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XDCAM EX…. so noisy!
The footage I’m getting out of my EX1 can’t be what everyone else is getting! It’s so incredibly noisy, it borders on being unusable. I posted a clip showing 1080/30p HQ footage. Shot at -3 gain, f8, no ND filter. So there’s plenty of light. I’ve posted a 200% portion of what I’m seeing.
(I captured with SnapZ Pro X and exported at Animation / Millions /100 quality. So my screen capture isn’t introducing any secondary lossy compression)
Is anyone else getting such dog food footage? Is there a magic button I need to press? 🙂
Link to Quicktime .mov >
https://www.mediafire.com/?zlydxbyzydq -
18 Replies
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Yup that’s a very noisy clip. I’ve seen EX1 looking three times cleaner easily. F8 would indicate an amazingly high level of studio lighting so I’d guess underexposure. Should be more like 5.6 4, etc. But then again it’s hard to tell what I’m looking at there- settings, lighting ingest method, etc. Looks recompressed/processed somehow. For composites that are totally clean you also have the option of going out HD-SDI. Also I would recommend zero gain, not -3.
-Noah
Noah
My FCP Blog. Unlock the secrets of the DVX100, HVX200 and Apple Color and Win a Free Letus Extreme.
Now featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook and Sound for Film and TV.
https://www.callboxlive.com -
-3 is the lowest setting
there is no gain at this pointGood Luck
Michael Palmer -
If I’m not mistaken, SnapZ Pro X is a “screen capture” utility. The image is being decoded by some software application and re encoded. My guess is that you are seeing is the effect of concatenation losses. Try capturing to Final Cut directly. I belive that you will not experience the same issue.
Juan Martinez
Sony Electronics Inc.Juan Martinez
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What in the world is [Navarro Parker] “SnapZ Pro X”
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD . -
Hi Juan! Great to see a Sony person here! We’ve had two EX1’s for a couples months and we’ve never been able to get an image any better than this.
I can verify this is the noise I’m seeing *before* I run SnapZ Pro. It’s recording the noise accurately and not introducing any more than what I see when I don’t run it. That’s why I posted a losslessly compressed Quicktime. This IS the problem noise I’m seeing.
We’ve connected an EX1 to a HD monitor via SDI and live video looks smooth, crisp, and noise free. As soon as we record to the SxS cards, all these artifacts appear when we ingest it into Final Cut (using the latest XDCAM Transfer app).
I want to point the finger at the XDCAM Quicktime codec that the Transfer app installs. It seems like the weak link and not ready for prime time.
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It’s a screen capture utility for the Mac.
https://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/ -
[Navarro Parker] “I want to point the finger at the XDCAM Quicktime codec that the Transfer app installs. It seems like the weak link and not ready for prime time”
Well, it’s certainly not the weak link here. Keep in mind that the SDI signal is coming straight off the camera head before any camera compression is applied. So, like you’ve suggested, there’s a problem afterwards, either in-camera during compression or during the transfer process. Although I can’t pin down your problem from here I can say that there’s an awful lot of people using the Sony Transfer Tool every day to convert their XDCAM EX .mp4 files to .mov files and they’re not seeing excessive picture noise issues. The internet is littered with noise-free EX footage.
You’ll need to track down the cause by doing some tests.
– Transfer the files recorded by your camera to someone else’s Mac.
– Borrow another EX and transfer those files to your Mac.It won’t be long before you’ve isolated the cause. If it turns out to be a camera issue then Sony will help you and either fix your camera or give you a new one. This last statement is from personal experience.
– Don
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Yeah I’d guess- one of two things:
a- With respect, operator error either in settings or exposure.
b- Faulty camera or ingest procedures.That’s way beyond the levels of noise I’ve even seen with an EX1 and if that’s your normal results there’s something wrong with your camera or perhaps a mistake somewhere in camera settings or ingest.
-Noah
My FCP Blog. Unlock the secrets of the DVX100, HVX200 and Apple Color and Win a Free Letus Extreme.
Now featuring the Sony EX1 Guidebook and Sound for Film and TV.
https://www.callboxlive.com -
There is clearly a problem somewhere as none of the footage we have ever seen with the EX1 has been anywhere near as noisy.
Steve Connor
Adrenalin TelevisionHave you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.
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Hey guys… I truly appreciate all the comments. I’m not doing anything weird. I’m plugging the EX1 to my MacPro, using the latest XDCAM Transfer app (2.7.0). And that resulting MOV is getting put into Final Cut Pro 6.0.4. And I’m also taking that same file into After Effects 8.0.3.
And all I’m getting is noise noise noise. 🙁
The problem exists across four Mac Pros, three iMacs and two EX1 cams.
I should be able to turn on a factory fresh EX1, push the record button and get noise free footage, right? There’s not any special setting ‘reduce noise’ function that isn’t active by default, right?
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