Odd artifacts in the reds

tlorenzo

tlorenzo

Well-known member
I was playing around with the M2 today when I noticed some odd artifacts in the reds in the middle of the picture. Does anyone know what causes this?

M2_Test_02.jpg
 
Red is notorious for stair stepping, due to the color sampling capabilities of DV. If you've got a really sharp red against other colors, expect to see some stair steps, i.e. small pixel like squares as the camera processes the difference between the red and the color next to it. Don't know if the M2 has anything to do with it or not, but that's something to conisder. From the image you posted, its hard to really tell but it looks like a basic color sampling issue.
 
i take it you are using final cut?

importing your footage as mov?

because this is not an issue in avi.
 
PaPa said:
i take it you are using final cut?

importing your footage as mov?

because this is not an issue in avi.
Click to expand...

Really? I'll have to try and grab the footage on my Windows machine then. Brb.

EDIT: Can't seem to find my 4-pin to 4-pin firewire cable to grab on my PC.
 
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Red is blood... Humans don't like to see it and neither do cameras. You can cheat red to a camera by using a muted red or pastel. It won't glow.
 
I encountered the same problem, and even when i Applied tha Chroma smoothing, the blockyness persisted as soon as I rendered it in a DV codec Timeline, because the problem is whith the codec. What worked for me is changing the timeline settings to a DVCPro 50 or Uncompressed Codec, appying the chroma smoother and rendering out (it will make bigger files though). Hope this helps

By the way:
Is this problem exclusively with FCP and its DV codec? or is it present in other NLE programs aswell? Is DV handeled better in other NLEs? Ive always worked in FCP and just accepted having to work around the Blocky reds.
 
Not just FCP. Any DV codec* will do that because of the color sampling.


*Some cheat. They automatically apply the chroma blurring for you, making you think they are better at handling Reds. Other colors, too, for that matter. I think it's more a case of it showing up more obviously in Red, but it's there in any low-detail/high-contrast situation.
 
PaPa said:
i take it you are using final cut?

importing your footage as mov?

because this is not an issue in avi.
Click to expand...

Not sure what NLE your using, but the problem would be originally there no matter what its imported into. I know some NLES apply a chroma smoother auto. TO me, whilst a simple approach, doesnt make sense. I much prefer to know what is being applied and when.

The Nattress plugin for FCP, is the best tool for this on FCP.
 
This artefact comes right from camera. Take (free) VirtualDub http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/ switch to Capture Mode and you'll see the same thing on computer's screen in real time. It's even worse if you shoot red object against black background.
Chroma smoothing filter helps alot but in most cases (not sure about FCP) it's not a "real time" effect and you have to re-encode your footage.
Don't know is there difference in PAL and NTSC cameras..
 
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