I have a bride that wants an HD version of her wedding on Blu Ray. That isn't a problem because we already offer that option. The problem is that it was shot on the FX-1 and if we would have known about it, we would have used the Z7U's. As I'm editing it, I can see several spots where the gain was set a bit high and I need to clean it up. What plug-ins or tools can you guys suggest? I'm using FCP btw.

Thanks,

Chad

Look for the TMTS plugins, there is a couple noise reduction filters that might help you. Gain/grain is real hard to deal with so have low expectations, but it's one option I've used in the past.

I've used a filter from nattress with limited success. I agree with benjamin, I find in general the less filters you use the better your footage will look. Too much noise filter will make your image appear soft and out of focus, which i think is just as bad if not worse than noise. Rather than remove the noise your objective should be to soften the edges of the noise so it blends in with the rest of the image.

I have had no success with grain removal, but I'm not sure that the FX-1 was at fault for that. You can just turn the gain to zero.

Consider crushing your blacks. You might also darken midtones slightly. A curve to take care of both would look most natural.

Desaturate the color channels slightly. If you look at each channel (red, blue, green) to find which one has the most noise, you can desaturate that one the most. For example, in Tungsten light, the blue channel tends to have the most noise (because of lower signal).

As far as your typical noise reduction software goes, I'd suggest evaluating Neat Video. Personally, I prefer to leave the noise how it is. Adds character. :)