Opinions wanted on footage with HMC & 35mm adapter

A

Admir

Well-known member
Hi!

I've been shooting lately a lot with my HMC and Sgblade adapter in different stores all over the town. I'm trying to find a nice, sharp and low noise setting. Right now I'm shooting with Cine V and it is nice, allthough I find it a bit to noisy and soft.. I've posted below one of the clips I've put together really fast just to show you guys.

I use the Cine V or D because of the warm and nice feeling the image gets, but maybe it gets to much with an adapter in front of the camera...?

I'd like if you could spare a minute or two to say your opinion of the picture itself, what I could make different in order to make it look better for example... This was shot without any extra light at all, just the indoor lights.
Thanks.

http://vimeo.com/15293629
 
i couldnt notice much noise in that video but I will say that you are probably underexposing some in those conditions with an adapter. Not to mention your focus was off on almost all of the shots. Underexposure could cause more noise but also if your adapters ground glass isnt spinning at the right speed etc. this could cause added noise. I would try and shoot something wthout the adapter in the same settings to see if you still notice the noise issue.
 
Thank you for you feedback!

Yes the focus is bad since the light wasn't the best (Nikon fast at f1.8 and camera wide open) so I would say that focus was impossible at some moments =/.
 
Noise didn't seem like much of a problem in your images. My concerns had nothing to do with noise -- my reactions irrelevant to the noise issue. For example, too much panning and panning too fast for the frame rate -- and that's got nothing to do with noise. I recommend a slider or track and dolly.

Cine-V is the second cleanest (relative to noise) default scene file. F3 "Spark" is the cleanest -- it uses the Black Press "B.Press" gamma curve. I've gotten the best results from the default F3 when lowering the chroma level by at least two.

High sharpness settings ("detail" and "v detail") also sharpen (enhance) noise. I've achieved generally favorable results by keeping sharpness around 0 in-camera and sharpening in post. It's easier to sharpen an image in post than it is to try to clean up noise.

Some people swear by "Neat Video" -- a plug in you can buy to reduce the appearance of noise. To me Neat Video just looks like a soft focus filter -- and you can do that yourself in most editing programs. Perhaps I've never gotten the Neat Video settings correct, or perhaps I'm right -- either way, some people swear by it for reducing the appearance of noise.

Finally, increase your contrast (however you like -- curves, levels, adjustment layers, or the contrast slider) and that should crush your blacks and lower the appearance of noise.
 
Thank you for the tip!

I'm using B.press, and lowering the master ped. The question is if it dosen't get to much, both the master ped and the B.press?
And when it comes to detail, I preferably use the V detail since it is a "milder" detailsetting with less noise if I'm correct..
 
First and foremost: Noise in these shots shouldn't be a concern. Everything looked OK to me, albeit a smidge underexposed. Bring lighting next time!

Second and more importantly: SLOWWWW DOWNNNN! Those pans were about twice as fast as they should have been for a 24 or 30 frames per second framerate. Nicely composed shots, but too much movement too quickly!

Also, be careful with your focus, and take your time with setting up the adapter... you'll be happier with the results, though I'm sure your clients were happy with what they saw!
 
Thanks Jason! I really gotta stop stressing myself up and just take it easy and think more before I press the record button =)
 
Yeah, as a profession and as a hobby, video should not be stressful! Have fun with it, keep up the great compositional work, take a few extra seconds to set your starting focus and ending focus points, and slow it down a bit on those pans and you'll be in great shape I think!

Videography and photography are my hobbies that pay for themselves :-)
 
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