C300: Wide DR Noise in Low ISO

J

jm.gardiner

Well-known member
Just did a shoot today using the Wide DR on the C300 and I am stunned by the gross amount of noise going on here. Anyone else having this issue?

Camera was serviced a few days ago and black balanced about an hour before these shots.

Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 9.21.04 PM.jpg

Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 9.22.26 PM.jpg
 
I noticed with my camera using WIDE DR also. Maybe do a black balance and try it again? I used 709LOG preset now if I want wide DR. It is not as wide DR but it is pretty good.
 
Sorry, didn't realize the forum would shrink those images that severely. I've been shooting broadcast docs for the past two years on my C300 and usually I setup my own color profile unique to each job.

This one in particular is going to be de-saturated to black and white and I thought the Wide DR would give me a nice gradient without being too flat.

What I'm finding is a nice gradient in the highlights but just noisy mess for anything below 50IRE, even at ISO's 500-850. Anything in the lower exposure range is aggressively noisy and not the usual pleasant C300 noise. This is looking like 7D 1250ISO noise. Looks exponentially worse in the 720p overcrank footage.

Doing some testing today
 
Try cine1 or log gamma, WDR on my C100 has much bigger noise than these two. I like WDR in exteriors with ISO320.
 
Then I would say something is wrong with your camera. If you got it back from service and it's not shooting the same get Canon on the phone ASAP to get them to take the camera back ASAP. We all know how great this camera is. I shot today at ISO 3500 and it looks amazing!

Full size ungraded sample HERE.

This is from a TIF export from Premiere Pro. On my broadcast monitor it looks great. In this TIF it looks much more grainy than it is. and whatever flickr does to it made it even noisier but ISO 3500! Love the C300!

12126661846_247157829c_c.jpg

3200K C Log ungraded ISO 3500 Canon 24-105
 
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Looks bute Dusty, no noise to worry about there. Did u use Neat Video filter coz 6400 iso and no noise is quite remarkable ;)
 
Erik Naso said:
Then I would say something is wrong with your camera. If you got it back from service and it's not shooting the same get Canon on the phone ASAP to get them to take the camera back ASAP. We all know how great this camera is. I shot today at ISO 3500 and it looks amazing!

Full size ungraded sample HERE.

This is from a TIF export from Premiere Pro. On my broadcast monitor it looks great. In this TIF it looks much more grainy than it is. and whatever flickr does to it made it even noisier but ISO 3500! Love the C300!

3200K C Log ungraded ISO 3500 Canon 24-105
Click to expand...


did u use an in camera noise reduction?

i never get these kind of clean images like u guys.... i am jealous!
 
I'm using C Log with no mojo setings. The color science in the new firmware is a big improvement. No more green cast in log. Really great.
 
as you rise your ISO, rise your in camera NR. Black balance. For low light low key shots that don't have lighting then you will see noise even at 850. So if your shot is low key with lots of darks, bump up the NR to +2 or even +4. The camera will still be sharp. Keep in mind that when you put things on vimeo or youtube, compression will hide noise too.

If you like WDR, take an SD card and copy the profile to it. This card should only have WDR profiles on it. Call it WDR card (label it that). Copy standard WDR over to it 5 or so times. WDR 1, WDR2 WDR3 and so on. Now shot WDR1 at 320 iso zero NR in camera. Then set WDR2 at 850. WDR3 at 1600. WDR4 at 3200 and so on. Gotta keep black balancing as well. Now for each of those ISOs rise the in cam NR a bit and see what you like and what you don't like.
Maybe your WDR3 is set at 3200. Rename it that "WDR3200" and play with the NR. It might be +4 or maybe +6. Once you find the combos that work, then transfer them back to the camera. But keep that WDR card in your bag. Make other cards for other profiles. Catch my drift here guys? You might even make a WDR12,500 with NR set at +10? That is up to you...But you got to black balance. If you go from 320 to ISO1250, you HAVE to re-black balance. I put the lens cap on and cover the end of the lens with a dark hat.
 
I made some quick test of wdr gamma and there is a big difference between 25i and 25p mode (in 25i there is a lot of colored noise, in 25p is noise much better, like cine1 in 25i mode). Noise Reduction for WDR was NR5, for cine1 was NR2. Sharpness setting is not so important (was about -5 or -7).
The pictures were taken at the same time (during two minutes) and the iris was the same. I made a black balance and the firmware is the latest version. The differences are really big.

There are pictures (cropped from HD) from this quick test:
wdr 25i iso6400 http://www.videoproduce.cz/images/109e_wdr_iso6400_25i_crop.tif
wdr 25p iso6400 http://www.videoproduce.cz/images/109e2_wdr_iso6400_25p_crop.tif
cine1 25i iso6400 http://www.videoproduce.cz/images/109f_cine1_iso6400_25i_crop.tif

In 25i mode there is a big difference in noise level between wdr and cine1 gamma, in 25p is noise level the same (and in a very acceptable level).


Edit.: I must say (at the same time) that I never had a camera with such lowlight ability in this price level. I can use 6400ISO and picture is still sharp with small level of noise (with the right setting and with the speed lens about F2.0), this is a wonderful feature for (my) documentary type of work.
The problem with noise is about some special types of scenes with the large black parts and with specific type of setting of C100, where is more noise than in the lighter parts of scene. I want to discover during this testing how far I can go with the C100 to the low light and still have a good DR (and that is why I need the wdr gamma - for the good gradient to overexposure highlights, look to this lamp shade below where cine1 did some crazy gradient to overexposure highlights and where wdr gamma is nice), sometimes I can't used lights to get a better result. I know the better cameras from my work at broadcast TV, with better DR and more smooth gradients to highlights, but they cost a lot more than C100.
 

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