What is the best way to reduce noise using FCP - and the HD200 - alot of my lower lit areas are very grainy - is it possible to smooth out these areas so its not so noticeable?

Well, the best all around way to reduce noise is to employ the lowest gain setting possible to the point where you're not losing detail. Also, what I do is I stretch the blacks in camera, and then crush them in post... But really, the hd100 is meant to be shot under planned lighting.

Download the demo of this plug-in and test it out.
http://www.chv-plugins.com/cms/Fx-Script/Repair-collection/Repair-collection.php

It seems to use a "Lowry-type" frame comparison method to reduce noise. I find that is works quite well, but I find it works best to use on a shot-by-shot basis, even though it has a frame-change sensitivity adjustment.

Download the demo of this plug-in and test it out.
http://www.chv-plugins.com/cms/Fx-Script/Repair-collection/Repair-collection.php

It seems to use a "Lowry-type" frame comparison method to reduce noise. I find that is works quite well, but I find it works best to use on a shot-by-shot basis, even though it has a frame-change sensitivity adjustment.
Is there anything similar for After-Effects? or other PC editor? The drop-out saver would have been very useful last year.

Tim,
Do you know if there's a similar noise reduction program or plugin for PC based users (Vegas)?
Steve

You also might try;

http://www.joesfilters.com/joes_noise_reducer

Is there anything similar for After-Effects? or other PC editor? The drop-out saver would have been very useful last year.
Yes, the "Reduce Grain" filter actually works very well. If you spend some time experimenting with it you can get very good results.

Douglas...you wrote..

>Douglas Joseph Well, the best all around way to reduce noise is to employ the lowest gain setting possible to the point where you're not losing detail. Also, what I do is I stretch the blacks in camera, and then crush them in post... But really, the hd100 is meant to be shot under planned lighting. <

How do you observe if you are losing detail with too low of gain settings? is it quite noticable (I use a xh-a1 and would only be able to check the shots in the field on it's LCD until I got the footage home to my PC).

When you say losing detail - what characteristics do you notice?

Why would stretching the blacks (I don't know what that does), and then crushing them (again ?) in post help?

Curious as to what this all means. I understand and can readily see when gain is adding noise (coloured pixels) to my shots. On the other end of the scale I might be confusing or missing something of a more subtle quality from my own inexperience.