ISO 101: Is noise acceptable/noticeable at 160?

L Fernando

L Fernando

Member
This is something that puzzles me, hope some one with more experience can help me out. I'm shooting video with the 60D (Great Camera), I admit I'm a bit cynical and it seems I'm always trying to find faults in everything the camera does. Hopefully I'm mistaken but I always thought that noise wouldn't be noticeable at the lowest ISO, in this case 160 for video is the optimal ISO. My 'self made' theory consisted that shooting at ISO 160 would look...mmm dark? obviously under poor light situation BUT would not show noise. In other words, I wouldn't be getting detail, and things will not be visible if there's no light but the lighted areas it would look completely clean and grain free.

Is this a misconception i created? will noise always be present in poorly lighted spaces even at the lowest of ISOs and even in day light?

This is a fast screen capt of the areas that I see it when shooting at 160 (Doors, mid-tones), it's barely noticeable in stills but more so in motion. I don't know if this is digital noise or what, I do know that I see some grain/particle movement in those areas when in motion.

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This was perfectly exposed according to the camera, I do know this is the lens kit but I still see it when using the 50MM 1.8
I've seen all this videos on Vimeo and they all look less noisy than mine, I always have this feeling that everything I buy is broken or F**ed up in some way.

Thanks!
 
dslrfilmmaker said:
Did you turn off Higlight Tone Priority and Auto Lighting Optimizer? These are known to bump up the gain, causing more noise.
Click to expand...
Highlight Tone Priority was disable but Auto Lightning Optimizer was set to standard, I guess I should turn it off too? I'm just wondering if this acceptable at ISO 160.
 
I'd always expect noise to show up in poorly lit areas, even if shot at ISO 160, but it shouldn't be too problematic if you're not trying to push up those areas in post (which would make that noise stand up)

if it still bothers you, you can get some light there / use a flatter picture style / overexpose a bit, then push down the shadows; that should deliver less noisy shadows
 
NormanBates said:
I'd always expect noise to show up in poorly lit areas, even if shot at ISO 160, but it shouldn't be too problematic if you're not trying to push up those areas in post (which would make that noise stand up)

if it still bothers you, you can get some light there / use a flatter picture style / overexpose a bit, then push down the shadows; that should deliver less noisy shadows
Click to expand...
I've been using flat picture styles (Including Cinestyle from Technicolor) and It does help in some situations, what I'm wondering is if I'm not being realistic about what my camera can do. I haven't seen anyone else's footage straight from the camera to compare noise performance, I'm just judging from uploaded Vimeo videos that most of the time are compressed and not even in full screen. Maybe that's where my misconception comes from and maybe this is something expected. That's what I want to know because if it's not then I would love to send my camera back to Canon or something.

I know I can try to light the areas better or over expose but what If I wanted an underexposed shot? Maybe some people running outside in the dark with torches or flashlights? I just want to know if my camera is working correctly or if there's something wrong with it.
 
All Canon dslr's are noisy.

If you want clean footage, just get a GH2. It's silly clean.

What's showing in the first/last pic however isn't iso noise, but color banding. IMO no difference to a good-sensor GH1, regarding the Canon color noise. Cinestyle will NOT reduce noise; rather the opposite.

As usual, you will improve your footage by getting into Prores 422, avid's codec or similar. A good workflow is the key to superb footage, and it's important on these (pretty flawed) cameras. How the footage turns out after CC is all going back to workflow. If you're still for any reason really do want the cleanest possible footage out of Canon dslr you will have to look into more advanced applications; deithering, noise reduction/masking and so on. (Or, again, get a Panny m4/3 camera for your super-clean video look).
 
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