My lens has a spot on it, is there anything I can do?

[Brian Drysdale]

Having shot thousands of hours using lenses with aperture rings, knocking it from the correct stop has never occurred. Also, sometimes you may wish to pull the stop during a shot and the aperture ring is the precise method of doing so,

Don;t use de noisier unless you really have to. Shooting with a high ISO should only be done if there's a really good reason to do so, For example, Professor Brian Cox on the BBC talking about the universe under a sky full of stars - the subject matter links in with the shots.

In most dramas the noise will be excessive and DPs want the best dynamic range and one limitation to this is having acceptable noise in the blacks.

"they shot at a high ASA" What be regarded as high ASA during the time of the French Connection would be the 100ASA film stock forced two stops at the most, That would give you 400 ASA, Film grain is aesthetically accepted more than video noise

[Paul R Johnson]

How many times do you place all your faith in people who have proven time after time to offer very dubious advice. Denoisers, and I have used one myself just once - to repair something vitally important - are repair tools. They cannot make the picture better, they just remove artefacts but like all processing, throw away data.

I cannot recommend a different camera as I don't use DSLRs - but I respect my colleagues opinion and they like the camera apart from low light performance. Would you buy a car with known hard suspension if you have a bad back and buy a cushion to make it tolerable?

Ryan - this time, it's really for you to draw up the list of things you need a new camera to do, in some kind of priority and then use your skills to make the choice. I just find it very strange to pick a camera to do low light shots and because it does them poorly, spend a lot of money trying to fix something? That night time clip on a big screen is pretty horrid - did you really think that is acceptable, considering the tiny issues you are finding with otherwise good footage? I'd suggest you try to get somebody with the software to clean up that clip and see if it works - I have my doubts.

[Ryan Elder]

Well is there a camera that has good night vision that you can shoot streets without lighting them then?

For example, in the movie Skyfall, how did they shoot this scene, without lighting the city, and they just used the natural light, and not have any noticeable noise:

Skyfall - Shanghai (1080p) - YouTube

As to whether or not I think the footage is acceptable, I am not sure. I need to see more indie films shot at night that got distribution I guess, to know what is acceptable then.

[Brian Drysdale]

They shot the film with an Arri Alexa, using RAW, which usually rated at 800 ISO. I gather the aerial shots were shot on a RED Epic, which has a pretty similar ISO. Certainly there's no extreme ISO involved and digital tends to be very good in the blacks, while film is good at the highlights. so nothing surprising.

I've shot on the city streets with very similar rating and a small lighting rig, so you don't need an ISO of 12,000 to shoot at night.

It's a balance, otherwise your highlights start to blowout

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, so when it comes to shooting city scenes like that with no extra lighting, and just using the street and building lights, what kinds of cameras would be good for that, that would be around a similar price to the Sony A7s II, if any?

[Brian Drysdale]

If being serious about dramas I'd look at the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras. https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/...etcinemacamera https://www.provideocoalition.com/re...gic-pocket-6k/

It seems you need Infra Red corrected ND filters on the new camera, but that's not unusual these days with digital cameras and high density ND filters, (although the situation is improving).

I saw a student film shot on the very first camera Blackmagic made, which was shot last year and it looked really good, with a nice sense of style. Made by an 18 year old student, it certainly didn't look televisual and it wasn't in scope either. The new cameras are a lot better,

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, but even with that camera, if I want to shoot on downtown streets at night, I will probably have to find some way of lighting the streets, even without permission then, no matter on the camera, is that right?

[Paul R Johnson]

Absolutely not! have you seen how much lighting is required to light large spaces - Inverse square law applies big time! Some cameras perform well in low light - some, er, less so.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, so what would be the best approach, budget wise, if the story calls from some night street scenes, but cannot be lit at the expense that a big budget production would go?

I thought about getting creative and maybe a camera like the Sony A7 s II, or something with that high of ISO might do it, but if not, what would be the best approach then?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

So we’re moved on to cameras that can film in the dark? That’s easy the Sony A7 series of course it records in compressed 8bit. The black magic pocket cameras are not intended for low light and use a smaller sensor but record in 10 bit raw/Prores allowing for a proper color grading.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, but would low light be more important than the bit size though, in low light shooting cases?

[Brian Drysdale]

Night scenes really depend on how bright the street lighting and other lighting (eg shops). I've rarely gone beyond 1500 ISO with these and I've done with less using high speed lenses.

You should be thinking of using small portable lights - battery powered LEDs would help for the closer shots. Small generators are useful and can be rented. Some of these are pretty quiet, but not for shooting dialogue beside them. Locations where you can access power are useful. BTW All this is possible on an extremely low budget film, you just need to be organised. Depending on local regulations, you may need a permit, but you may get away with just chatting to the local police.

The new Blackmagic 6k has two 2 native ISO settings: 3200 is the highest. You can see a test in the link to Provideocoalition above.

[Ryan Elder]

I feel that small lights will be good for close ups, it's just the wide shots that establish geography that might be a problem to light.

I have a scene at night where the police are surveying suspects, and it builds to a stand off and shoot out. But that kind of a scene would need a lot of establishment of geography, and don't think I could have the viewer make sense of it, if it was entirely in closer up shots, because of the lights not being able to light whole large sections at night, if that makes sense?

[Brian Drysdale]

It depends where your street nights as to how large an area they'll light. You should pick your location carefully. Modern street lighting is surprisingly bright.

Be aware that if you go too high an ISO the lights on the police cars will blow out causing highlight issues and flares, it's a balancing act.

I would go for the largest lights you can get, 2k lights will do a pretty large area at 1500 ISO when combined with location lighting. Small lights involve a lot more rigging and moving around.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. I noticed that the traffic lights are also blown out too, but not sure how much the audience will care about something in the background more so being blown out.

But on topic of the lens though, if I closed down the aperture so I can have a constant aperture while zooming, wouldn't it get darker as I zoom because the longer you make the lens, the slower the light travels into it?

I thought this is the reason why my camera is turning up the aperture when I zoom, because it gets darker the more you zoom, so the camera turns it up more as a result. Wouldn't the lens exposure get darker, the longer you extend it?