My HM700u is very grainy

[Carlito Sanchaz]

I have done some searches here and on google as well. Didn’t find a whole lot of good info.

I picked up a new JVC HM700u from B&H about 18 months ago.
I shoot :30 TV spots under good controlled light.

No matter what I do I get a lot of grain in my blacks and darker colors. Even with gain set at 0 and detail lower than -5.

I'm hoping to learn how to correct this. This is an expensive purchase to be dealing with that kind of grain.

It doesn’t look bad when compressed on web movies, but when played back on a broadcast screen in proper context it looks pretty nasty.

Any thoughts would be great.

[Carlito Sanchaz]

I wanted to add that other than this I am very happy with my images.
I have settings that I got from these forums some time ago.
The colors are nice and the picture is clear.

Just seems to be much more grain than I would like to have to live with.

[Ron Edwards]

Are you shooting full auto?

Has the cam had grain issues from day one?

You might want to reset cam to factory settings and go from there.

RonE

[Carlito Sanchaz]

Hi and thank you for your interest in this thread.

1- I'm not shooting full auto
2- The grain issues seem to be a little worse than when I first started using this unit.
3- I don't think resetting will help as I have done litte adjusting at best to this camera..

Over the last 24 hours I've done a lot of testing.
I am starting to think the issue is I am simply not letting enough light in - not opening the iris enough...
I looked at shoots from the past that were great and on those shoots I brought an external screen with me. It seems that the grain issues are happening when I shoot indoors and use only the JVC flip-out screen.
I use the zebra stripes as an aid, but perhaps I need to adjust them a bit and perhaps I need to adjust the built in screen brightness....

On my last test I used the built in JVC screen and adjusted / opened up the iris a littlel brighter than I normally would when using JVCs screen - that really helped a lot. In other words I trusted the JVC screen and my eyes less and opened up the iris more than what my eyes told me to. That made the grain almost go away - 90% better.

I would like to learn how to dial the built in screen and zebra bars in a little better, so I can use the built in screen more reliably. I guess I need to darken the screen (can't figure out how) and adjust the zebra bars (don't know how yet)

Thanks again!

[Bob Richardson]

I agree that the JVC flip-out screen shows an image which appears brighter than the end result on a color-calibrated monitor.

But also make sure you have the latest firmware and DNR turned on in the Camera Process menu.

The grain has always been a problem for me, but there has been a slight (subjective?) improvement since the firmware was updated a year or so ago and DNR has been turned on.

When I shoot in the studio I send the component out of the camera to a HDTV on a cart and those results, as well as my (manually) calibrated monitor results tend to reflect reality better than the flip-out display, and tend to match the final product on end-user devices that I have had the opportunity to view better than the flip-out display.

(And the flip-out display varies greatly depending on the vertical tilt, just a few degrees off makes a difference. If you're looking right on at 0 degree offset, I think it is too bright compared to the end result. Tilt it just a bit off-axis so that it turns slightly darker, and that's closer to the truth.)

[Carlito Sanchaz]

Thanks Bob.
I have not updated my firmware and I don't know how.
I will learn how and do it right away.
I will also make sure DNR is turned on on all of my picture settings that I have stored.

Thanks again for your great suggestions.