I also never had a way to monitor my footage outside of my computer until recently. So when I finally sat down to look at the footage I shot from a wedding this past weekend, I was shocked. There was noise, everywhere... in shadows, which wouldn't be all too surprising, but also in highlights and in perfectly lit scenes. I went back and checked some of my previous footage. I saw a little bit of noise, especially in the shadows, but the footage looked good otherwise. So something happened to my camera just before this wedding shoot.
Here's a sample still from this shoot: noisy mess
So the last couple of days whenever I had some downtime I've been tweaking and testing. I reset the camera, which I'm not 100% sure actually truly reset the camera as much as at least rest the scene files and menu (see this thread for more information) and then searched through the HMC150 board at DVX User and found Barry Green's scene file recommendations. The results were noticeably better and returned my level of satisfaction with this camera.
I noted that the camera looked the best shooting 720p 60, even though the "native" shooting rate of this camera is suppose to be 24p. I noticed just a tiny bit more noise in 24 vs. the 60p footage. Here's a 60p still post-camera reset and using new Scene File settings: much better. There is still some noise present here, but (at least to me) it's much softer and not the hideous distortion you see in the other still.
Ultimately I'm not really sure what happened to my camera. And if you find yourself shooting with yours and you have noise, everywhere, it's not suppose to be this way. I think we have to accept the fact that we're going to have some noise/compression, seeing as how this is not full blown uncompressed HD we're shooting here, but the footage should look relatively clean and beautiful. I'm going to continue to do more testing but I'm definitely going to be much more on guard with what is happening with my camera and you better believe I'll do some last minute testing prior to a big shoot to make sure the camera hasn't gone wonky again.
Note: The Scene File setting tweaks were as follows:
Detail: +2
VDetail: +2
Detail Coring: +1
Chroma +2 (I think this should probably be returned to 0 as the resulting image becomes just a little too saturated, but you might prefer this)
Master Ped: -20
Cine-Like V
7 comments:
detail and vdetail at 0 would be better for noise
Just thought I would give my thoughts on low noise settings.
Detail & V-Detail set to -2.
Detail Coring +5
Chroma Phase -2
Master Ped 0
Gamma: Hd Norm. or Cinelike v
Matrix: Norm 1 or cine-like
These settings are after extreme testing,setting up right off the ccd sensors with no compression, hdmi straight in.
Chroma phase is down because if you over saturate you loose detail, it is better to adjust in post when working in a 10 bit codec. Keep chroma under 0, I know the saturation looks cool, but trust me, better detail when set lower.
Also keep your ped to 0, if you lower your ped it not only darkens the black,(which does look nice) but sharpens the black areas, increasing noise.
I hope this helps. :)
Thanks for the recommendations. I know in the end it makes the most sense to do my grading in post. I'll give your settings a try and see how they work out for me.
Think I got the same problem! What was your solution? I got noise even in outside shots. I tried different scene files but no reset so far. What's the damn problem?!!!
Bronsn,
I would recommend doing a black balance upon powering up. Also, have you tried Barry Green's lonoiz file setting? I believe you can do a search on the DVX Users forum and find it.
I'm not sure it's possible to eliminate noise completely, but I know these cameras can produce some great images without noise being present everywhere. If nothing seems to work you might want to look at contacting Panasonic for service.
I've recently shot some footage without any knowledge of reducing noise by changing the camera setting. looks like great info!
I'd like to reduce the from this footage. Anyone know any free, quality, noise reducing filters i could use in fcp?
thanks
Thanks Brian!
The Problem is that I have bought a Canon 7D. The Footage is really noise-free in the most Situations. I mean totally noise-free. It's a shame that a Photocamera beats a semi-pro Camcorder! I'm really angry about that. The 7D has other problems, but I love the clean Images of it. It's nearly impossible to match the HMC with the Canon. For what did I pay 3500 Euros?! Only for the shape of a camcorder?
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