Footage problem, has anyone seen this problem?

Rick Burnett

Rick Burnett

Section Moderator
So last weekend I did a shoot and just now looked at the footage and almost all of it is no good. I have never seen this problem before and really have no clue where to begin understanding why or what it is doing. Mostly it pops up in bright exposure, but here is a screen crop. It's purple or green only and dances around the screen.

This is recorded in camera to the same 16GB transcend card I've been using with no problem since I got the camera. Camera was turned off an on all day and all the footage seems to have it.

I know I will need to contact Panasonic, I just want to know if anyone else has seen anything similar so I have maybe a clue what could be going on. This was for 24p and 60p recording.

AF100 problem.jpg

Rick
 
I just checked all my footage and it is in the strangest places. I *just* used the camera a week before for an interview, no problem. It was kept in a case and very well protected. Talk about not having a clue.

In any case, tomorrow I will start the talking to panasonic procedure.

And now it is not doing it. Although it is colder where I am shooting. Will have to try again on a warm day and see if this is heat related.
 
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I had a little similar look when a Raid of mine failed... could it be bad sectors on the SD card? and only happen when its recording in that spot? Have you done a deep eeror check on the card? I would love to try and find the right project where that "look" was right for the job!
 
Rick Burnett said:
So last weekend I did a shoot and just now looked at the footage and almost all of it is no good. I have never seen this problem before and really have no clue where to begin understanding why or what it is doing. Mostly it pops up in bright exposure, but here is a screen crop. It's purple or green only and dances around the screen.

This is recorded in camera to the same 16GB transcend card I've been using with no problem since I got the camera. Camera was turned off an on all day and all the footage seems to have it.

I know I will need to contact Panasonic, I just want to know if anyone else has seen anything similar so I have maybe a clue what could be going on. This was for 24p and 60p recording.

View attachment 33884

Rick
Click to expand...

So if you did a test shooting a grey card or color chart on your existing card and also on another card...does the issue recurr?
 
Wow, it seems that suddenly there are a flurry of weird problems posted by diehard AF100 users.

Can you reproduce the problem at will, or is it random and unpredictable? Are those dots stationary, in exactly the same place, or do they move? If stationary, could it be something organic on the sensor, rear element or the filter wheel? And could you post another example?
 
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So last night I tested with two cards and couldn't reproduce the problem. The day I shot it was some hot sun, to the point I actually got a sunburn which NEVER happens. I should explain that these strange artifacts don't appear on the whole image. If the color exposed is grayish, like on the left, then it shows the purple. That strange mostly repetitive pattern is only in the flak jacket someone is wearing in that scene. On the right is the hood of a white truck and where the highlights are, you see the same pattern but in green.

On other footage, the same thing holds true. Almost all of the green is ONLY in highlights. And the purple is showing up in grays. Everything else is clean.

I saw this out of the SDI port 1:1 on my DP6 which at the time I was thinking maybe I was having a cable problem or something, but now, I realize I was not.

The only time I have EVER seen anything similar was with the DVI connection to one of my computers. All of a sudden, I'd get green patterns in the highlights on the computer. If I reseated the DVI connector, it would go away. Also, this only happened when the room the computer was in was warmer than normal.

This leads me to believe that maybe I have a heat related issue with a connector or something inside the camera. I don't want to send it back to Panasonic till I can recreate the issue, as they'll have no clue what is going on either probably, if I can't make it happen again. Hopefully, there will be a warm day I can shoot outside and see if it happens again.

The reason I do not think it is the card is because the issue is footage specific. After going through 30 clips, the same situations cause the noise to occur. If it had been a card issue, I believe the artifacts would not have been related to what was in the image at all, but more random or overall in nature. Further, even though you can't see this because I put up a JPG image crop, the H.264 is DEFINITELY encoding this. I can see the color contamination of 4:2:0 in the spots.
 
Mac said:
Wow, it seems that suddenly there are a flurry of weird problems posted by diehard AF100 users. Can you reproduce the problem at will, or is it random and unpredictable? And could you post another example?
Click to expand...

The footage is for a movie that I am not allowed to release, as some of this still might get used as a few scenes are pushing the conditions causing the problem. This week, probably Tuesday, I am going to try and recreate the issue outside and see if I can make it happen again.

Given so far I am the only person to report such a thing, I would consider this rare. Further, we just have no clue at this point what the problem is.
 
I am just at a loss now and will just have to see what Panasonic says. I even let one of my lights heat up the room so it would be a lot warmer and still no issue. I shot on the same card, no problems. Formatted the card and wrote over the whole card filming, no problem. So far I have tried everything I could to get it to reproduce the issue but have had no luck.

Going to try bringing the camera out in full sun today and try again. Strangest thing ever.
 
Did you point the camera directly into the sun? I have heard of weird things happening to sensors from direct sun.
 
I didn't point directly at the sun that I am aware of. It was overhead at the start of the shoot and I was constantly checking the eyecup to make sure it was never pointed at the sun either. By the end of the day, I could have got the sun in a shot, but this is on EVERY clip (about 30 of them).
 
I feel for you man, it's a horrible feeling leaving from a shoot thinking that the footage is great and that it was a successful day, only to find out a technical issue ruined it. I have had similar things happen. That sinking feeling in your gut is the worst. Hopefully your able to do a reshoot without issues.
 
On this one, I don't think we can do a reshoot. One of the problems is two of the props were destroyed and filmed being destroyed. It looks like i'll need to go through every frame and clean up the frames on those shoots in photoshop. That is A LOT of work. Now that I am in pixel peeping, the problem is actually worse than I thought in some of these shots. And yeah, I know what you mean. It was a REALLY horrible feeling writing the director to tell him about this.
 
My condolences, Rick, we all feel for you. Please keep us updated on what Panasonic finds and if they're able to fix the issue or if they choose to replace the camera. Having just gone through a year-long nightmarish repair/replacement issue with them (happy ending at least), I can say that it's very helpful to have a database online of issues that people can refer to. Best wishes to you.
 
Thanks TwinCitiesShooter! I've been in contact with multiple people at Panasonic and they are working with me. Once I figure out what is causing this, I will be sure to share just in case someone else comes across it one day.
 
Okay, I have duplicated the problem. It seems the camera needs to heat up a little bit but then it does make this noise constantly in certain exposures. This is definitely NOT an SD card issue. With the camera doing nothing I can see it on the smallHD (not recording). What is interesting is when I hit record, it gets worse on the smallHD. But it is there regardless. And for your viewing pleasure, here is the MTS file showing it in it's glory. Notice that it is specific to exposure and location on the sensor:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1322848/00005.MTS

Given how I've never heard of anyone else having this problem, I consider it very rare. Nevertheless I will call Panasonic tomorrow and send it in to be repaired. So far they have been great to talk to (New Jersey) and their working with me very methodical. Hopefully they will let me know what happened. I've babied this camera since I got it so I have no clue. Given that when I record it gets worse, it sounds like a power issue.

And before anyone makes the overexposure comment, yes, it happens on non-overexposed as well, I only pushed it further to amplify the effect! :)

And of course, if you don't want the MTS file, check out this screen grab:

af1002.jpg

Notice now it is getting worse, I am getting streaking from the right to left of lines (not always continuous).

DVXUser shrank the size of the image so you are not really seeing it for how it is, definitely grab the MTS.
 
Since you suspect it is temperature related, can you tell us what the temperature was during that first screen shot? It would be useful to know if others are shooting at those temperatures and not seeing the same thing.

This might be something for us to all gather information on to help diagnose it. It needs to be in the hands of Panasonic, but they need solid field data to narrow it down. They can run temperature tests in their labs to try to reproduce the problem, but field data is of great value.
 
The first shot was around 85 degrees out with a hot sun. The MTS file was shot after I warmed up the camera with a light, then went out and shoot in 83 degrees with no sun. After 10-15 minutes, the problem started. Not sure if it heat related per say or just how long the camera is on. Maybe some sort of ground became disconnected and a charge is building up on the sensor or something? Total guess. Regardless, I shipped off my AF100 this morning to Panasonic. They will have it Tuesday and hopefully I'll find out soon what happened!

Thanks for all the works of encouragement!
 
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