HPX170 1080/24pa footage is junk...what went worng? can it be improved?

P

proride

Active member
I have been shooting the HPX170 since it came out. I primarily shoot long format and Realty based programming. Needless to say I have had exceptional results with this camera until this weekend. I have shot over 1000 hours of long format events at 720pn with exceptionally results: A sharp wonderful image! However, a new client requested i shoot at 1080/24pa. I read a few things about workflow, that it produced better image and didn't think twice about it. Lock and loaded and shot the event. However, I find myself horrified at the result.

Yes, I have searched and yes I have used goggle.....so either I am completely missing something or I am the first person to run into this.....(yeah right)

1080/24pa footage is soft/grainy, contains a lot artifacts and is unacceptable at 100%, basically junk.....What went wrong? Can it be improved? How?

Shoot Details:
• Three HPX170's (all three cameras same lack of image quality)
• Time codes synced
• Scene File 5 (default settings)
• 1080/24pa (shuuter 180.0d)
• Raylight utilized for .mxf Import into FCP 7
• Advanced Pulldown Checked
• Sequence setting: 1080/24pa, 23.98 timeline

1080-24pa-100percent.jpg 1080-24pa-50 percent.jpg
Studio 50 and 100 percent


Cam_A_100percent.jpg Cam_A_50percent.jpg Cam_B_100percent.jpg Cam_B_50percent.jpg
Event Cam A and Cam B (50 & 100 percent)

I need to shoot more for this client and need to correct this problem asap....I know there are some heavy hitters that are far more technical that I will ever be...you are invited to chime in. I came across a post form Barry Green who mentioned he chose to shoot something at 1080/30p to avoid inherent problems with 1080/24pa footage artifacting....is my answer there?

Any help, advice, insight will be very much appreciated!
 
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Where is this post by Barry? I think there would probably be a considerable amount of other context for him to have said that, and it wouldn't be applicable to general use. Many, many people use 24pA and FCP to great satisfaction.

But It's hard to know what to say without knowing what exactly you see wrong here, or a "right" picture we can use for reference. If there's a problem, there are a lot of places it could be.

From what you say, I guess I'd eliminate the Raylight step and use Log & Transfer for the footage, and see if that makes any difference.
 
David, appreciate oyu jumping in. I tried the 'log and transfer' approach and even went as far as far converting to apple pro res. I saw mild improvement with this but not significant. I have four days of this junk and remain baffled. As far as Barry, he was comparing two cameras I believe. I suppose I could find it again in my history of searches.

Shooting at 1080/24pa with great results is exactly what I anticipated.....

"if there is a prob;em, there a lot of places it could be"....could you elaborate? as I have but one option and that is to fix it somehow
 
After reading through your initial post a second time, I agree with the Gary and David. I find it difficult to understand what your concern may be.

I'm assuming the "artifacts" you are referring to is the amount of noise in the image? If so, you can always reduce the noise (David and I were recently having a discussion on the topic).

Off the top of my head, there's only one thing I can think of as to why you are experiencing so much noise within your image. I'm guessing when you recorded your footage the gain was set to +/= 12 db?

Again, this is only based on assumptions. Could you clarify a bit further? It would definitely help us find what the problem is exactly.
-B
 
proride said:
David, appreciate oyu jumping in. I tried the 'log and transfer' approach and even went as far as far converting to apple pro res. I saw mild improvement with this but not significant. I have four days of this junk and remain baffled. As far as Barry, he was comparing two cameras I believe. I suppose I could find it again in my history of searches.

Shooting at 1080/24pa with great results is exactly what I anticipated.....

"if there is a prob;em, there a lot of places it could be"....could you elaborate? as I have but one option and that is to fix it somehow
Click to expand...

Again, without a reference for what you think it should look like, it's hard to say what the problem is. I agree that it looks like gain may have been used, resulting in increased noise, but without more to go on, I don't really know what's wrong with the footage. I don't see anything apparent, except for possibly the extra noise.
 
I agree with everyone else,..... what do you mean "100%" and "50%" are you zooming in FCP? Because zooming in FCP and then taking a screen grab is going to look horrible.....

To see the actual resolution on the final product you need to export a sample movie. Thats the only way to judge the final product.
 
It looks to be out of focus to me, and a bit noisy. But this may be the jpg compression on the stills you provided. I agree, exporting a full res movie of a short section of clips might provide more to go on.
 
Keep in mind that if you're trying to focus by the LCD screen, as it seems you may be trying to do, it's a lot harder to do it in 1080 than in 720. Any softness may come from that.
 
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