Panasonic's HD not working well in low-light the truth?

Scott Webster · August 3rd, 2006, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Grant

Sounds to me like the sleeper issue with noise. It doesn't look too bad with DVCPro HD as there's no interframe compression however when it hits DVB for broadcast things can become very different. What some might wrongly call 'film grain' starts to get another look altogether.
Watching some programs down here over DVB even scenes shot in full daylight have very noticeble noise in areas where the light falls off into black. Whether or not this footage is from a Panny camera or not I can't really say but it certainly had that Panny look.
However this is something that should be tested first. I know for the latest Superman shoot what happens in the areas of light fall off was something carefully tested. Fortunately the Genesis was found to be OK so light was left to fall off into black. Obviously the DOP had experience with other digital camera where this wasn't the case.

Wouldn't the effect be exaggerated by watching on a LCD or Plasma and the bandwith used for DVB transmission?

Wayne Morellini · August 9th, 2006, 10:02 PM

I agree about the noise possibility. I would imagine they would not use a HVX200, which could have caused problems. Even if it is just noise, they could process most of that out in high quality by using time based noise removal. But maybe it really has to do with shadow details. Maybe, whatever it was, was not noticeable in the view monitor from the high bit depth direct (uncompressed) feed.

I noticed that BBC programs (the ones we get here) tend to have a tonality style that has tones/features in the shadows. They have a document on digital/hd production for styling I believe (found it ages ago but did not read it). But, with the Varicam footage I have noticed that shadows are rather dark, trying to film gloomy with this would not be so good. Even if they lit the scene and then under exposed in post, you might need 10-12+bits bit depth to move the exposure around in post to dark from light. I've seen 8 bit scenes from the Drake camera done in a gloomy style, then again it has excellent range and sensitivity in comparison to many digital cameras.

Why wasn't it tested for these problems, I don't know, but I can bring this to the table. I saw a DVD doco feature on the production of one BBC comedy series. They write/rehearse/setup, do the filming for the series in one or two weeks, then go to post for another week. Could such a streamlined like production style, cause the above types of hidden problems to go unnoticed to the last?

Yi Fong Yu · August 10th, 2006, 11:18 AM

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August 10th, 2006, 11:18 AM	#18
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August 9th, 2006, 10:02 PM	#17
Wayne Morellini Inner Circle Join Date: May 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 2,762	I agree about the noise possibility. I would imagine they would not use a HVX200, which could have caused problems. Even if it is just noise, they could process most of that out in high quality by using time based noise removal. But maybe it really has to do with shadow details. Maybe, whatever it was, was not noticeable in the view monitor from the high bit depth direct (uncompressed) feed. I noticed that BBC programs (the ones we get here) tend to have a tonality style that has tones/features in the shadows. They have a document on digital/hd production for styling I believe (found it ages ago but did not read it). But, with the Varicam footage I have noticed that shadows are rather dark, trying to film gloomy with this would not be so good. Even if they lit the scene and then under exposed in post, you might need 10-12+bits bit depth to move the exposure around in post to dark from light. I've seen 8 bit scenes from the Drake camera done in a gloomy style, then again it has excellent range and sensitivity in comparison to many digital cameras. Why wasn't it tested for these problems, I don't know, but I can bring this to the table. I saw a DVD doco feature on the production of one BBC comedy series. They write/rehearse/setup, do the filming for the series in one or two weeks, then go to post for another week. Could such a streamlined like production style, cause the above types of hidden problems to go unnoticed to the last?