ISO issue. can't shoot ext. night above 1250

mastermind

mastermind

Well-known member
I'm shooting a feature on the 7d and have done extensive testing and for the life of me i can't shoot above 1250, exterior nights and get a remotely clean image. is there something i'm not getting? I'm talking ext. nights of course. other than that scenario i dont really see the need for such high iso's however i would LOVE to be able to shoot those iso's for my ext. nights.

I hear of people shooting at 2500 and 3200, and at 1600 the noise levels to me are just unnaceptable.

Oh yeah and i'm shooting at 1.4/1.8 with a 1/50th shutter even so its not an iris/high shutter issue. I saw some clip on here which i can't find anymore with these 2 guys in masks doing kung fu in a parking lot and i think the director mentionned shooting at 2500 or something. i've tried so many scenarios and just still get ALOT of noise in the blacks and midtones.

I know this topic has probably been beat to death but some info would definitely help.
 
CHECK your White Balance. and Filters if Any. You will see some Noise at those levels . also what picture style are you shooting.. Make sure to Shoot FLAT..
 
Well, even those types of night scenes have a decent amount of ambient light in them. That goes for most of the night scenes I've viewed. I have not tried to shoot at night yet myself though.
 
i DO use shneider classic softs however i still see them without the filters in. And i'm shooting with Neutral picture style and the contrast and sharpness all the way down if that helps.
 
Ditto, one thing I learned is that eventhough these dslr's are great at low light they're even better with lots of light. I shot most of my night scenes with ambient light at f1.8 and a 1/30 shutterspeed.
There needs to be a or multiple lightscource(s) close to your subject to get clean Images.
One of Mister Bloom's first clips had lots of ambient light.
 
thing is (dont take this the wrong way..not trying to come across as cocky) but i really do know how to light a scene. I've DPed loads and loads of music videos. I was just thinking that with the 7d i'd be able to push my ISO way more than i actually can..thus the disappointment. NOw YES i can push more than i can on other formats however with all the testing i've done i still find myself shooting ext. nights at 640.

I do light the subject and whatever else i need accordingly however i still see, to me, unacceptable noise in midtones and shadows, specifically areas i just cant light..the night sky...the shadows down the street etc...So yes still cleaner at 1250 than any other format i've worked with however not what i was expecting. i was in the mindframe that i'd be able to shoot at 2500 even and still have something clean..which unless i'm doing something wrong, is not the case.
 
I totaly understand your dissapointment and Im not saying that you dont know how to light just sharing my experience with the 7d ..... and that it still needs light to get a clean image.
 
I'm not quite sure how much of an improvement over modern camcorders you might have expected but according to Barry Green the difference between these DSLRs and camcorders are not that much . Where you would find the obvious advantage is in their ability to use faster lens. I don't mean to sound trite but maybe your expectations were just too high. I have a 7D myself and am happy with its low light performance compared to my previous camcorders but I always understood that there will be a line to draw when it comes to how dark I can film my footage. No matter what....these machines are light hungry....some more than others. Ambient light makes a big difference...but I know you understand that.
 
oh yeah absolutely got you..lol. Sorry I said that just to eliminate that as a possible factor. Not to say i CAN light but rather i should have said that I definitely am using enough lights.

Basically lets say, girl standing on street at night. no practical light sources. I throw lets say 2 kino diva lights in her direction, a 300 rim light and lets say a 1.2HMI par lighting the background somewhere and YES i can shoot at 640 no problem. however the point for me was to be able to use a keno with 2 bulbs only on her and maybe NOT have to light the background.

now THATS the scenario i was hoping for cus i know that at 2500 iso i'd be able to read that..BUT its not clean. :( howver i have scene a couple things on line that said they were shooting at 2500 or 3200 and it was compressed vimeo stuff but honestly seemed to have less noise in the shadows than i'm getting which is why i asked if there was something i just wasnt doing right.

I'll try to find one of them. i do remember seeing a video following a black guy in a documentary talking about rappers or something and it looked really clean (on vimeo) and i think the guy said he shot at 3200 or something of the sort...was sooo exciting tome when i saw that, but i cant even come close.
 
Ahhh....yes...I know exactly what video you are talking about. I've even posted that example in other forums. If I recall he shot between 1600-3200 ISO. I couldn't believe it either....but it was crazy clean. BUT...there was a lot of ambient light in that video. Matter of fact....I was thinking of that very same video during this whole conversation.
 
Yeah..that damn thing sold me on this camera..lol. But i didnt really analyze the footage cus i hadn't shot on 7d yet so i didnt really have a point of reference. I just took it like "theres noooo way i can shoot on film or red or what have you that clean with available light"
 
just did a search for it in the forums but couldnt find it. something about the guy talking about old school hiphop...like krs-1 or something..can't remember but funnily enough i remember the images themselves more..lol.
 
Shot this a while back dont mind the aspect ratio . It was pretty noisy but not so much that is was unsuable. It actually looks good down ressed to SD
Iso was between 1600-3200 dont remember anymore .
Was gonna upload some more grabs but im over my quota .....
Do you know how to fix that?
1263520836.jpg
 
You're not crazy. There's little chance that I'll ever shoot above 320ISO unless someone makes me. 640's the real threshold, but, the fixed patterned noise irritates me to no end. It may look good on the internet, but @ 46" of 1080 real-estate it looks horrid.

Shooting at 1250 is a suicide mission, but, I'm sure some people will find it a-okay.

From my own experience and testing: comparing 320ISO and lower to 640 ISO and higher, everything lower was not only more resolute and "Sharper" looking, but all factors pertaining to image were kept in-tact, while at 640 they began to fall apart.
 
Everts said:
Do you know how to fix that?
Click to expand...
Not other than "Neat Video" in post work. The thing is...with the 7D, sometimes it a hit or miss when it comes to noise (that is...with moderate to low light footage). Take for example the following video...between 640-800-1600 ISO. Not a drop of noise... How did they do that? And as usual...their fight scenes look great.



EDIT: I'm thinking maybe they had to have cleaned this up. But there's no mention of that.

EDIT 2: Nope...no noise reduction used.
 
Last edited:
K well thats good to know. I was just worried i was "missing out on something" i was here with the delusions that i'd be shooting my feature at 2500, 3200 iso then after a few nights for exterior camera tests then playing it back on my plasma was like "no f'ing way does that fly!!" I can live with 640 however.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top