MX500EG Light Issues

[Blake Barratt]

Hi everyone
Just got the new mx and gave it its first real test with some bmx riders.
The footage was great however it is excessivly grainy in the darker parts of the fluro lit hall and not so bad in the better lit parts.
The grainyness adds to the material being shot and i have edited it to appropriate music. However
I am curious about ways to improve this light problem in camera as it doesnt have any shutter speeds below 1/50 and i really dont know what i am doing either .
I am learning by making mistakes which is fun.
So am i stuck with grain or the other option of bringing in lights?
what if i want to just shoot whats there without having to light the whole place which in a skate hall is a bit intrusive into the environment i feel.
any suggestions please feel free to wade in.

As an aside to another discussion it does give a curious film look to the footage :)
cheers blake

[Frank Granovski]

I read your other post too. I agree the lack of manual lower shutter speeds is a bummer. If you set your cam for low light recording, the shutter speed goes below 1/50, I think, and the gain goes up. You have to keep in mind that the MX500 is not good in low light, but in lots of light, the video quality is superb. The only thing to do is add light if you can or just shoot in sufficient lighting. You can also go for a onboard light unit, but its range is probably only about 10 feet (3 metres).

[Blake Barratt]

Thanks frank i am planning to implement your suggestion and another one i read today about a big sheet or other large white surface lit with a holagen this would have been practical (if i had a white sheet or halogen) and in expensive.
I have reviewed the footage played through my television and when not on the lcd monitor of the G4laptop it actually doesnt look that bad still alittle grungy but then it avctually suits the bmx footage.
otherwise it is not too disatrous and i can live with it.
I also played a bit more with other features of the cam i didnt try out the other night and there are a few solutions to help with the1/50 shutter speed there is the gain up which gives a slow shutter effect as well.
And also playing with the white balance. I supose it is a trade off.
I may still shoot some of the more set piece night shots for the doc on something bigger if i can get a hold of it. a friend has a gl1 that they dont use too much. And of course the lights. have to learn to light as well. was a lighting tech in a past life how much different to rock and roll can it be i ask.

That said i have six months of pre and planning to do not to mention camera technique practise as well steep learning curve but i am having fun.
Thanks for all your advice.
I will keep posting on the mx500 as i find out new things.
cheers blake

Hi Blake,
I don't have the MX500 yet, but we are aiming to get one in the next week or two.

I have just been reading through the manual that I downloaded from the net, and saw a setting that may force a slow shutter speed.

On pages 21 and 22 of the PDF manual under Digital Effects, there is a feature called "Tracer" (# 7 in the effect list).

I am not sure how this effect is achieved, but I thought their could be a chance that it forces the camera into a slow shutter mode.


If this does help, I would be interested in know how it works and if it does force a slow shutter.

Yours sincerely,
Michael Offe,
South Australia.

[Terrence Smith]

With the cousin MX300/0, there's a misleadingly named 'gain-up' effect that creates similar results. Used in the daytime, it creates an eerie but very interesting effect as moving subjects blur against stationery objects. The actual speed is not stated but a guesstimate puts it around 1/15 or slower.

[Blake Barratt]

OK well.
as for the trace effect it is nice but only a digital effect does not affect shutter speed.
As for low light i am having a new opinion.
Just took the mx to rome vienna and salzburg.
found i was in lots of situations in low light or no light what to do.
well the answer was start pressing buttons having read the manula once or twice i started with the color night view button this was my button of choice in many situations.
does make some color temps look very orange and the shutter comes way down but in this setting you can affect the gain or apeture. got some great shots and gives some interesting effects as well.
I also found that the low light performance wasnt too bad either.
Use manula and focus manually as this will help the auto focus doesnt like low light and sometimes i even used day time white balance to improve the color as well.
The manual enabled me to get some useful shots of the trevi fountain at night which was well lit and some other playing around was ok too.
depends on how you need the footage if it is just for personal use or doco stuff i think it is useable and pretty good. lights may be the order of the day if you want something better but i am starting to like the results i get with it in almost no light as i seemed to find myself in these situation constantly as i took the camera evrywhere. even into nightclubs.

The viewfinder and the lcd screen are not to be trusted i took many stills convinced the exposure was crap only to find out later in the computer that things were ok.
The zebra helps but somewhere along the line i switched it off and never on again so i was constantly being scared by maybe not getting a well exposed shot.

The color does stange things in the low light siuations when in photoshot to card mode as well kept making everything go blurry and orange couldnt work out why just used the photoshot to tape and it went away most of the time.

hope that helps.
cheers blake