This is a test I made one night with absolutely no moon (don't know how it's called in English). I am telling you, it was DARK !
Camera settings: f2.4 S1/25 Gain +3 or 0
Lens: Nikon 50mm f1.2


http://www.snapdrive.net/files/516833/Letus%20dark.avi

I don't know how much of the noise was the compression, but to me that is unusable footage.

slowwwwwww server. Still waiting for DL to complete :-\

Bill, sorry about that. It usually downloads pretty fast. Do you know any alternative free upload servers?

Dennis, as there are a lot of people discussing how low can you go lightwise (including myself), I figured I would shoot a test and post a video with the lowest light possible. It is not meant to be put on a commercial or shown to a client, although it would make sense to see such a dark shot in a film, should the situation call for it.
As for the grain, I believe you are seeing compression artifacts. I shot with Gain 0 and +3 which doesn't produce grain. Not that noticeable anyway.

Everything was either soft looking or out of focus. Makes it hard to tell regarding any low light performance if detail is lost for whatever reasons.

I know there's faster servers & many have been discussed on the forums here. Do a search & you'll find plenty of recommendations.

Bill

Agree with Bill. Allot of the footage appeared to be out of focus.

Thought the raw video file may not have had any noise, in order to be used in a film the footage would have to be combined with other scenes and recompressed. If this recompression results in horrible noise; the footage is unusable.

And to tell you the truth I haven't seen very many films where the amount of light was that low. I was under the impression that most night scenes are shot in somewhat well-lit areas and then color-corrected to give them the "night look."