EVA1: Firmware 2.5 "Smooth" Mode

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filmguy123

Veteran
Hi Mitch,

The firmware notes were really limited as to what the "Smooth" noise reduction mode is all about. What are the engineering differences between this and levels 1 and 2? When would you / would not you recommend it?

Do you and the team feel it gives better results than the GH5 noise reduction? Are there any special advancements in NR engineering that make this update special?

Thanks! Look forward to testing out in depth.
 
The noise reduction levels are progressively more aggressive. Level 1 is the mildest, level 2 is more aggressive, and Smooth is the most aggressive. It will tackle the most noise, at the risk of smoothing out your ultra-sharp 4k image.

Smooth was designed as I understand it to combat high-ISO noise, but it is available at all ISOs.
 
Thanks Barry. So it sounds like there’s nothing terribly innovative about “smooth” - it’s essentially “level 3”? And just extra aggressive, not a brand new more advanced algorithm?
 
Well, it's designed to be good at smoothing out the noise. It was designed to drop the level of perceived noise while maintaining sufficient resolution. Remember that the EVA is notably sharper than competing cameras, which it accomplishes with smaller pixels. Other cameras may not have the resolution the EVA has, but with bigger pixels they may have a smoother image. So with the new smooth setting, it lets the EVA more efficiently and effectively directly deliver results on par with or perhaps better than other cameras do.

The initial design goal was to provide more effective noise reduction under high ISO conditions, which may address competitors' claimed advantages. But only you can decide if you like what it does and how it works. You may notice the finest detail is smoothed over, potentially reducing the overall sharpness of the image somewhat, but keep in mind that the EVA is already overly sharp; any smoothing effect should result in overall image sharpness comparable to a native 4k sensor.
 
Barry has it. Smooth mode was originally designed for ISO 2500-5000, but in testing clients asked that it be available for all modes. At 2500-5000 ISO with Smooth mode enabled, the noise is lower than competing cameras. At the same time although resolving power is reduced the 5.7K sensor with Smooth mode applied still shows greater resolving power than that same competition.
 
Oh, well, that sounds rather nice.

So this "smooth" mode may actual have a subtle "softening" affect on the image if one prefers that over the more hyper detailed, clinical look?

Would you say this should be distinct from the rather undesirable smoothing the GHx line does (the GH5/GH5s can tend to make skin and images look "plasticky" with high NR enabled). Or would say the affect is similar?

Thanks for the great explanations!
 
Excessive NR always runs the risk of causing that plasticky or oil-painting look. It would be less apparent in a raw or live uncompressed image, but once h.264 gets ahold of it, the risk increases that the compression will see big blocks of continuous tone (or nearly continuous) and compress it all as one tone. That's not the camera doing it, and it's not really the NR either, it's the compression that does it. The higher the bitrate, the less likely it will happen. But it happens on all cameras, not just the EVA; it is how the compression system works, discarding fine detail in order to make as much repeated image data as possible.

I'm not saying that smooth will cause it, that's all to be determined by your contrast ratio, the color saturation, all sorts of things that go into determining whether the compression system thinks the image is sufficiently similar such that it can lump it all together into one big blob. Noise helps prevent that from happening; taking the noise out could potentially cause it to happen more frequently than it otherwise would. Testing is your friend in this case.
 
filmguy123 said:
Oh, well, that sounds rather nice.

So this "smooth" mode may actual have a subtle "softening" affect on the image if one prefers that over the more hyper detailed, clinical look?

Would you say this should be distinct from the rather undesirable smoothing the GHx line does (the GH5/GH5s can tend to make skin and images look "plasticky" with high NR enabled). Or would say the affect is similar?

Thanks for the great explanations!
Click to expand...
I can’t really compare to the GH cameras because those are not my line or even the company that I’m a part of.
 
Thanks Mitch. The comparison was requested on a technological basis whether is be VS Sony Panasonic ARRI RED or whomever. I’m basically just wondering if there’s any advances in standard NR here that Panny Pro is proud of vs current market solutions, or if this is engineered to basically just be a pretty standard NR technique that is more aggressive than level 2? Nothing wrong with that, just wondering. (The name smooth implies it’s doing something fundamentally different than “normal 1 and 2”)
 
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