and what may have been acceptable then might not be now.

We have the 171 too, and it is much better in the noise department.

Also where is your MP set? IIRC it should be -3/-4 for the HVX.

[TimurCivan]

reset your Black balance.

it will help. i think it looks fine... but if you say so...

Originally Posted by TimurCivan

reset your Black balance.

it will help. i think it looks fine... but if you say so...

I reset everything at the beginning of every shoot.

Do you honestly think the noise in the blue Polo Shirt is acceptable?

and Barry, I've dipped into some archive stuff to see if there was something alike and yes there is noise there but no where near what I'm getting these days.

I've attached some early samples of stills with dark areas within the image and they all seem (to me) perfectly acceptable for noise.

Time for a service me thinks. I've just got the Camcorder back as well after getting the infamous battery tab breakage plate replaced. Bugger.

[gordie]

im finding the same problems... excessive noise is driving me crazy

not just in low light too, in almost all lighting scenarios im getting pretty bad noise now, its brutal

Originally Posted by gordie

im finding the same problems... excessive noise is driving me crazy

not just in low light too, in almost all lighting scenarios im getting pretty bad noise now, its brutal

Glad to know it's not just me then. Anyone else have this problem?

[TimurCivan]

i see what youre talking about now...

Hmmm....

Whats your preferred gamma setting? Perhaps, see if it was accidentally changed.

[trez]

I've had similar experience with my camera - couldn't help the feeling the noise level was increasing as time passed. Three days ago I went to the store and compared it to the brand new one. When I checked the footage from the new camera I was sure it was way less noisy. But then compared it to the same shots from mine and... guess what? They looked exactly the same. I couldn't tell the difference ;) Think it was just my initial excitation gradually settling down.
By the way - I wouldn't call the noise level on your stills 'normal'. This is MUCH more severe than what I get with my camera (but I got HMC which is known to be less noisy).
Attempting to reduce the noise I came to conlusion I prefer to shoot with detail level down and sharpen in post if I need. It reduces the noise significantly. Think it's less demanding for the codec, too. Also - no more CineD gamma... mostly use B-press now.

Originally Posted by trez

By the way - I wouldn't call the noise level on your stills 'normal'. This is MUCH more severe than what I get with my camera (but I got HMC which is known to be less noisy).

I don't think I ever did say it was normal. My initial thread questioned the fact I think the noise levels have become so bad that I had no confidence whatsoever in using the camera and I believe the second batch of still's I stuck onto the thread, hinted that the noise levels were acceptable (to me) when I first got the camera.

Didn't mention 'normal' in any of the discussion.

Regards

Rich