Do you have grainy A1 footage?

In my experience, I found that the number one source of grainy footage was under exposure.
Even when i had gain set to 0 i got grainy footage when i under exposed.
The A1 view finder seems brighter than it should be a little. So unless you are used to it you
can easily under expose.
Set your zebras to 95% and make sure you can just start to see some zebras on shiny skin (ie
top of bald heads, bridge of nose, blonde hair) and white surfaces etc
Also set your gain to -3.
 
i found out very quick when i bought my A1 that the AGC was on... it wrecked alot of my footage when i first picked it up... but at -3 i dont get any gain
but i do find that the A1 dosent have the best low light qualities compaired to other cameras
 
6thirteen said:
i found out very quick when i bought my A1 that the AGC was on... it wrecked alot of my footage when i first picked it up... but at -3 i dont get any gain
but i do find that the A1 dosent have the best low light qualities compaired to other cameras
Click to expand...

Actually yeah, it does have the BEST (under user opinion) low light qualities for it's class. You just need to know how to work it. First bring the iris all the way up. Then take the shutter down just before 1/30 or before you get a choppy picture. After all that your LAST resort is using gain however, you don't want to get too carried away with this. At MAX use +6db. If all you need is an image and don't care about noise just go full. Maybe +12db. When I do this I usually get minimal noise. If you have lighting you can use ND to darken the image up and keeping highlights up. This will give you a minimum amount of noise and a more cinematicish lighting effect.

TOLDJASOOO :2vrolijk_08::nads::Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Hi,

Next Wednesday, I will be filming a short which will be shown online as well as theater projected for festivals.

The short will be very dark and "shadowy" (noir like) What should my camera be set to in order to receive the sharpest, noiseless picture while shooting in 24p. Do you recommend any presets? I also plan on color correcting in (apple) Color.. I have a 4 light tungsten kit in addition. I have had my A1 a year now and have tweaked it quite a bit. However I still am getting a some what grainy picture no matter what.. I will be conducting major lighting test with my A1 tomorrow to try to get everything just right.

Please respond as soon as possible.

I can not afford to have crappy picture for this project!
 
Last edited:
creepyclownproduction's said:
Hi,

Next Wednesday, I will be filming a short which will be shown online as well as theater projected for festivals.

The short will be very dark and "shadowy" (noir like) What should my camera be set to in order to receive the sharpest, noiseless picture while shooting in 24p. Do you recommend any presets? I also plan on color correcting in (apple) Color.. I have a 4 light tungsten kit in addition. I have had my A1 a year now and have tweaked it quite a bit. However I still am getting a some what grainy picture no matter what.. I will be conducting major lighting test with my A1 tomorrow to try to get everything just right.

Please respond as soon as possible.

I can not afford to have crappy picture for this project!
Click to expand...


Of course turn gain to -3 and turn automatic gain off entirely for sharpest picture. As for preset I'd suggest "True Color" but change the "press" to "stretch" I have gotten more compliments off this combo than anything else. Of course Panalook2 is probably the best for low light situation but it will not crush the blacks like true color. Hope this helps.
 
+1 what bentramer81 said. The most common complaint on the A1 is grain caused be people forgetting, or not knowing, to turn the AGC off. -3db for gain is the least grainy. Us enough light to compensate. (Same for audio, with good mics you can shut audio gain off too.)

The second most common complaint is colors that aren't vivid. The default for the A1 is flat. Use the presets for rich color and a great gamma curve. The two presets mentioned are my favorites also.
 
You need to go into the camera menu in the video settings. You will see the option to set L M H gain settings individually. There you will see -3db.
 
Noise Day and Night with the XHA1s

Noise Day and Night with the XHA1s

As you can see, noise in my case has nothing to do with lighting or the lack thereof. The filenames ending with "DN" are after the Neat Video denoise filter applied in post - thank God for them. The only problem with the filter is that it takes 8 hours to process about 30 minutes of video.

If it can be fixed with a filter, there has to be a way to get this camera to shoot without all the graininess. I am determined.

The daytime shot used custom preset "PFVision" and night was "Cine V." AGC off, 0 db gain, 1/30 shutter at night, f-stop 2.0. In both presets, "knee" is set to "low" and black is stretched.
 

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Moving grainyness....

Moving grainyness....

I've been using my A1 for nearly two years and haven't noticed this issue before. The noise seems to be far worse then acceptable, especially when it gets down converted to SD- virtually unusable.
In this test, HDV straight out of FCP 24p timeline, you'll notice it easily in the fence boards- it just dances around. But it's everywhere else too. Does this seem normal to other A1 users out there? I think there's less noise from my 100b.....


http://www.vimeo.com/14015650

Settings are
24F
1/48 shutter
f5.2 (meter shows perfect exposure)
CP1 (SHPR -3, everything else factory)
gain -3
auto off
auto white balance off
5.6k WB
Also the focus is a bit off but in the LCD it was perfect. Shot several tests with focuses with in inches of each other and they all look about the same..... Even tried auto focus and it came up with the same numbers....

Maybe it is normal and I've just lived with it but I can't imagine that's the case.

Feedback is appreciated
 
I just recently noticed the same thing with my a1. But I also just got a new Imac and what im reading is the monitor on theImacis progressive scan and a1 footage is interlaced so you need to deinterlace. watch the original footage on a tv I bet it still looks awesome..
ddp said:
I've been using my A1 for nearly two years and haven't noticed this issue before. The noise seems to be far worse then acceptable, especially when it gets down converted to SD- virtually unusable.
In this test, HDV straight out of FCP 24p timeline, you'll notice it easily in the fence boards- it just dances around. But it's everywhere else too. Does this seem normal to other A1 users out there? I think there's less noise from my 100b.....


http://www.vimeo.com/14015650

Settings are
24F
1/48 shutter
f5.2 (meter shows perfect exposure)
CP1 (SHPR -3, everything else factory)
gain -3
auto off
auto white balance off
5.6k WB
Also the focus is a bit off but in the LCD it was perfect. Shot several tests with focuses with in inches of each other and they all look about the same..... Even tried auto focus and it came up with the same numbers....

Maybe it is normal and I've just lived with it but I can't imagine that's the case.

Feedback is appreciated
Click to expand...
 
I've read through this entire Thread up to this point & have taken note on all of these suggestions (thank goodness for this forum). I just realized tonight exactly how novice I am, after spending the last 6 hours reading hundreds of threads. I've been filming with my XHA1s for the last year using the Auto mode for everything except Focus. With that said, shame on me & I am now looking to configure my camera's Pre-Sets.

Soooo, here's what I'm up to... The majority of my filming is outside & completely un-controlled. The most important times are @ sunrise/sunset (we are filming hunts & those are the prime times for shot opportunities). Having said that, we are still filming hours after sunrise & before sunset, so my lighting conditions are changing dramatically from the time we initially set up to the time we leave the woods. Not to mention, I'm dealing with whatever conditions Mother Nature throws my way (overcast, sunny, snowing, raining) and multiple types of terrain. There is obviously no option for artificial lighting & keeping physical movement to a minimum is critical. I will need to be able to capture descent quality footage while maintaining the ability to zoom at those low-light times, as our target animal could be anywhere from 10yds or over 200. Lastly, I have only 1 opportunity @ the most important part: the Shot & the moments directly before/after it. This is likely to be the only time any fast motion will occur, but as I stated previously, it's the most important part & we generally slow the shot down in post-production. Because of that, we've been using 1080 60i & I'm still thinking that's the best option for me. I really need to be familiar with whatever settings I choose to use & what their capabilities/limitations are.

I understand that there will be no way to completely eliminate the grain all together, given those filming conditions, but I know now that I haven't even begun to get the level of footage that this camera is capable of producing! Since I only have 1 opportunity to create my footage, I really need to be familiar with whatever settings I choose to use & what their capabilities/limitations are, so ANY & ALL recommendations on pre-sets or filming techniques would extremely helpful to me!!

Thanks in advance,
-RaDonda
 
Thanks for these settings. I have been using this camera for over a year, but still have yet to mess with these presets until now. I appreciate your help!
 
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