Bad noise in low light

I'm an amateur so I can be mistaken, but I had this sort of noise and most of the time it was just a matter of settings.
I never use autosettings...it works outside with a bright sun I guess, but I always use manual settings, specially in low light.
You have to find the right balance playing with Iso/Aperture/Speed in every different light conditions.

(English is not my first language, I hope I'm clear...)
 
Link goes no where... I have been shooting with the GH1 for about 6 months and I have never been happy with results above 800 iso. Even then 800 is a bit hit and miss. I am not sure how people are getting away with shooting iso 1600 with no banding. Nonetheless, you should disable the auto iso and shoot in full manual mode (iso under 800) with some fast glass. This way you probably won't need to crank the iso up too much.
 
It's FPN Fixed Pattern Noise, not 'Banding' as you would see in gradients, walls, skies, etc.
FPN is all too common for the GH1, you have to expose correctly.
Is that the kit lens?? Seems to be worse on that, probably b/c it's such a slow lens. In a lighting situation like that some fixed primes--I use some Canon FD primes, (cheapos- on ebay 30-50 bucks) seem to do much better with handling FPN.
**Also- what film mode are you using?? try 'Nostalgic' Contrast-2, Saturation 0, Sharpness 0 or +1, NR-2. This seems to help in low-light.
 
alignment1 said:
It's FPN Fixed Pattern Noise, not 'Banding' as you would see in gradients, walls, skies, etc.
FPN is all too common for the GH1, you have to expose correctly.
Is that the kit lens?? Seems to be worse on that, probably b/c it's such a slow lens. In a lighting situation like that some fixed primes--I use some Canon FD primes, (cheapos- on ebay 30-50 bucks) seem to do much better with handling FPN.
**Also- what film mode are you using?? try 'Nostalgic' Contrast-2, Saturation 0, Sharpness 0 or +1, NR-2. This seems to help in low-light.
Click to expand...

Technically you will have this problem with any lens, for a given 'low light'. The use of the faster lenses allows one to 'go lower' while still delivering to the sensor sufficient light and not result in this problem.

The 'fix' is to find the level of light, for the given lens, and with the understanding that high iso settings are not 'free'... there's a cost, and part of that cost is the noise...
 
agreed--

but I can put the kit lens on opened all the up @ f4 and put on either a canon 50 mm f1.4 or a 28mm 2.8 and stop them both down to f4 and get completely different results as far as the apparent FPN is concerned.

But yes - for sure there is a price for lack of light and high ISO's and definitely for sure the 'fix' is correct exposure.:thumbsup:
 
alignment1 said:
agreed--

but I can put the kit lens on opened all the up @ f4 and put on either a canon 50 mm f1.4 or a 28mm 2.8 and stop them both down to f4 and get completely different results as far as the apparent FPN is concerned.
Click to expand...


The T-stop system I think is directed to address this sort of variation...

Since I've never shot film film... I'm not that familiar with lenses that have been so calibrated. The calibration I use to do for lenses, was to get a listing their shutter speeds, for leaf shutters, and then I would calibrate via the Zone System for exposure and development.

Since I'd predominantly used only one lens on a given camera... that worked out 'ok'...

If I changed lenses I problably would have been more interested in calibrating the f-stop along with shutter speed.
 
Low light is a problem with the GH1. It can look amazing in low light but if the BG is solid in texture you can get heavy fixed pattern noise. I had a lot trouble getting the right look on this video in the cave sequence, but by positioning lighting correctly and keeping the subject moving seems to disguise it. The cave was shot at either 400 or 800 ASA depending on if the shot was 720 50P 100th or 1080 50th.

 
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