Low light noise

C

colby_gottert

Member
I have been researching discussion threads about the performance of the HVX200 in low light situations and have not found satisfactory information about the subject, so I thought that I would start a new threat to bat the subject around. (please forgive me if this was done earlier as I just joined the forum earlier this month).

I have been shooting run and gun for the past month in five African countries, so I have been shooting footage outdoors at sunrise, mid-day, sunset, cloudy and sunny. Indoors I have shot under tungsten and florescent lights.

I am shooting everything 1080i 30P DVCPRO HD. The matrix is normal, but I do reduce the master pedal to -5.

Overall whenever I shoot outdoors in the sun the shots look fantastic, but when ever the sun is obscured or the sun starts to set I get a lot of noise in the gradient areas between light and dark. Anything hit by direct sunlight looks fantastic, but anything that is in shadow looks worse than the Sony Z1 (my former camera).

I originally dropped the master pedal down to -10 to try to crush the blacks and get rid of the noise, but the footage was way to contrasty, so I brought it back up to -5.

I will be posting screen grabs eventually, but I just wanted to start a new thread in the meantime so that people could share experiences and settings.

I know that a lot of people are really happy with this camera and in general I think that it is fantastic product that delivers stunning images, but I would like to identify settings that are optimal for low light situations so that run and gun shooters like myself don't loose a great shot because the shadows are noisy.

I look forward to your comments.

Colby
 
Hi Barry,
Thanks for your response. I will try this out when I go out to shoot tomorrow. Since I have you on the thread...I also haven't been able to get the camera to sync up with fluorescent lights (I am using a three light set-up to interviews, but if I shoot in a room dominated by fluo then i still get a flicker in the background. Any advice for the syncro scan setting?

Thank you

Colby
 
The Low Light noise thing's definitely nothing new with the HVX200. xD We all deal with it and kinda have to get over it as well.

B.Press kills a heavy amount of noise, IMO. Staying away from too much sharpening in camera, Cinelike-D gamma is a monster and too much saturation in camera seems to bring out the noise, to me, as well.

Shootin' 1080 exhibits "finer" noise or "smaller" patterns than 720, which is why I pretty much try to stay away from 720 altogether with this cam.

Pretty much... it's just one of the more undeniable shortcomings of the camera that y'just gotta look past.
 
Also what are you monitoring on??? Low quality LCD panels exaggerate noise ALOT. on a real monitor, the footage looks GREAT.
 
I have to deal with low lighting a lot lately, and as well as some of the above suggestions, I've found that pushing the auto iris level up into + figures, depending on the situation, can be a big help. Warning though... use it with caution, especially if you're likely to experience a sudden increase in light somtime midshoot... you'll get serious overexposure.
 
TimurCivan said:
Also what are you monitoring on??? Low quality LCD panels exaggerate noise ALOT. on a real monitor, the footage looks GREAT.
Click to expand...

Question here: What LCD panel doesn't expose the HVX's noise? I've seen it on a few, including Apple's, and can't seem to tell which ones exhibit the least noise. Dell was the worse, Gateway is better, Apple is about the same as the Gateway.

Only thing that I've seen producing less noise or showing it was me 32" HD CRT.
 
well yea, a CRT is a real monitor. LCD isnt really up to snuff, because computer monitors run on a different system. you gotta look at it on a LCD Video monitor. liek the Sony or the Panasonic.
 
Oh okay. That's true: I've seen the Pana LCD w/HVX footage and it looks great. Thing is, most people won't have those still.

Even the footage from THE SCREWFLY SOLUTION exhibited noise in HD. Just kinda get over it after a few minutes anyway.

S'just part o' the camera.
 
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