One solution for grainy, low light EX3 video at DVinfo.net

John DuMontelle · July 25th, 2012, 04:36 PM

Did a search here before posting this to try and not double up on an older thread.

Nothing showed so I thought I'd pass this along.

I love my EX3 but it suffers under low light. I bump up the gain and, of course, the expected grainy video is the result. There are some pretty expensive solutions available but I found this one which, in my case, was more affordable but by no means free.

Neat Video - best noise reduction for digital video

It's a hundred dollar download filter which has worked wonders with my own video.

Images which were full of grain become amazingly better.

I'd researched some other programs and the price quickly climbed to, in some cases, a thousand dollars. Of course the more expensive programs did many other things besides removing grain from video.

This plug in has one purpose. Take out the grain and make the image much better.

I edit on Final Cut Pro 7 but it's offered for other systems as well.

Did I make a mistake spending a hundred bucks? Was there something cheaper I wasn't aware of?

A friend of mine who also shoots an EX3 and edits on FCP7 pointed me in the direction of this plugin so I figured I'd do the same here. ;)

I hope this post doesn't cross any lines. Not trying to market something. Please delete and let me know not to do it again if I've broken a rule here.

John

Garrett Low · July 25th, 2012, 04:51 PM

John,

You definitely did not go wrong with Neatvideo. I've been using it on my EX3 footage as well as footage shot on a variety of other cameras and it does a great job of getting rid of noise while keeping the IQ up.

The only downside is that it takes a long time to go through it's process. But for footage that needs cleaning up I usually run NeatVideo while converting to Cineform AVI's.

John DuMontelle · July 25th, 2012, 05:32 PM

You are right Garrett about the long render time for a lot of video.

Very glad to hear someone else has had a positive experience with the plugin.

I had a wedding ceremony shot just after the sun went down and very low ambient light.

Not pitch black but I was freaking out at how much gain I had to use to capture an image.

Out of the entire 24 minute final product, I had about ten minutes of grainy video and it took a couple of hours to render it.

I don't render the raw. Just the shots in the final product.

Still...the long render time, for me, was worth it to have the better image at the end.

I'll take that render time over handing a client video which I am not proud of. ;)

Craig Seeman · July 25th, 2012, 07:02 PM

Using NeatVideo for my low light EX1 footage. Using it in FCPX. It's well worth the long wait on renders.

Galen Rath · July 25th, 2012, 10:33 PM

It's excellent. Was wondering what the fastest rendering anyone has seen. . . better than 1 frame per second?

Zoran Vincic · July 26th, 2012, 06:05 AM

I get about 20 fps with neat video 3 and gtx570 gpu in premiere cs5.5.

July 25th, 2012, 04:36 PM	#1
John DuMontelle Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Miami, Florida USA Posts: 114	One solution for grainy, low light EX3 video Did a search here before posting this to try and not double up on an older thread. Nothing showed so I thought I'd pass this along. I love my EX3 but it suffers under low light. I bump up the gain and, of course, the expected grainy video is the result. There are some pretty expensive solutions available but I found this one which, in my case, was more affordable but by no means free. Neat Video - best noise reduction for digital video It's a hundred dollar download filter which has worked wonders with my own video. Images which were full of grain become amazingly better. I'd researched some other programs and the price quickly climbed to, in some cases, a thousand dollars. Of course the more expensive programs did many other things besides removing grain from video. This plug in has one purpose. Take out the grain and make the image much better. I edit on Final Cut Pro 7 but it's offered for other systems as well. Did I make a mistake spending a hundred bucks? Was there something cheaper I wasn't aware of? A friend of mine who also shoots an EX3 and edits on FCP7 pointed me in the direction of this plugin so I figured I'd do the same here. ;) I hope this post doesn't cross any lines. Not trying to market something. Please delete and let me know not to do it again if I've broken a rule here. John __________________ John DuMontelle - Freelance / Miami, Florida - USA http://www.latincamproductions.com/

July 25th, 2012, 04:51 PM	#2
Garrett Low Trustee Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Novato, CA Posts: 1,774	Re: One solution for grainy, low light EX3 video John, You definitely did not go wrong with Neatvideo. I've been using it on my EX3 footage as well as footage shot on a variety of other cameras and it does a great job of getting rid of noise while keeping the IQ up. The only downside is that it takes a long time to go through it's process. But for footage that needs cleaning up I usually run NeatVideo while converting to Cineform AVI's. __________________ Garrett Low www.GLowMediaProductions.com

July 25th, 2012, 05:32 PM	#3
John DuMontelle Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Miami, Florida USA Posts: 114	Re: One solution for grainy, low light EX3 video You are right Garrett about the long render time for a lot of video. Very glad to hear someone else has had a positive experience with the plugin. I had a wedding ceremony shot just after the sun went down and very low ambient light. Not pitch black but I was freaking out at how much gain I had to use to capture an image. Out of the entire 24 minute final product, I had about ten minutes of grainy video and it took a couple of hours to render it. I don't render the raw. Just the shots in the final product. Still...the long render time, for me, was worth it to have the better image at the end. I'll take that render time over handing a client video which I am not proud of. ;) __________________ John DuMontelle - Freelance / Miami, Florida - USA http://www.latincamproductions.com/

July 25th, 2012, 07:02 PM	#4
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Re: One solution for grainy, low light EX3 video Using NeatVideo for my low light EX1 footage. Using it in FCPX. It's well worth the long wait on renders.

July 25th, 2012, 10:33 PM	#5
Galen Rath Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Illinois Posts: 323	Re: One solution for grainy, low light EX3 video It's excellent. Was wondering what the fastest rendering anyone has seen. . . better than 1 frame per second?

July 26th, 2012, 06:05 AM	#6
Zoran Vincic Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Split, Croatia Posts: 189	Re: One solution for grainy, low light EX3 video I get about 20 fps with neat video 3 and gtx570 gpu in premiere cs5.5.