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

A

AGMedia

Carbonite Member
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
I have been measuring my noise by recording the scenes then viewing them on the comp after downloading. Noisy as hell.
 
Justyn said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.

noisy.png
 
Replying to the original postee:

The camera is very noisy indeed feed it light and the noise will go away.Im viewing through HDMI /SDTV and CRT.
My 17inch CRT gives me the best image ,But everything else show some form of noise especially in the black and blues.
The noise looks like some photoshop filter.
It's not as clean as the Canon XHA1 which I wish it was. DOnt get me wrong the XHA1 can get very noisy but when it setup right its pretty clean.
Scene Files F3 and F4 give me the least noise but it really depends on what your shooting .
Play with the coring as Hidef1080 mentioned , sharper makes it noisier and cleaner makes it soft .
I cant return mine, it took a while for it to get here in Suriname, and Im starting to enjoy tapeless workflow ( still hate the noise. )

By the way can anyone tell me which is shot with the HMC 150 and which is shot with the XHA1 ?

Note : raw footage Nothing has been colorcorrected.
 

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Maybe there are quality control issues!? Will someone who has a good HMC please post a still streight form the avchd file for comparison to mine.
 
The more i test this, the more unhappy I get, I get noise even in areas that are on the verge of overexposure. This cant be right. At the moment its only looking marginally better than my consumer DV cam.
 
Frankly, this makes no sense to me at all. To call the HMC150's noise "ghastly"? It's soooo much improved over the HVX200 that it's not even funny.

I don't get it. There's got to be either something wildly wrong with your guys' cameras, or your expectations are way out of whack, or ?

The HMC150's noise is extremely better than what you'd get out of an XHA1, XLH1, HD100, or HVX200.

Here, for example, is a comparison shot that Scott Billups did of a $9,000 XLH1, recording through the HD-SDI port directly to CineForm (so, no HDV involved). Look at the noise as compared to the Viper; obviously the viper is whisper-clean and the XLH1's noise is "ghastly" (even though this shot is in broad daylight).
http://www.cinematography.net/hdcamtests/pixelmonger/_CAR_2.jpg

I can say that the HMC150 is cleaner in noise than the XLH1 or XHA1. It's about as clean as the Z1U.

Here are side-by-side noise examples I did comparing an HVX200A (exact same imagers, comparable noise characteristics) versus an original HVX200.
http://www.fiftv.com/HVX200/HVX200-vs-200A-noise-comparison.mp4

Finally, the HPX170 and HMC150 should be absolutely identical in noise performance. Here's tons of videos that show how the HPX170 and HVX200A handle noise. Look through those and see if the noise you're getting seems comparable. If the noise is comparable, then I'd say your expectations are out of line of what to expect from a $3,000 3-chip camcorder and I'd encourage you to try any of the others. If your camera's noise is not comparable, check all your settings and maybe do a factory reset and re-initialize all your scene files, and try again. If it's still not comparable, then take it back to your dealer and compare against a new one.
 
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Image4.jpg

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I got these from Vegas 8 which is still new to me.
I think these came from the preview window and not the timeline.....

Oh yeah, my car is dirty but thses images look clean... No?
 
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Fluffy,

I was looking for an extra setting for the HMC aswell that would clear up the image
Nevermind,
Here are my parents 1080 30p. Lightsource: christmas lights
The next day my father took down the decorations and build a Christmas Tree.
The XHA1 would choke on this scene without more lights.
 

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Hidef those do look pretty clean.But then again its a lower res pic. So I cant judge it

I will try to reset mine Barry .
The viper shot looks terrible but I and others here would know how to get it cleaner even on the XHA1, gain -3 .

The picture from the olderwoman is XHA1 and the younger woman is HMC150.
 
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