Low Light Streaks - Is my camera faulty?

http://www.vimeo.com/6610615

Check this, It wasn't all filmed with the gh1, but some shots are, especially the few first one. Check the banding in the first like 2-3-4.

Setting were 1000iso, f 1.4, with a c-mount lense.

I get ALOT of Fixed Noise (Banding) problem.
Bought the camera in Montreal around the first week of august.
 
ahaha, i'm used to work in such dark place, I used the DVX all the time and I could get want I wanted. now I can get something, that has banding :(
 
This camera has superior lowlight performance to the DVX in my experience and you're probably doing something incorrectly here. What's your shutter at? Check your lens aperture, is it working, is it actually open...oh what was the other thing....Add lights. Would you really have shot with the DVX there? Really?

Oh also what's your settings? Try contrast -2.

You're using a C-Mount lens...maybe it has a diffraction problem with the GH1?
 
Lens was a f1.4, shutter is 1/60, iso is 1000.
I dont aim to get perfect exposure in places like these where i have no control. This place was dark indeed and i would have shot with the dvx backwhen i had it.

I know its a dark place, but thats where i shoot. Its just sad that my new 1.8k camera bands that much. I was just wondering if it was normal, since the face are somewhat ok exposed ( not -3 stop)



have shoy stuff with the
 
i think its somethign to do with the way the codecs are rendering grain. i get the same effect from my 5DmkII..... it sarts around ISO 500, suddnely clears up at 3200... then reappears at 6400
 
Car3o said:
iso at 1000? really? are people expecting to shoot a video or photo at 1000iso and not get some sort of noise/banding?
Click to expand...

Of course! At least ones who saw 5D II at ISO 3200. The issue is not in grain. It is in straps, bands...
Anyway - just for home usage - for me it is acceptable - it just reminds me first footage from childhood - made on 16mm camera :)
 
I don't understand why people are expecting to get a useable image out of this camera in certain situations...yes it is better low light than cameras like the HVX-200,etc......but it is not magical! Cameras feed on light and you're starving yours to death. Stop it before the government confiscates it and gives it to a foster home (me.)
 
"Neat Video efficiently reduces many noise types typical for digital video cameras, camcorders, TV-tuners, film or analog video digitizers:
  • sensor noise produced by video capturing devices
  • grain visible in digitized film or analog video
  • compression artifacts
  • color banding"
Anyone tried it with problematic GH1 footage?

http://www.neatvideo.com/features.html
 
Hmmm, it is sister company or brand of Neat Image - well recognized software for noise removal from photos... Haven't tried it.
 
i've used it on the d90....but i don't expect to actually use this on the gh1. the examples shown are absolutely ridiculous because they're not normal situations.
 
sorry, car3o, what is a "normal situation"? i bought my gh1 not to the least to especially go into "not normal situations". so if i buy a camera which is advertised as working with iso 800 or 1600 in video-mode and i shoot - very conservative - in 1080/25p (pal version) at 1/50 in low-light situations, everything set to "manual", contrast -1/2, noise reduction +1/2, i still do expect some problems with "grain" or "noise". i am not naive.

but: serious banding in low light is another issue. and: i have experienced no banding in pitch black situations with clearly highlighted areas. codec/sensor - what ever - seems to accept that better. i work with the kit lense, a viogtlaender nokton 50mm f 1.1, a leica elmarit 18mm 2.8.

but i get serious problems whenever i have soft lighting like in dawn or dusk. exposure meter/histogram tells me everything is okay = material is not usable. if service tells me, i should shoot at iso 100 at 2 sec. exposure time - that's fine. but i bought a camera that was advertised as being able to shoot 800 or 1600 (yes, and, again: i accept "noise" but not banding or stripes).

i find it also funny, that people who experience this problems are painted as slightly moronic grumblers. sorry. i like my camera so much that i have surrounded it with equipment worth ca. 5k dollars. my daytime material looks wonderful. nice machine. i think the concept is marvellous. but: there is - under circumstances - an issue here.

maybe we have to accept that because we are "early adopters" anyhow. then we wait patiently for the gh2 and use this one as backup.... ;-)
 
You can film with the hardware in high contrast situations without banding if you know what you're doing...this guy does and look what he made: http://vimeo.com/6635931

Nice huh? This is great cause I was planning on doing some noir stuff that will probably look a lot like this. Thanks Todd!

tipota said:
but i get serious problems whenever i have soft lighting like in dawn or dusk. exposure meter/histogram tells me everything is okay = material is not usable. if service tells me, i should shoot at iso 100 at 2 sec. exposure time - that's fine. but i bought a camera that was advertised as being able to shoot 800 or 1600 (yes, and, again: i accept "noise" but not banding or stripes).
Click to expand...

It is ABLE to use high ISOs but that doesn't mean you SHOULD. Why do you think most video cameras have fixed ISO (although have a gain adjustment.)

As for dusk?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhatqMeFVVE&fmt=22 No banding (codec starts to break down thanks to web compression toward the veerrry end which I wouldn't even use anyway because it's too dark/boring...I didn't want to cut too much....lazy.)

Lot of dusk in here (and not directly into the light like the other video...) no banding, in fact just some very nice light. And don't say sunset isn't dusk because there's a whole lot of post sunset dusk in there too.
http://vimeo.com/groups/gh1/videos/6340277
 
Last edited:
i am not sure if you are a cult member of the "secretio rota di afficionados gh uno". and i am not sure that you have actually read what i wrote. so, in some nice and easy to follow steps:

you do not at all need to try to convince me, that high-contrast is workable with the gh1. done that, been there, works. nice. okay? good.

your daytime material looks nice. mine looks nice too. why? because i shoot daytime usually with iso 100 to 200. low contrast at daytime? no problemo. in dusk or dawn at 400 or even 640? no big problem. 800 or 1600 - there they are.

your answer: a sunset with iso 100? great. with time lapse? nice. sure it works. works with my camera too. works with my other three small lumix'es too. works with an ernemann ermanox from 1924. works with nearly every camera in the world.

now, sorry, i repeat myself: shooting in dusk or dawn and certain low contrast situations at higher iso and 1080/25p = low bandwith stripes. i do not intend to do time-lapse cinematography. i want to shoot people, moving, talking, acting, in certain circumstances. and for this, again sorry, i need higher iso like 800/1600. sometimes.

two explanations:

number one - sensor/codec reacts to certain situations (situations that do interest me, again sorry, sorry, sorry) for some unchangeable, not known reasons with strange banding.

consequences of one: there is an issue under certain circumstances and i have to see if i find that acceptable, because the camera is cheap, concept is nice. discussion over. i don't use iso 800 or 1600 and wait either for the gh2 or a new firmware to appear (why did they advertise 800/1600 then...?)

number two - there may be (may be, okay?) problems with the sensor production. most sensor - like yours - may be okay, some may be not. mine, for instance. maybe. sorry. so i send camera to service (which i did). and ask around if others have come across the same problems. and they seem to have. so service will check the camera and either give me a better working one or they say: see above.

then i wait for gh2 and use gh1 as second unit camera.

what really get's me is that some people seem to need to paint others who come across such problems as amateurs. have no idea why.
 
> at higher iso

What ISO are you using here? I would never use a camera at its ISO limits and expect good results (1600 clearly a no and 800 may also be critical)

Solution is to use lenses with wide apertures (f/2 or faster)

At high ISO the Canon cameras surely will win. I can tell this already from still photos.
 
tipota said:
sorry, car3o, what is a "normal situation"? i bought my gh1 not to the least to especially go into "not normal situations". so if i buy a camera which is advertised as working with iso 800 or 1600 in video-mode and i shoot - very conservative - in 1080/25p (pal version) at 1/50 in low-light situations, everything set to "manual", contrast -1/2, noise reduction +1/2, i still do expect some problems with "grain" or "noise". i am not naive.

but: serious banding in low light is another issue. and: i have experienced no banding in pitch black situations with clearly highlighted areas. codec/sensor - what ever - seems to accept that better. i work with the kit lense, a viogtlaender nokton 50mm f 1.1, a leica elmarit 18mm 2.8.

but i get serious problems whenever i have soft lighting like in dawn or dusk. exposure meter/histogram tells me everything is okay = material is not usable. if service tells me, i should shoot at iso 100 at 2 sec. exposure time - that's fine. but i bought a camera that was advertised as being able to shoot 800 or 1600 (yes, and, again: i accept "noise" but not banding or stripes).

i find it also funny, that people who experience this problems are painted as slightly moronic grumblers. sorry. i like my camera so much that i have surrounded it with equipment worth ca. 5k dollars. my daytime material looks wonderful. nice machine. i think the concept is marvellous. but: there is - under circumstances - an issue here.

maybe we have to accept that because we are "early adopters" anyhow. then we wait patiently for the gh2 and use this one as backup.... ;-)
Click to expand...

well normal situations would be not to use natural lighting for scenes or events that don't have a lot of light. you light the scene or event. it doesn't advertise that you'll get crisp clean pictures at 800 1600 iso. that's just not normal. but just like i've said before as i repeat something illya has said before the iso ratings on the gh1 are not normal.
 
now, one could argue that a "normal" situation is mostly one, where you do not set up any lighting equipment. a situation where lighting equipment is set up, i call a "set". and for all my experience: a film-set is about the most un-normal of situations as it can get.... ;-) and there - for sure - nobody in his/her right mind would work with 800/1600.

but if i want to shoot - say - male deer on a meadow fighting under a full moon or - less romantic, less dramatic - people dancing in a not exactly well lit street, i would need 800 even with the nokton (which is incredible, i have to say). and i would not at all have a problem with grain or noise. grain or noise can - at times - even give a picture or a sequence a documentary stile.

but banding is a completely different issue. and: it is an issue. do i say the gh1 is a lousy camera? quite to the contrary. i wait for mine to come back from service - best with the issue resolved.

i only wanted to find out if others have the same problem. and they have.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top