Hi,

I have an XL-1 and when I playback footage, anything black has alot of noise in it. Just like a cheap 1 CCD camera filming in the dark.

Is it a setting I am missing or a problem with the camera?

I normally shoot with gain set to either 0 or +3.

Thanks in advance,
The Shlook

Without more information I would guess that your +3 gain is putting noise in the frame. The XL-1 tends to be a bit hot so many professionals use -3dB as their standard setting for most shots.

Is it a straight XL1? Or the 1S?

On the 1S, there are a lot of playful settings which can contribute. I know that with my setup, the output is sharper and more colorful but a little noisier through s-video and kind of sensitive to having the brightness set too bright.

My 1S is quite clean in the blacks. Is the rest of the pic A-OK? What about the AE compensation dial? Is that in the null position?

Also make sure you're not shooting in "Green Box" (easy recording) mode. Doing so will override your gain settings; even if you've dialed in -3db, it'll automatically gain up in Green Box mode.

Thanks guys,

Will look into it, and report back.

Cheers,
The Shlook

Also, how are you viewing it? and is the noise in all-black images or mainly in dark objects in an otherwise average lit scene?