low light

[John M. McCloskey]

Ruben, what other issues made you stick with the Z1's and return the V1's or was it only the low light capabilities of the V1's that prompted the return.

[Ruben Senderey]

Hi, we do only events 90% present at night inside hotels and country clubs ,
the v1 is a great camera , but we returned it just becouse of low light
capabilities

[Vaughan Wood]

I have an FX 7 and my sub contractor uses a Z1.

I have just finished editing one of his weddings and am looking at one of mine, both in very dark receptions.

Coming from VX 2000's, both cameras have very dark coverage after the camera light gives up at about 6 feet, but they honestly look VERY similar, and watching the both camera's footage on various weddings, I don't feel the Z1 has an advantage.

I am waiting for my Sony light to come this week, and am planning to think a bit outside the square!

No-one likes bringing big lights to a reception, so I'm thinking of rigging my old Sony 10/20 watt camera light to a lighting or mic stand, so I can place it near where the speeches will be, to give me a bit more light when I have to put the tripod 10 -12 feet or more away from the subject.

It'll will get me through, but I'm not as comfortable as using the old VX!

Cheers Vaughan

[Ken Hodson]

So this is wide open with opinions from both sides. As usual ;>)

Anyone want to step up and explain why they think the V1 produces a better low light image?

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Ken Hodson

Anyone want to step up and explain why they think the V1 produces a better low light image?

When I look at a medium contrast low-light V1 image -- it looks like on a pixel-by-pixel gain is added as needed. Which means the bright areas look perfect.

At the same time--pixels that are nearly black, get no gain and so do not get noise. If anything, they go full black.

So if you shoot in a typical mixed illumination situation noise is confined to the dark shadows.

By using Compress or the Gammas -- you can force the shadows to black.

Obviously, this will not work in a totally dark situation or where the subject itself is in the dark. Which means the LED lite may be great.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Ken Hodson

So this is wide open with opinions from both sides. As usual ;>)

Anyone want to step up and explain why they think the V1 produces a better low light image?

I don't quite understand how anyone can look at the two cameras side by side in the same lighting environment and suggest the V1 is "better."
It's more cohesive/intelligently processed, that's easy to see. But it is more noisy, which is easy to see.
Given that we've purchased half a dozen of each, and I've compared shots with identical lighting from each, it's (for me) a no brainer. The V1 has a slightly more useful coloration, but has more noise in the same space as the Z1.
I see it, Sony says it, I'd imagine most folks that know both cameras/have used both side by side or not necessarily side by side would agree.

[Lee Berger]

Even without comparing the V1 to the Z1 I have to say that I'm impressed with the quality of the video even at +9. I typically shoot with a 2/3" Sony DSR-450. While the V1 can't compete with the 450 I find it quite reasonable as a backup or alternative depending on the situation (mostly in SD). This past weekend I taped my son's high school jazz band performing in a college music hall (in SD). Under stage lighting I selected +9 which gave me proper exposure at f1.8. When I played it back that evening I was very pleased with the quality and didn't notice any objectionable noise in the darker areas.

I'm still getting used to the handy cam form.

[Kevin Boyd]

I'm a newbie with cameras but just bought the V1 and been finding lots of noise on indoor shots with standard 100 watt tungsten bulbs lighting and outside on dull over-cast days.

Not quite what I had expected as had done a training course with a Z1 and I don't recall it being so noisy. Wondering if anyone can say what the difference in low light performance there is between Z1 and V1 say as a % as I don't really follow all this +6db stuff.

Also been doing all my tests with the V1 on automatic; so any simple step-by-step procedures for adjusting camera to get more light in without getting more noise?

TIA

Kevin

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Put the cam entirely in manual mode, set your shutter to 60, and go from there. Aperture wide, be sure you have no gamma applied, drop shutter to 30 if need be, add gain if need be.
Automode on the V1 is decent in good light, but it suffers some in low light. Manual is always better.
Same story with the Z1.

[John M. McCloskey]

Manual all the way, I am not a pro with the Z1 but have several years of experience with it and have noticed and heard when you put either the Iris, gain, shutter speed, or whitebalance to auto then that auto setting will interfere with the manual settings you have. So if you have gain manual, iris manual, and whitebalance manual and you have just shutter speed auto then that auto setting on shutter speed will affect the other 3 you have set manual, very much different than a mechanical ENG style lens. Hook your camera to a good monitor and set your viewfinder and LCD screen as close to the monitor as you can then you can have confidence in your exposure without second guessing yourself and pressing auto over and over. Best advice i ever got was to get your camera set up as good as you can and trust it, thats its job.