Director's POV

[George Angeludis]

I had the idea to take out of my cellphone the 8gb SDHC Silicon Image I have bought for it and to buy a small 2GB SDHC with an adapter for the cell, so I could use the 8G with the adapter at the Canon 550D. It turned out to be the fastest of all the others. First time I have experienced such a fast multi pic performance and video also. It stop after 12 minutes @720p @13:56! Meaning at the maximum recording time without stopping. I bought this for 20 euros and is class 6 but it seems faster than the full SDHC from the same company...

[George Angeludis]

One let down is how 550D performs when there is no good contrast in the picture while in low light. I think this is a problem of the H264 compression.
I have start shooting my new short and while at scenes with good contrast and enough light the image looks very good when we went to 1.8/30 at low contrast 550D produces unacceptable images.
Of course I will re shoot the 3 scenes out of the 10 we shot today...

[Jon Fairhurst]

That looks like a combination of too little light and 8-bit video. If you can shoot a bit hotter with a lower ISO, that should help. Also, when you know that there will be no highlights to clip, you might set the Picture Style contrast higher. You might even start with Standard, rather than Neutral or Faithful mode.

On the 5D and 7D, one can use ISOs of 160, 320, 640, and 1250. These have lower noise in the blacks than 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600. Unfortunately, the 550D doesn't give you that option, so you have to expect a bit more noise.

Anyway, with more light, a lower ISO, and higher contrast when there is no risk of clipping highlights, you can always lower the gain and offset (contrast and brightness) in post. That will push down the picture towards black - and it will also push down your noise.

Also, take a look at Neat Video noise reduction. It's not too expensive and works pretty well, if you have enough time to run it.

Best of luck with the re-shoot!

[George Angeludis]

Hi Jon,
I am using superflat profile and ISO 200 with highlight tone priority, It's easy for me to work it at Avid and make it look a lot better but I will re shoot it anyway. I have seen 7D clips with the same or more noise/artifacts. I knew about that "problem" as I was investigating constantly before shooting.
It's more the H264 compression which can't forgive such mistakes. Even at my HV30 which is 8bit as well and it is 3 lux or lesser the images are clearer and the noise is there sometimes but not the vertical artifacts. Thanks for the wishes but there is no room for luck at the shootings. Only knowledge can help. And while I was aware of the situation I was trying my luck...

[Jon Fairhurst]

For low light and low saturation, HTP and superflat are the opposite of what you want. HTP can add noise in the blacks, and superflat will give you very few bits to work with. Those settings would be perfect in direct sunlight though, where you have high contrast and want to save as much detail as possible in the highlights, but I would use different settings for those scenes.

Of course, I don't know the whole picture. For all I know, you start out with huge highlights and pan into the shadows. No one setting can cover something like that well.

And I agree about skill, not luck! I was in Athens just last month for a conference. On my last morning I went to a hill near the Acropolis to shoot a timelapse. I had everything set just right and had put in a fresh card. Too bad I didn't notice that the card wasn't empty! In the middle of the timelapse, there I was deleting old photos for a minute before I could restart! I've since added the "format card" step to my checklist. As it was my final morning in Athens, reshooting wasn't an option. I've blended it in post as best I can...

So, rather than "good luck", I'll wish that you work to the best of your skills on your reshoot. :)

(BTW, despite one general strike day, I enjoyed my stay in Athens very much!)

[George Angeludis]

Jon,
I am in Thessaloniki not Athens but it seems that you were at a really beautiful spot of Greece where you set to do the timelapse.
What ever profile I have tested the results are the exact same at low light situations.
What I have also discovered is that it's not even the H264 compression to blame.
And this because I can see the artifacts/vertical banding at the monitor (live view!).
So it can't be the compression because it records the same image I can see live before shoot it.
This is an indication of not good optics or the signal processor inside Canon.

P.S. But you were right about the Highlight tone priority. It gives more noise. And the neutral picture profile seems the best for low light so far.

[Bruce Foreman]

George, I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for in your sample image. I can see an indistinct shape of some sort at the right hand edge and what looks like another coming in from top left. My impression is that you were shooting in far too dim light anyway.

If you were trying to show noise beware of a monitor that may be oversharpened, this will accentuate noise. My primary monitor is a 21.6" SamSung and while it is very sharp in displaying images I very rarely see noise others complain about. My video workstation has a 22" Dell widescreen and I have yet to get the color adjusted right on it. It also seems to be overly sharp and I can often see some noise on it.

What I judge by more than anything else is footage rendered to a final viewing format, then displayed on my 42" LCD TV. That gives me a good idea what viewers are likely to see on their TV's.

[George Angeludis]

Unfortunately it wasn't a little light there. The light is coming from a window at the back. At other shots as in a general shot where there is good contrast there is a very sharp image. But at the same shot where there isn't enough light there is that strange noise and some vertical annoying bands or stripes (I don't know how to say it better). One or two shots will tell the story better than I could describe.
At this shot as in some others I could have lighten the back of the actor but I liked it that way.
As I said even from HV30 or a Z1 or a Z7 or EX1, I could have to shoot it as well, there would be no vertical stripes/noise at the left part of the shot where there is no light.
Especially at the back of his head...

[George Angeludis]

It was probably the Highlight tone priority on that,
I just want to share that the image produced from 550D with the EF 50mm 1.8 II (only drawback the absence of IS) looks a lot like film
and has nothing to do with the video look the HDV or other cameras are producing.
And that only without any Color Correction. Given that you will use the right f/stops and ISO combination.
Yesterday's shootings were at a basement with only one lamp at the roof (which was there).
1080 25p with 30 stop at 400 ISO gave a very good image without any kind of noise.
Using the Neutral profile.

[Jon Fairhurst]

Good looking image. On my monitor, it looks like there is some color noise in the wall. But I wasn't there. Maybe the wall has some local color variations. It might also have to do with 8-bits. 8-bit video can only create so many hues, so when a hue is in between two levels, you can get a dithered look.

A light amount of NR in post can easily take care of such a low level of color noise.

[George Angeludis]

Maybe there is some or it's from the blood ;)
Those are the original files which I am then linking by AMA at MC5 and transcoding them to DNxHD 120 and backing up the project with MDV each time I am bringing in some new footage. Of course when the time of the editing will come there will be color correction to keep up haunting the "sick" atmosphere I am looking for the film. The Neutral Profile leaves room for a lot of improvements. If I would add just an 800W light hitting the roof and closing the aperture, everything could be more dynamic BUT then I wouldn't have the "sickness" I am looking for which a part of, is the degradation of the image.

[Jon Fairhurst]

I don't think it's the blood. :)

In the texture of the wall, I see some green/blue and reddish tones, rather than a consistent hue. It's not very significant and is probably fine. With NR, you could remove it, but too much NR and things start looking plastic. Blotchy color noise is one of those digital artifacts that we don't tend to see in film. Applying a touch of NR and then adding some film grain could really make it perfect.

But I'm picking nits here. The audience won't notice or care. :)

[George Angeludis]

No, I am also a perfectionist as well. I have analyzed that. This is due to White Balance.
Even if I have set it to tungsten which was the right one, it would be better to have it on set and with the classic white paper, I would have taken a better metering of color temperature. That in theory. It needs some CC inside MC5 to reduce the color cast. From then and on there is no color noise or is reduced to a real minimal state that even enlarged will not be viewable or noticed. Of course I am not going to leave it like that at the final stage. Thanks for the observation Jon.