hello!

new to dvinfo, and i have a problem that i hope someone can help me with.

i have had my a1 for about 8 months and can confidently say i have made some decent stuff with it. however, starting to play around with the CP features i am hoping it possibly may fix the problem. i feel like i constantly have too much noise in my shots. i mean, i understand hdv compression, but i have some some great work come out of the a1. my big issue is low light. i have used the gain settings but no CP for night. i also just capture in fcp6 via hdv capture. any help regarding this issue or possible CP/capture setups you use would make my life great!(been bugging me for the past nights). i will put some test shots so you have a visual to critique.

thanks for the help!

dan

What mode are you shooting at? What is your gain setting?

Ensure auto gain is turned off.

Shoot in manual.

Gain at +12 is bad....most folks have change gain setting to +6, +3, -3.

GAIN=GRAIN

There is a preset out there call pfvision.....Randy made it for low light conditions when shooting at wedding receptions. It looks pretty good.

Recommend use the search feature and search "low light"

Hope this helps ya,
Michael

hey michael, thank you. gain is +3, +6 makes me nervous sometimes. 24F hdv, manual yes auto gain off yes. everything is how it should. im exporting a small clip now to post. and i have searched the forums but have gotten nothing so i wanted to post and gear it to my problem.

dan

Try this old thread


http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-xh-series-hdv-camcorders/123307-grainy-video-canon-xh-a1.html?highlight=LOW+LIGHT

thanks again michael, some of the posts did help. i also oddly enough have never edited 30p haha. i tried it out and seems to give no "drag" or not as much as 24p. seemed to help with the picture quality..but maybe ive been staring at my screen 6 hours too long.

any other advice/knowledge would be great guys.

dan

my big issue is low light.

The XHA1 will always be noisey in low light. There is no fix for it apart from adding more light.

yeah thanks dennis, i think i have to change some of my expectations with the cam. although i do believe there is clearer results from the a1 than what i am producing. thanks for the comment.

dan

The XHA1 will always be noisey in low light. There is no fix for it apart from adding more light.

That's not entirely the case. There has been a lot of success changing Coring to +9 or moving NR2 to High in the custom presets to reduce noise in low light situations.

The picture ends up a bit softer, but there is a lot less noise. You might try creating a preset with one or the other setting. Don't try both together, though. The picture will be much too soft.

Some folks have posted custom presets on this and other forums specifically for shooting in low light situations. Maybe do a search for Coring 9.

That's not entirely the case.

I've tried the different low light settings, and I've found that their results have been negligable.
The XHA1 is just not a good low light camcorder. If people are needing to shoot lots of stuff in low light, the XHA1 is a bad choice in my opinion. Other than that, I think it's a fantabulous camera.

I've had pretty good results as have a few others. Of course, I try to keep my gain at -3 or +6 max. I wonder if perhaps cameras vary with production runs because there are some that just can't get rid of the noise while others see to be able to reduce it considerably.

thats a good point too, because i know with various CPs people have achieved good night shots. im more so refering to this video someone made. it is a good benchmark for night footage to which i have not been able to get yet. though i need some more practice for sure.

http://www.joesimonproductions.com/shootout/downtown.mov

dan

Keep in mind that some people use plug-ins in post to clean up noise as well.

Not all editing programs handle the progressives, so check before you shoot. 24P will allow more light to saturate the CCD, with the shutter set @48. Gain fixed, no more than +6. ideally 0 dB. You can pull the near blacks down with CP, that should minimize the noise in the dark areas.

"Low light" is subjective, relative, and situational, as are "too much grain" and "poor performance." It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish, and the expectation for the final product. Know your tools and their limitations, and work from there.

I'm with Don on this one. I never have the gain above +3dB, but I've never shot low-lit footage that I thought was too noisy on this camera. Maybe I'm not as neurotic about it.

Nic,

Even your low light footage was shot at +3 db? Do you have an example?