A1 grainy picture problem

[Paul Cronin]

I have now shot 3 tapes with the A1 and seem to have a grainy picture problem.

Items checked:
1.All gain is set to "0" all the time. I shoot outside and never use gain only ND. All gain settings in menu are also set to "0" incase I hit the switch. AGC is off.
2. Checked the picture by component to Dell 24" ultra sharp HD monitor. It shows grain when no tape is rolling so it is not the heads. The same when tape is rolling.
3. Checked in 60i, 24F, and 30F.
4. Always run in manual but checked also in auto.
5. Checked with custom presets on and off.

Had my stock footage company complain about my last set of clips (too much grain). My mistake for even sending the clips.

Talked to Canon today and they will check it out but wanted to know if anyone else had had this problem?

Purchased from B&H and will call today. Also I was ready to purchase a second A1 this week so I guess that is now happening so I can do a job this weekend.

Any thoughts on how to solve?

[Khoi Pham]

Originally Posted by Paul Cronin

I have now shot 3 tapes with the A1 and seem to have a grainy picture problem.

Items checked:
1.All gain is set to "0" all the time. I shoot outside and never use gain only ND. All gain settings in menu are also set to "0" incase I hit the switch. AGC is off.
2. Checked the picture by component to Dell 24" ultra sharp HD monitor. It shows grain when no tape is rolling so it is not the heads. The same when tape is rolling.
3. Checked in 60i, 24F, and 30F.
4. Always run in manual but checked also in auto.
5. Checked with custom presets on and off.

Had my stock footage company complain about my last set of clips (too much grain). My mistake for even sending the clips.

Talked to Canon today and they will check it out but wanted to know if anyone else had had this problem?

Purchased from B&H and will call today. Also I was ready to purchase a second A1 this week so I guess that is now happening so I can do a job this weekend.

Any thoughts on how to solve?

Post as pict so we can see what you are talking about.

[Paul Cronin]

Not sure how to upload pictures? I went to Manage Attachments then pick the picture from my hard drive and it fails to upload. Advice?

Interesting B&H said to go to DVinfo.net to help solve the problem.

[Paul Cronin]

This is a picture of a clip in 30F it only worked with .JPG not .BMP. Also aspect ratio is off but that should not matter for this.
manual focus
1 ND
max zoom
60 shutter
5.4 Iris
Gain off
Vivid custom pre set
Warm white balance (yes this is too much with vivid)
OIS off
Locked on tripod

[Paul Cronin]

Another in 30F same settings.

[Douglas Villalba]

It really looks crappy.
Tell us your full settings.
Are you set on M for full manual control?
How about your custom settings?

[Khoi Pham]

I don't know what is set in your vivid settings, but look at the coring setings, if it is in the negative range then bring it back to 0 or + 1 or 2, and use -3db gain instead of 0db, although I really don't see alot of noise in your picture at all but a little bit in the second picture, but how come they are not in the original 16X9 format?

[Paul Cronin]

Douglas all the settings are above and below and it is full manual. Also when I went back to factory preset it had the same problem. The camera went back to Canon today which is too bad since I had to cancel a job this weekend. Time for a second.

manual focus
1 ND
max zoom
60 shutter
5.4 Iris
Gain off
Vivid custom pre set
Warm white balance (yes this is too much with vivid)
OIS off
Locked on tripod

[Douglas Villalba]

I was talking about custom setting like the ones that Khoi mentions above.

[Douglas Villalba]

Try this settings by Steven Denpsey
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...t=81071&page=6

[Paul Cronin]

Douglas and Khoi thanks for your feedback.

As for not in the 16x9 I am not sure what Avid Liquid did in the update. I will have to look into the setting to get frame grabs back to 16x9.

To answer your question I don't have the numbers with me since the camera has been sent back.

The vivid setting I used is the latest from Steve's of the preset forum. It has the same problem with Panalook and the factory presets. The presets are not the problem since with out a preset on it is the same grain (heat wave) problem.

Also I went back to the factory default while on with B&H and it is also the same problem.

Even while viewing with out a tape running in auto it is the same problem. Canon thought it might be the motherboard.

But I will look at the coring when it comes back I hope fixed.

[Paul Cronin]

Thanks Douglas that is the preset I used.

[Bill Busby]

I don't see any excessive noise other than what looks like jpeg artifacts in the stills.

The second pic however is horrendously soft, like it's way out of focus. Look at the trees in the background for example. There's no detail whatsoever. It looks as if either coring is cranked to the max, and/or sharpness in a max negative value. Even if this was a diffraction issue by using ND1 instead of ND2 to open the iris more than 5.4, it still should look better than this.

Bill

[Paul Cronin]

Bill the trees in the back ground look like they are underwater in the video.

The whole picture has a noise/shimmer. With the camera on tripod locked inside and on standby on component to my 24" dell the whole picture has a shimmer. And this is with gain and OIS off. After going back to factory settings. This is what told Canon there was a problem.


The Coring was at 0 I found my settings.

[Nelson Cole]

Originally Posted by Paul Cronin

Thanks Douglas that is the preset I used.

Paul, I hope you'll update us when you get the new camera.