Hi, I'm a wedding/Bar Mitzvah photographer who recently purchased a hmc40 so I can also also offer video to my clients. I'm shooting in mostly low light situations and I'm set at 24p 1/24 720ph. Manual white balance, anti shake. Imported into imovie. So far, I'm quite unsatisfied with the results that look very grainy. Especially black. Am I missing something? Are my settings correct? Please help.
Grainy at low light...Help!
- Thread starter abefried
- Start date
kwoff
Well-known member
There are some threads here addressing the low light performance of this camera. Here's one, but a search should reveal many more. My recollection is that the feeling was that the HMC50 is a good daylight camera but not as good in low light.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?186250-Low-Light-Footage-from-HMC40&highlight=light
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?186250-Low-Light-Footage-from-HMC40&highlight=light
dustylense
Veteran
a plugin called "neatvideo" will clean it all up...
wannabeapilot
Well-known member
get a light
Justyn,
Interesting comment, and as a counterpoint, I did purchase the HMC40 as a B-Cam. No doubt low light isn't great. Having said that, how often do you have a low light shoot where you need two cams? Under lights and in daylight, the 40 performs great, so that one scenario, low light, is a limiting factor. But the 40 brings other stuff to the table like very compact and light form factor, very sharp, and relatively thrifty. I found with a moderate amount of scene file tweaking, it cuts well with a 170. So if I were doing a two cam shoot at dusk or at night, I'm screwed, otherwise it has worked pretty well.
Grant
Interesting comment, and as a counterpoint, I did purchase the HMC40 as a B-Cam. No doubt low light isn't great. Having said that, how often do you have a low light shoot where you need two cams? Under lights and in daylight, the 40 performs great, so that one scenario, low light, is a limiting factor. But the 40 brings other stuff to the table like very compact and light form factor, very sharp, and relatively thrifty. I found with a moderate amount of scene file tweaking, it cuts well with a 170. So if I were doing a two cam shoot at dusk or at night, I'm screwed, otherwise it has worked pretty well.
Grant
Yeah the low-light performance really isn't great...
But I mounted a HDV-Z96 light (which I bought for about $50 on ebay) onto the top of it and it makes a big difference.
I still have to set the shutter speed quite low though, (1/24 of a second)
Also, I'd say that even +18db is a little high, but I guess it depends on what other settings you use. I set the maximum on mine at +12db
But I mounted a HDV-Z96 light (which I bought for about $50 on ebay) onto the top of it and it makes a big difference.
I still have to set the shutter speed quite low though, (1/24 of a second)
Also, I'd say that even +18db is a little high, but I guess it depends on what other settings you use. I set the maximum on mine at +12db
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Barry_Green
Moderator
The HMC40 is a really strong well-rounded kit but no doubt, its achilles' heel is low light performance. It needs light to work its magic.
I alos set the gain limit to +12dB on mine. It gets a little grainier than I'd like but it's workable.
I alos set the gain limit to +12dB on mine. It gets a little grainier than I'd like but it's workable.