Colin Elves
November 2nd, 2012, 04:35 PM
Hello all,
Sorry about the slightly odd title - I hope it might draw some interest.
Basically I'm trying to work out if my FS700 has a problem or not. Specifically with what appears to be noise in middle-shadow/middle-black tones.
I say appears to be noise because I am fairly certain it is not simply noise, as it is not present in the near black dark areas - but only in tones slightly lighter than these. You can actually see the noise spike as you stop down, then disappear as an area moves towards black. The problem gets worse if you go into super-slo mo, worse still in speeds above 240fps.
The general effect is to make surfaces appear like 'they're fizzing'. It's a bit of a problem as I've had two clients complain about it (producers, not cameramen/editors: so it has to be pretty bad for them to notice!) - one of which has basically described the footage as unusable.
I've noticed that it is worse in profiles that raise the black level (e.g. Noah Yuan-Vogel's / the AB_Nex Log) and improves somewhat (but doesn't disappear) if you reduce the black level and in Profiles that reduce the black level (e.g. Alister Chapman's fla / AB_Range). In fact, the only true solution I have found is to reduce the black level and over expose: as mid-greys are noise free, you can then bring them back down to blacks cleanly. But in this instance you are losing a lot of DR. Without pulling down the blacks I still seem to get a little noise in middle-greys.
I'm wondering if it is a codec thing. More importantly I'm wondering if it is just my camera (and so needs to be sent back to Sony) or if it is a 'feature' of the FS700. So I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this problem?
Thanks,
Colin Elves
DP/Steadicam Op, London
Colin Elves - Director of Photography and Steadicam Operator (http://www.colinelves.com)
Sorry about the slightly odd title - I hope it might draw some interest.
Basically I'm trying to work out if my FS700 has a problem or not. Specifically with what appears to be noise in middle-shadow/middle-black tones.
I say appears to be noise because I am fairly certain it is not simply noise, as it is not present in the near black dark areas - but only in tones slightly lighter than these. You can actually see the noise spike as you stop down, then disappear as an area moves towards black. The problem gets worse if you go into super-slo mo, worse still in speeds above 240fps.
The general effect is to make surfaces appear like 'they're fizzing'. It's a bit of a problem as I've had two clients complain about it (producers, not cameramen/editors: so it has to be pretty bad for them to notice!) - one of which has basically described the footage as unusable.
I've noticed that it is worse in profiles that raise the black level (e.g. Noah Yuan-Vogel's / the AB_Nex Log) and improves somewhat (but doesn't disappear) if you reduce the black level and in Profiles that reduce the black level (e.g. Alister Chapman's fla / AB_Range). In fact, the only true solution I have found is to reduce the black level and over expose: as mid-greys are noise free, you can then bring them back down to blacks cleanly. But in this instance you are losing a lot of DR. Without pulling down the blacks I still seem to get a little noise in middle-greys.
I'm wondering if it is a codec thing. More importantly I'm wondering if it is just my camera (and so needs to be sent back to Sony) or if it is a 'feature' of the FS700. So I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this problem?
Thanks,
Colin Elves
DP/Steadicam Op, London
Colin Elves - Director of Photography and Steadicam Operator (http://www.colinelves.com)