Haze in GH1 footage

rambooc1

rambooc1

Well-known member
I have noticed quite a few outdoor videos posted here exhibit a milky haze and also noticed it my own footage, so i thought i would track down the reason.

It's simply a lack of Matt box or shade hood. This happens even on overcast days even shooting away from the suns direction. All i did was place my hand over the top of the lens and the haze disappeared from my footage immediately. I guess this is pretty basic stuff but i've not seen anyone point it out or even be concerned about it.

Try it on your own GH1, the immediate change in contrast is very noticeable and we should all be looking to use hoods more often.
 
This haze can also be caused by having a filter on the front of your lens. If I have the time, I'll unscrew the filter and check the shot with and without it on.

Another reason for haze is having your aperture open wide. I noticed this on the Canon FD 50mm f1.4 when wide open but at f2 it's much better.

Randy
 
It seems to be consistent with most of my FD lenses, i just tried a 100mm f2.8 prime (no Filter) and same thing, put hand over the top of the lens, haze disappears.
 
My manual Nikon 50mm f1.4 lens has much less haze wide open (and very usable wide open) compared to my Canon FD 50mm f1.4 SSC lens. Wonder if its just Canon FD lenses that get hazy wide open without a hood/matte box.

Randy
 
Could be but i'm running hoods on all my lens now so i'm covered.

Maybe the newer EOS lenses handle this better.
 
I think cheaper (or some very old) lenses with less coatings may also contibute to this 'haze.' I have noticed this phenomenom with some of my own lenses so I'll see if a hood makes a difference. I'll be getting a matte box soon anyway (mainly for the 'wow' factor with clients - though it would be nice to know it will make a noticable difference to my footage) so hopefully this won't be a problem anymore.
 
You just have to cup your hand around the lens to see the difference, it's like drawing window curtains while watching TV or switching off a light.
 
So now the "hack" eliminates jello, gets rid of this mysterious "haze", improves the low light capabilities of the sensor, and for one videographer who has a bride posting on WeddingWire, says his wedding videos are better because he is the only videographer that shoots at 44Mbps...making his wedding videos far superior to other wedding videos (there's pictures of a GH1 on his website to prove it). ;)

As for haze, outside of the "hack", I'd try checking exposure, doing some tests with the lens, experimenting with some filters/hoods, working with the "film modes" on the camera, trying different frame rates (720p versus 1080p), and most of all...lighting. And keep in mind that everything you see on the internet is not right out of the camera.

But as the original poster answers their own question...there's a reason for lens shades/matte boxes/flags/coleman tents. lol :D
 
Alot of us have come from video backgrounds and not still cameras or DLSR, so we are playing catchup and learning photography at the same time. Myself, i shoot video on auto mode everything, simply because i have other tasks that require more of my time like, stability, framing and not falling off the back of a jetski while having 2 hands on the steady cam pole.

Alll these beauty shots are new to me, i'm loving it and can see where it will fit into my finished product, but my product is still about CONTENT, that's what i'm paid to capture and i don't get a second take, it's live once only.

Im guessing there's a lot of people reading this stuff and learning as they go, i've never pixel peeped before, i just know what looks good and what doesn't to my eye.

If someone else has found the hood fixes the haze then the thread was worth creating and sharing. Next time you see a hazy video posted you can recommend a fix.
Mission accomplished.

R
 
Ummmm ...just tried a hood in falling light and you can still tell the difference even after sun is almost down, especially noticeable contrast on anything black.

I'm sold on permanent hoods and mattboxes, and i thought they were just to impress clients or pose as phallic symbols for egoistic photographers ...haha...wrong.
 
yeah, Martti, this dude does serious, often dangerous things on the water with this camera...he needs SERIOUS protection!
 
Well...the haze is definitely from either no hood and/or cheap coating on the optics. It happens all of the time. It causes the lens to loose contrast easily. It's not to say the lens are cheap however...I have some decent old lens that are not double coated and need a hood when used outdoors. But that haze look is also an artistic choice for some...which is probably why they chose that lens in the first place. I like this video posted by Ryan Glover today:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=215949

Very low contrast....which gave it sort of a 60's/early 70's hippie era look.
 
Like Ian-T said, many old FD lenses aren't coated like modern lenses and have a low contrast look and are prone to haze. Sometimes this is cool, other times you don't want it. A hood or lens shade can help, but I offer a post-production solution if you weren't able to shade the lens while shooting: Crush the blacks. Or increase the contrast so that the shadow areas are made darker. It's not as good as having a lens shade, but it can rescue a shot that you might think is otherwise ruined. I have a Canon FL 50mm f1.2 that is milky and low contrast when wide open. Crushing the blacks makes it look perfect.
 
I remember this happening a bit too with 35mm lenses on 16mm cameras.

I actually think its from the lens projecting a full frame image circle inside the camera- making tons of stray light bounce around behind the lens mount, lowering the overall contrast.

You could solve it by placing a small light baffle (something like black matte plastic) cut to size inside the FD mount adapter, worth a try.
 
rambooc1 said:
It seems to be consistent with most of my FD lenses, i just tried a 100mm f2.8 prime (no Filter) and same thing, put hand over the top of the lens, haze disappears.
Click to expand...

That's absolutely a symptom of light problems.

Even if you are running hoods you are still getting light from hard angles that is causing that.

Even when cameras have hoods, lots of times you still have to use flag extentions or have grips hold flags or something to block that light.

You might be able to simply use a polarizing filter to get rid of that light pollution.
 
Ian-T said:
Very low contrast....which gave it sort of a 60's/early 70's hippie era look.
Click to expand...

Like the old rocker said ....... "" i don't remember much about that decade ""
400f16060496iyvr5t5gtok.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top