C100: Black Balance on the C100

[Michael Thames]

Question concerning setting the black balance. I had a 5 day shoot last week. Before I began I set the black balance, but then totally forgot to ever set it again within the 5 day period. I read somewhere, probably on this forum to set it twice a day on a long shoot. How big a deal is this, because honestly I can't really see any difference, or perhaps I just don't know what I'm looking for. At the very least it's not a disaster is it?

 

[nedcam]

You are fortunate to have a 5 day gig nowadays! I was very conscientious to ABB when I first started using the C100, especially because the manual says to ABB after every time you change the ISO, which is incredibly inconvenient. However, as time goes on I just do it in the morning and then usually forget to do it the rest of the day, mainly because the lens cap is not handy. So if I were you I would not worry about it.

What I have noticed having owned many new model cameras is, here on Dvxuser there is a flurry of thread activity and testing activity the first year. During the first year of a new camera model the pixel peepers here will discuss the noise issue ad nauseum, but I have never had an issue or complaint, however, I usually hand off my footage. When I do edit it on my 27" monitor I don't see any appreciable noise from lack of many ABBs. Perhaps if you're getting high in the ISO and have a dark background, as in doing night exterior shoots, maybe a lack of many ABBs would be noticeable?

So in sum, don't worry about it unless you go into high ISOs in darkness. And if it's a documentary no one cares. I have put a micro label on my VF that says "ABB!"

P.S. There has been much discussion here about Neat software which takes away the noise in post. Also, I notice you ask a lot of questions that were settled here over a year ago by high level tech gurus who are now gone, probably onto the Sony FS7 forum, so if I were you I would do a thread search to get better advice than you will get nowadays. The Noise issue was big way back.

 

[Michael Thames]

You are fortunate to have a 5 day gig nowadays! I was very conscientious to ABB when I first started using the C100, especially because the manual says to ABB after every time you change the ISO, which is incredibly inconvenient. However, as time goes on I just do it in the morning and then usually forget to do it the rest of the day, mainly because the lens cap is not handy. So if I were you I would not worry about it.

What I have noticed having owned many new model cameras is, here on Dvxuser there is a flurry of thread activity and testing activity the first year. During the first year of a new camera model the pixel peepers here will discuss the noise issue ad nauseum, but I have never had an issue or complaint, however, I usually hand off my footage. When I do edit it on my 27" monitor I don't see any appreciable noise from lack of many ABBs. Perhaps if you're getting high in the ISO and have a dark background, as in doing night exterior shoots, maybe a lack of many ABBs would be noticeable?

So in sum, don't worry about it unless you go into high ISOs in darkness. And if it's a documentary no one cares. I have put a micro label on my VF that says "ABB!"

P.S. There has been much discussion here about Neat software which takes away the noise in post. Also, I notice you ask a lot of questions that were settled here over a year ago by high level tech gurus who are now gone, probably onto the Sony FS7 forum, so if I were you I would do a thread search to get better advice than you will get nowadays. The Noise issue was big way back.

Thanks for your reply Nedcam. I feel better now. I need a check list every time I shoot. I go for months not shooting anything then something comes up and usually the first few videos are a disaster before I finally remember what to do. My 5 day gig wasn't a paying job or anything just self promotion.

I have "Neat" but dang it takes forever to render, and I was in a bit of a hurry.