Why am I getting digital noise? Canon 60D

J

JPschmidt

Active member
Based off what my friends were telling me, I should not be getting noise in this situation ... but for the life of me I can not figure out why the gain is there!

And also if this is just the way things are with this camera or with the semi low light condition I had, I apologize for wasting time!

Camera:
Canon 60D

Lenses:
Pentax 55mm 1.8 w. M42 Mount Adapter

and

Nikon 50mm 1.4 w. Nikon Mount Adapter

(I ONLY own vintage lenses right now and if this is the issue, let me know ... I'm just not able to test otherwise, I'm new to the DSLR world)

Picture Settings:
Sharpness: All the way down
Contrast: All the way down
Saturation: 2 notches down

Camera Settings:
1080p 24FPS
ISO 160
Aperture - tried both all the way open and somewhat closed
Shutter 1/50th

Here is a link to some quick test footage I took:
http://vimeo.com/20530968
(noise was featured in both the native h.246 codec and after converting to Apple Pro Res 422 in MPEG streamclip)

If I left out any info you need, let me know :) Thanks for taking the time to read/help!
 
Looks good to me, Film has grain which gives it a very organic look. Canon brings this same organic look to me, unlike panasonic cameras which mostly look to razor sharp and clear.


The only thing I can think of if you want a super clean image your going to need light, try using 1k of light and your noise will be gone. Personally I think your footage looks great, stop worrying about little things and enjoy your camera + yourself...... NOBODY in your audience is going to care about things like this, as many film makers who use Canon dslrs even add a film grain filter to their footage.
 
For my own projects I'm never worried about noise or dirtyness. I'm a huge fan of Cassavetes, Pedro Costa, Hong Sang-Soo and the like ... I was more worried for films I'm DPing for others who may be more picky, I have a feature coming up that I'm DPing and I know the director wants that sharp crisp look.

But thanks for the thoughts, I was just worried I had something wrong. I have a 900watt kit at my house right now, but was just running these tests with 100watt clamp light.

Just wanted to make sure I was doing things right, but thanks for the words :)
 
JPschmidt said:
For my own projects I'm never worried about noise or dirtyness. I'm a huge fan of Cassavetes, Pedro Costa, Hong Sang-Soo and the like ... I was more worried for films I'm DPing for others who may be more picky, I have a feature coming up that I'm DPing and I know the director wants that sharp crisp look.

But thanks for the thoughts, I was just worried I had something wrong. I have a 900watt kit at my house right now, but was just running these tests with 100watt clamp light.

Just wanted to make sure I was doing things right, but thanks for the words :)
Click to expand...


100% understand, try using as much light as possible. That 900watt kit should bring out some really nice footage with hardly any noise if that's what you want. Worst comes to worst maybe look into buying a GH2 as many people claim the image is almost noise free when properly exposed.
 
Awesome, yea I was assuming it was light, but I was being told (mind you they weren't here) that it should have still been sharp. Just running tests trying to get used to the camera. Thanks for the fast feedback all and reassurance. Once I can get some ... non plush models around here I'll bring out he light kit for some tests :p
 
JPschmidt said:
Awesome, yea I was assuming it was light, but I was being told (mind you they weren't here) that it should have still been sharp. Just running tests trying to get used to the camera. Thanks for the fast feedback all and reassurance. Once I can get some ... non plush models around here I'll bring out he light kit for some tests :p
Click to expand...



Since when do these cameras shoot sharp? I think you might want a different camera. something like an Hmc40
 
Maybe bad choice of words :p Just meant clean, was using sharp... as the "man that looks sharp" not like a sharp image, my B. I do also own a HVX200 with cinevate adapter though :p
 
This is a normal amount of noise.

Did you transcode to an I-frame codec like ProRes? Or is this raw from camera (H.264)?

Transcoding will often eliminate excessive digital noise, but there will still be noise. It, as others have said, is part of the look.

To me, this is a healthy amount of noise and looks more like what you would see in film than in a camcorder, which is part of the appeal.
 
You might try viewing on a different monitor or calibrating your computer monitor. The settings on your monitor could be introducing or pronouncing the noise.
 
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jscottprice said:
This is a normal amount of noise.

Did you transcode to an I-frame codec like ProRes? Or is this raw from camera (H.264)?

Transcoding will often eliminate excessive digital noise, but there will still be noise. It, as others have said, is part of the look.

To me, this is a healthy amount of noise and looks more like what you would see in film than in a camcorder, which is part of the appeal.
Click to expand...

Yea, I went into PRO RES 422 with MPEG Streamclip

That's fine that it's part of the look, was just making sure. Thanks for the reply :)
 
Light the shot. I mean really spending time to light a shot with...lights makes a big difference.

Looks like you just shot with available light. Did you set up lights?

But in addition to this there are many variables.

You mentioned your camera settings but no mention of the all important F-stop. What was your F-stop and what was the stop reading on the subject?
 
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I had a similar experience while setting up a shot the other night that was lit with 3 full panel LEDs. It seemed like a ton of light, and I was at a only 320 iso and F5.6. I was surprised with the amount of noise coming out in the darker objects (ie: things that were coloured dark, not things that were lit darkly), so we swapped the camera out with a 7D (same lens and same settings) and found there was less noise (though still a little of that grainy effect, which I wouldn't trade for the worldl). But I didn't realize the 7D had that much better a sensor than the 60D in lit situations...(sorry I don't have examples...we were in a rush). So if for gigs a cleaner look is important to you, but you still want the feel of a Canon, the 7D might be your answer.
 
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