disjecta
Lucky Duck
In my endless attempt to get the perfect picture from the DVX, I think I have finally found a combination that looks really good to me. Keep in mind that this is all subjective and it may not be good for someone else.
I have found that video noise is very prevalent in this camera using the presets for f5 or f6 and, as noted by others on this board, I can attribute it to the Cine matrix. I changed that to NORM and made sure gamma was set to Cine-Like (not D or V) and the noise level during low light shooting is drastically reduced. V Detail and Detail Coring are left at 0.
I'm shooting in Thin mode with the IRIS stopping down -3 in the settings...
You will notice quite a difference when you change the matrix to norm as far as the color is concerned. It flattens the color and makes it look more video-like. Interestingly, when I captured the footage and applied a simple levels adjustment (enhanced both blacks and whites), I found that the color richness returned but the noise level was still at a minimum.
Another thing that frustrated me about the DVX was it's inability to render detail in far away objects, such as trees on a horizon. I cranked the sharpness to +5 and it made a significant difference to the perceived detail. I tested the footage on a NTSC studio monitor as well as a widescreen plasma TV and did not notice any line twitter. My test footage consisted of lots of very thin diagonal lines.
Now I know in critical testing using test cards, etc., you will probably notice some synthetic edge ehancement happening with the sharpness cranked so high, my concern is seeing real world examples, not theoretical results.
Bottom line, I am getting footage that is clear of noise (relatively speaking), rich in color and sharper than I've ever been able to get from any DV camera.
Try it if you are interested but I just thought I'd share my findings because there have been a few people experiencing problems with video noise recently.
I have found that video noise is very prevalent in this camera using the presets for f5 or f6 and, as noted by others on this board, I can attribute it to the Cine matrix. I changed that to NORM and made sure gamma was set to Cine-Like (not D or V) and the noise level during low light shooting is drastically reduced. V Detail and Detail Coring are left at 0.
I'm shooting in Thin mode with the IRIS stopping down -3 in the settings...
You will notice quite a difference when you change the matrix to norm as far as the color is concerned. It flattens the color and makes it look more video-like. Interestingly, when I captured the footage and applied a simple levels adjustment (enhanced both blacks and whites), I found that the color richness returned but the noise level was still at a minimum.
Another thing that frustrated me about the DVX was it's inability to render detail in far away objects, such as trees on a horizon. I cranked the sharpness to +5 and it made a significant difference to the perceived detail. I tested the footage on a NTSC studio monitor as well as a widescreen plasma TV and did not notice any line twitter. My test footage consisted of lots of very thin diagonal lines.
Now I know in critical testing using test cards, etc., you will probably notice some synthetic edge ehancement happening with the sharpness cranked so high, my concern is seeing real world examples, not theoretical results.
Bottom line, I am getting footage that is clear of noise (relatively speaking), rich in color and sharper than I've ever been able to get from any DV camera.
Try it if you are interested but I just thought I'd share my findings because there have been a few people experiencing problems with video noise recently.
. No sharpening artifacts at all then?
I'm my own worse critic.
