Neat video is awesome for the GH1!

Kellar

Kellar

I for one think you are doing great work. It took a very long time to get this type of quality testing in the HV20 world (where I came from) so I applaud your effort and finding a tool that might work for this issue.

I have a situation where I will be shooting a nativity scene on Christmas Eve (in near darkness my son will be Baby Jesus, and it is a once in a lifetime shot as he will be to big next year to play a 'baby') so I can use all the tips/tools I can get to help the GH1 through the torture. If I end up with the banding, this might be the solution.

Again, thank you for contributing. The GH1 to me is a situational camera, it can go into a room and not disturb anyone, because they think you are taking pictures! That means you can't have a light kit strapped to your belt blinding everyone with 1200 lumens to boost up your footage.

Good work!
IB
 
Hmmm I don't get it. So you get rid of the banding by trading in for the out of focus, compressed, artificial look? I'd just scrap a shot instead of going through other measures like that. If you want that low light look then you gotta use lights. Trust the old saying... you need a lot of light to make it look like low light. Use lights and properly expose for darker situations. Just my 2 cents.
 
Neat Video settings

Neat Video settings

Could current users of Neat Video give me some tips? I want to minimize my chances of losing detail or slowing down the process. I haven't used it yet but will be installing it soon.

Any settings or workflow advice is appreciated.

Thanks.
 
There is somethign incredibly frustrating about the DVXuser community: and it is so very present in this dead thread that I simply must comment.
Different people from different walks of life use video cameras for different purposes, and talk about their techniques here. And then they get berated by people using those same video cameras for a different purpose and using different techniques to suit their purpose.

Not ever shoot is a controlled narrative shoot. That's just silly. People filming things in their life with a camera around their neck and nothing else should be just as welcome here, and not subject to beating over the head with advice like "scrap the shot".

How can you scrap the shot when there's no other shot and that's the shot you have?
 
I was so amazed at what Neat Video could do I immediately bought it. For certain shots it's a real life saver. I often get old footage that needs sprucing up and this is a great first step in cleaning crappy footage.

I have to agree the example looks rather aggressive but at such a low light I'd say this was a good example of the GH1's less than stella performance in such conditions. have you tried shooting with standard settings? It seems to definitely help with banding issues.

all the best

Richard
 
The GH1 to me is a situational camera, it can go into a room and not disturb anyone, because they think you are taking pictures! That means you can't have a light kit strapped to your belt blinding everyone with 1200 lumens to boost up your footage.

Good work!
IB


This is such a good point. The whole thing about low light capturing at the moment is the use of available light. This is what's getting ultra pro DP's excited about the current technology. If you watched them on the Zacuto shootout, this came over as one of the things they were most amazed and shocked at. The fact you could light someones face to the point of over exposure with a bic lighter blew them all away. One guy said imagine shoting in real moon light. So I think low light photography i.e. available light photography is the way foreward. Yes you can tease an extra ounce of light into a shot to make it sizzle, but it's not about great huge lights anymore I think. Here's a new Nikon short commissioned for the D7000 that exemplifies this shooting with available light really well


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMbBKukJzBk&hd=1

all the best
 
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Well said.

There is somethign incredibly frustrating about the DVXuser community: and it is so very present in this dead thread that I simply must comment.
Different people from different walks of life use video cameras for different purposes, and talk about their techniques here. And then they get berated by people using those same video cameras for a different purpose and using different techniques to suit their purpose.

Not ever shoot is a controlled narrative shoot. That's just silly. People filming things in their life with a camera around their neck and nothing else should be just as welcome here, and not subject to beating over the head with advice like "scrap the shot".

How can you scrap the shot when there's no other shot and that's the shot you have?
 
The GH1 to me is a situational camera, it can go into a room and not disturb anyone, because they think you are taking pictures! That means you can't have a light kit strapped to your belt blinding everyone with 1200 lumens to boost up your footage.

Then you aren't using the right tool for the job. You can't claim to be professional and use a tool that has a known problem in a way that will show that problem. That's like having a car with no brakes and then expecting it to stop before an accident.

How can you scrap the shot when there's no other shot and that's the shot you have?

Then I say you haven't planned properly. All (serious) shoots need contingency plans. Everybody has extra batteries and extra SD cards but does anybody think about blowing shots and what they can do to mitigate that possibility? I do. Most people who do this for money do. Most folks run multiple cameras or do multiple takes in addition to making sure they have the right tools for the job at hand.

And then they get berated by people using those same video cameras for a different purpose and using different techniques to suit their purpose.

Well obviously their "technique" must be to get banding in all their shots because they are knowingly shooting underexposed. IF you know that your camera has a banding problem in low light, which we all do, and you refuse to use lights to get your shot exposed properly then you have no right complaining about banding.. Complaining about a problem you know you'll have is unprofessional. If you have to get an underexposed shot in some kind of situation where you are unwilling to use light, then you aren't using the right camera and need to use something else. There is NO free lunch, you have to use the tools that are right for the situation if you expect perfect results.
 
Neat Video is like any other signal processing plugin -- a little goes a long way. The example in this thread looks overaggressive to me, as if the user felt that raising all the sliders to max would really get those scrubbing bubbles into every nook and cranny. Myself, I'm very happy with just the default settings in Neat Video for FCP -- all I need to do is select an area of a frame which is relatively uniform, let the algorithm train itself to the noise pattern, and then go have a cup of coffee while the NR chews through the footage. With my octocore Mac it doesn't take that long.

I can see how overzealous cranking of this plugin could lead to criticism of soft, smeary output, but left at the default settings Neat Video is capable of miraculous results. It's the only NR plugin I've tried that actually makes a net improvement.
 
Thanks for the link - interesting read - will check Neat video out

My understanding is Neat Video is better albeit slower. Here is a thread that sheds just a little light on the comparison. I just started using it and it seems great- and actually not that slow to render at all.
 
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