Capturing via firewire into iMovie, Final Cut Pro... no matter what I set the software to do the video always imports looking real lousy.

I am filming in a low light situation originally but added a makeshift studio light to brighten the area. Even at closeups, there are artifacts and grain in the video. My coworker insists that it's a setting on the camera, but I ave tried all of the obvious and I don't think it's the camera that's the problem.

How do you guys get excellent quality captured video from these things? All my settings are uncompressed (Final Cut)... I'm expecting a little grain from the low light but it shouldn't import looking like it was encoded super low for the web, right off the bat. What should I be checking at this point?

I would provide examples but obviously that wouldn't do any good as they'd be compressed! Thanks in advance...

How high is your gain setting? I would recomend for the highest quality to stay at -3 or 0 at most. Anything higher than that and you are going to see lots of grain.

;Dooley

Without looking at the footage we are guessing, but I'm guessing you've got some extra (probably cheap) glass in front of your lens.

I guess that's possible... I should probably see the footage on a TV first before assuming it's the camera and not just the import settings in my software, but I would think that even in iMovie (which is horrible in comparison to Final Cut) you should be able to import excellent quality video, especially from a camera of that caliber...

It shouldn't matter what you're importing from. I used to use a $100 JVC camera to capture MiniDV footage, and it came out looking exactly the same as if I'd captured it from the VX1000 it was filmed with.

The xl2 produces well even in low light.

What preste did you use? some of them to make things look like film have grain added.

As recomended keep the gain down as far as possible!

If your settings in the camera a not good you can usually see the gain in the view finder!!

Post a frame grab and perhps itemize the settings you used.


dale Guthormsen

What mode are you shooting the camera in? If you are shooting in an Easy or Auto mode, you may not have any control over gain and it may be creeping up on you as a result of something you've inadvertently done (like leaving Neutral Density filters on or raising shutter speed or irising down).

Any chance you might have had accidentally the ND filter engaged, and then set your camera to A, Tv, or Av mode? Any of those in conjunction with the ND filter could make the auto-gain get super gross looking.