I am experiencing poor, grainy footage with the Canon XF100, please help !

[Chris Andrews]

Hello, I recently purchased a Canon XF100 and went out to test it today. the image quality on the cameras LCD screen is superb , however once I upload the clips onto my computer they go all grainy and are very poor quality. Here is an example:

AA002401 - YouTube

I recorded this at 50Mbps 1920x1080 50i. I was wondering if anyone had experienced this problem or if anyone knows how to fix it.

Thanks
Chris Andrews

[Chris Hurd]

Hi Chris,

Which program mode was used to record this? (P, Tv, Av, etc.)

Have you reviewed this material on an HDTV, by connecting the camcorder via HDMI cable?

Was the ISO setting on Auto?

[Chris Andrews]

Thanks for your reply, I have plugged the camera in to a HDTV with a HDMI cable and the footage is still pretty grainy.
As to what program mode it was recorded in I don't know I'm afraid , I'm very new to using cameras , I have browsed through all the menus on the XF100 and I cannot find anything to do with program mode.
Also there are no options for ISO adjustments that I can find on the camera or in the manual , but I did have the camera on full manual and I adjusted the aperture, gain, white balance etc and whilst recording the image was great and upon playback on the camera itself the footage looks fine.

[Chris Hurd]

Sorry, my error, ISO = Gain. That was my fault.

What were the specific shutter, aperture and gain values for this clip?

[Chris Andrews]

Right , after finding out exactly what settings everything was on I may have found the problem , the gain was on auto and was very high at 24.0dB, the shutter speed was 1/50 (is that too slow ?) and the aperture was set at F8.0. Do you think these setting could be causing that grainy quality.
Thanks
Chris

[Roger Averdahl]

Originally Posted by Chris Andrews

Right , after finding out exactly what settings everything was on I may have found the problem , the gain was on auto and was very high at 24.0dB, the shutter speed was 1/50 (is that too slow ?) and the aperture was set at F8.0. Do you think these setting could be causing that grainy quality.

Yes, the auto gain is the issue.

[Chris Andrews]

Looks like the problem was the auto gain , thanks for helping me find the problem guys!

[Doug Jensen]

NEVER use auto-gain under any circumstances. If you must increase the gain because you are in a low-light situation, always do it manually so you are in control of the setting and can choose when it is changed.

1/50th is not too slow for 50i. That's right where it should be under normal shooting conditions.

However, an aperture of f/8 should always be avoided on any 1/3" camcorder due to diffraction. You'll want to try and keep the aperture at f/4 or wider for best image quality. All 1/3" camcorders suffer from the same issue.

You also might want to try shooting 25P since interlaced is a little old-fashioned now. :-)

MASTERING THE CANON XF305 & XF300 CAMCORDERS

I hope that helps get you on the right track.

[Sam Young]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

NEVER use auto-gain under any circumstances. If you must increase the gain because you are in a low-light situation, always do it manually so you are in control of the setting and can choose when it is changed.

1/50th is not too slow for 50i. That's right where it should be under normal shooting conditions.

However, an aperture of f/8 should always be avoided on any 1/3" camcorder due to diffraction. You'll want to try and keep the aperture at f/4 or wider for best image quality. All 1/3" camcorders suffer from the same issue.

You also might want to try shooting 25P since interlaced is a little old-fashioned now. :-)

MASTERING THE CANON XF305 & XF300 CAMCORDERS

I hope that helps get you on the right track.

Thank you for those precious tips Doug, I never realized that f/8 will already lead to poor quality images.

[Mark Andersson]

These settings will fix you up:

In Color Matrix settings dial R-G to -8.
Set sharpness to -5 and Coring to +8.
Also set Noise Reduction to 2.
Don't go over +6 gain
Use 1/25 only in very low light.

[Joseph Kitzmiller]

Doug, your training videos look great. Do you have a downloadable option or only physical DVD?

[Doug Jensen]

Hi Joseph, just DVDs at this time.

[Mark Andersson]

You could pick up a ND filter to keep your Iris less than f8 in bright conditions such as:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/10429-REG/B_W_65063807_58_mm_Graduated_501.html