Low light solutions?

[Guest]

So, I have been messing around with a DVX in low light, no lighting, intentionally, so don't tell me I need to light it to make it look like no light, I know that. My concern is shooting when there is no light available and there is no way to have light available. In a room that is just lit by a normal ceiling light, I notice grain. And it is considerable darker in 24P than in 24PA. What settings are best for low light and capturing as little grain as possible?

Thanks

 

[Neil Rowe]

Re: Low light solutions?

..hmmm well 24p and 24pa capture the original frames in the exact same way.. so i dont see ho there could be any difference in the sensetivity between the two when using the same shutter speeds and iris settings and such..

but my question is: when is there ever a scenario when there is no way to have more light? is this a hypothetical question? you can always bring more light into an area.. simple as an extension cord, or generator or battery operated lighting. and if none of these are an option ??? then you can lower the Master pedistal to drop off the dark areas into complete black..which will have no grain. otherwise your not going to get a non grainy image in those conditions. a camera is a light recording device. they are not made to work in the dark, without some sort of night optics, or illumination system ..which the dvx does not have. but again . i suggest lowering the MP, and turning off cine-MATRIX cause it can get weird in low light(MATRIX-not GAMMA). thats about all you can do. chroma, or other settings wont really help. and by all means dont even think of touchingt the gain switch. if you really need shots like that, the DVX wouldnt be the optimal cam of choice. hope this helps

 

[kecorcoran]

Re: Low light solutions?

I got my DVX about two weeks ago, and I did a lot of my first tests indoors at night with insufficient light. (Only room lights -- I was too busy playing with the new camera to get the real lights out.) I too noticed the grain. In fact, it seemed worse than normal video grain, it was so big and splotchy.

I used the MARKER function to note the levels that were causing the problem. With the Iris wide open, it seemed that vaules below 4 were OK (solid black) and values above 15 looked good as well. But between 4 and 15 the image was crawling with big, blotchy noise. Is this what you see? Do other people see this as well?

So, I tried changing some settings to help get rid of it. Essentially I reduced the detail and set the V Detail to thick. Strangely, decreasing the Master Ped only seemed to make the noise more noticeable, because the dark splotches got blacker. Increasing the Master Ped seemed to make the image milkier, but the noise seemed less noticable. Anyway, by reducing detail the the grain seemed to go down to an acceptable level, and one that looked better than my Sony VX1000 in side-by-side tests.

Other people have recommended doing a lot of tests with the camera connected to a monitor or TV. I did this and it was very helpful -- you can better see the subtle effects of your changes. So I recommend it highly as well.

 

[Stas_Tagios]

Re: Low light solutions?

If what you're shooting is buildings or other static subject matter, you could always lower your shutter speed, which will brighten your image by allowing the light to hit the CCD's for a longer time, but if there's any motion in your frame, it will be blurred to varying degrees, depending on how slow you set the shutter; the slower the shutter, the more blurry the rendition of motion. Of course, many people have used this to good effect (e.g., giving your images a dream-like, hallucinatory quality), but motion blur more extreme that the blur normally associated with 24P may not be what you want.

 

[Aejaz]

Re: Low light solutions?

I think since it is a porsumer cam, it needs 'enough' light to capture images without a bothering grain....I mean in comparison with other consumer camcorders....not meant for any truly professional works...with light sensititivey as low as 0 lux.