GH2 Noise and Posterization...

EditPhish

EditPhish

Well-known member
Hey Guys... I'm hoping you can all help with this. I'm not even convinced it's the camera's fault, as it could easily be something in my workflow.

I recently got the GH2 (few days ago)... still figuring it all out as I'm really just getting more into shooting video (though hubby and I have submitted in fests here, I'm really no expert). I'd call myself an advanced photographer but a novice cinematographer ;)

Here's the situation...
I shot video over the weekend of my family... mostly to test the camera out, see how it does hand-held, play around with using it and get familiar with the beast. 1/2 of the video is with the GH2 (battery died after 2 hours of shooting 30 minutes worth of footage), so at the 1:30 mark it switches over to the GH1.

Shot mostly in Nostalgic mode. Some was shot with dial on M. Some with dial on Movie mode.
Most with 20mm f/1.7 Pancake... a few shots with CV 50mm f/1.5 Nokton.
I used iMovie 11 to bring my AVCHD footage in. 720/60 is what it was shot at. Full quality when imported.
Edited in iMovie (for simplicity... and Final Cut is on my husband's computer)
Exported out as Quicktime to upload to YouTube and import into my iTunes Library. Exported out using the preset HD Setting (720).
Dragged into iTunes to watch on AppleTV (2).

Somewhere along the line I got a lot of posterization. You can see it in the darks especially, but even in skin tones at points. It looks OKAY on YouTube though it is noticeable in spots, but it is REALLY noticeable on the AppleTV.

I've tried searching for info on this around the web, but I'm having a problem determining where the problem might lie... could it be my quicktime codec?

Can anyone offer assistance in this? The GH2 seems like a great camera, but this was a frustrating outcome...

Here's the video: (don't judge as a work of art! LOL)



ps... if this belongs more appropriate in one of the workflow forums, I understand...

Thanks!
 
I bet it's when you exported out for AppleTV using that preset. I just bought The Social Network in HD on iTunes and am very frustrated by the amount of posterization caused by the compression...I am thinking this is caused by Apple's AppleTV preset compression scheme.
 
Interestingly enough, I haven't run into it on the AppleTV before (that I noticed right away like this time). I've got lots of our self-made movies on there, even some recently shot with the Pentax K-x and edited through iMovie... though I'll admit, those were outside in good light. I know i've struggled with getting the best output out of iMovie before though... I had a big posterization problem with making a DVD of one of my daughter's performances recently.

Any suggestions for optimal settings when exporting out of iMovie?
 
EditPhish said:
Any suggestions for optimal settings when exporting out of iMovie?
Click to expand...

Instead of the presets you can use the option: Share - Export using Quicktime, and from there you can choose H.264 and have more control over the bitrate and various settings of export, as opposed to the default standards when you use share - export movie. It's how I've always exported from iMovie with great results, as you're using the same export engine that FCP would use (more or less).
 
Thanks! I think I've used that option in th past with an older version of iMovie. Any suggestions on settings to help avoid posterization? What's an optimal bitrate for example? Feel free to give me links to read too...

Thanks again!
 
Nostalgic mode may not be helping you there, neither is the YouTube compression. "Posterization" implies to me that there is too much NR. Playing with your contrast settings may help, as well.
 
kato said:
Nostalgic mode may not be helping you there, neither is the YouTube compression. "Posterization" implies to me that there is too much NR. Playing with your contrast settings may help, as well.
Click to expand...

I can turn down NR in the film mode, but I'm really thinking it's the way I exported out of iMovie rather than the camera. If you saw how bad it was, it couldn't possibly be the camera otherwise no one would want to buy it... LOL :D

I've seen conflicted messages around here about Nostalgic mode. Some of you have said it has the best DR... others seem to prefer Smooth or Standard... I watched an example video comparing Nostalgic to Cinematic... and I also read the post about using Nostalgic but increasing the blue by +4 to counter the yellowish tint. It seems the opinions on modes are pretty diverse...
 
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