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mik

mik

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Hi to all, I'm Michele from Italy (some might recognize me from the 5.00 short i made for the 2008 Time Fest)

I finally got a slighly used (190h rec time) HMC 151.... i came from an XL2; and the 151 is so light (but i still like more the shoulder style of the XL).

One thing i noticed is that seems there is always some grain even in well lit situation and with the gain a 0... i read some post about scene files ecc... i did a black balance (can someone explain what the black balance do?) and even reset the camera... but the grain is still there.
In comparison with the XL2 the blacks where more deeper and the grain/gain less present; but maybe is just the diffrence in detail and resolution?
 
Welcome.

Like many Panasonic cameras -- they put the user's needs ahead of picture quality. In terms of ease of use and features it should blow away your old Canon. But, yes, the noise ("grain") has been the major complaint since day 1.

My number one recommendation is to take the "v.detail" down to -7 (minimum), the "detail" down to -3, and coring to +1 or +2. Do that in any scene file and the appearance of noise should be dramatically reduced. If you want super sharpness -- do it in post and you'll get better results. The camera's sharper codec combined with the old HVX200 sharpening algorithm actually sharpens the noise -- and you can do your best to avoid it with the above settings.

For cleaner blacks you want to lower the master pedestal. Somewhere between -7 and -10 should result in very black blacks.

ALWAYS have the "DRS" turned OFF.


Do the above changes to either the default "Spark" (F3, I think) or "Cine-V" (F5) and you should have something that is pleasing (in the past they called it "mojo") and usable.

Enjoy the camera and your journey!
 
I have a few posts on here about lowering noise. If you can't find them PM me.

I highly suggest you register on Panasonics PASS site and download the Scene file handobook for hmc150. Also, Barry Green's book is very useful. You can also download firmware upgrades from the PASS site.

ABB (Black Balance) is done by holding down the white balance button on the front of the camera till the iris closes and you see ABB on the screen. It tells the camera what black is (over simplified explanation).

Depending on whether you do most of your CC in camera or in an NLE will determine if you want a contrasty/punchy image like the suggestion by AGmedia or not. If you CC everything in post then you may want a "flatter" image with more dynamic range.
 
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Well, i downloaded the scene files from a .zip i found in this forum; i find that i like the "jarhead" and "filmic" scene files (while i.e. muzik and similar give a strange contrast); but i lowered the master pedestal to -20 (or maybe -30?) and changed the detail and coring as AGMedia suggested. I always preferred to have a result in camera rather than in NLE (unless the director prefer to work with more CC in post), because the noisy gray won't go away easily...
 
Ahh, but once that in-camera CC has been done you lack options later. I get fairly clean, flat images with my setup. Depends on what you are shooting for I suppose. Shooting for say news, I would probably add more contrast and saturation. Feature film, I would go with as much DR as possible.

If you ever need to shoot fairly flat, then use your wfm (after any detail/coring changes and ABBing) to adjust your pedestal. (I shoot with cine-d, v detail 0, detail -3 and coring +3 and master ped around -11. I sometimes lower saturation and use alternate matrix's. If you use cine-v or cine-d expose darker than normal).

If you start at 0 ped, close the iris and you will likely see some "noise" bouncing aorund on the thin line (blacks). Lower master ped till this noise stops reducing any further.

Also, ABB after any time you power up the camera (unless you are in Standby mode). If you power up and close the iris, turn on the wfm like above and abb you will actually see black level noise drop somewhat.

The latest firmware is supposed to have some tweaks to the codec for better compression and nose (though I am not sure how noticeable it is).

Migraine is kicking in so I hope I made sense.
 
Well, in both Jarhead and Filmic settings i lowered the master pedestal to -20 (maybe even more). But i found that detail/v-detail values under 0 gives a too much softier image (for my liking), especially in wide shot.
 
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