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basic setup advice
Our varicam is showing some artifacting in the image (a very fine “snow” I guess you would call it), particularly in the dark areas. All I want is a good film look to everything I shoot. We originally had a panasonic engineer set the camera up when we first got it, but these settings are obviously not right because of this fine “snow” in the image. Any suggestions on getting rid of this problem and suggestions on an ideal setup for the best film look out of the varicam? I realize that there are a lot of setups and variables here, but even just a few pointers will help? Thanks
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10 Replies
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Alan,
What you’re seeing is not “artifacting” it’s noise! It’s a well kept secret that the Varicam is inherently noisy. To some it resembles film grain, but that’s delusion. My theory is that bit depth is switched from the shaddow areas to the highlight areas to get more detail there, you must steal from Peter to pay Paul.
As far as setup in general, if you want to avaoid extensive color correction in post, I recommend limiting your dynamic range to the 200 or 300% settings in the Film Rec menu. Otherwise the image gets really milky and low contrast. While this is good for “film out”, it isn’t great to look at in the interim. In addition I often crush the black by at least -1 to make the “x” on a chip chart fill the scope better. It also seems that I end up crushing the gamma a bit to center up the crossover.
As far as a long term solution, it’s best to always use a proper monitoring bridge with a good sized high quality CRT monitor (or eCinema & ACD), a waveform/vectorscope, a remote CCU and a DSC chart.
Even if you’re going to film, some film out specialists still recommend that you make the best picture to eye that you can and let them do the rest. If this is your objective, I’d recommend extensive testing, including actual film out of various conditions at all the dynamic range settings. Otherwise, if your project ends up on a television/video display and you want to avoid Da Vinci costs and time you must limit the amount of dynamic range invoked and use your lighting and grip equipment to control the contrast in the scene.Lately, especiually for television/video display, I’ve been letting the highlights go white sometimes and I’ve been real happy with the look. It’s counterintuitive and I definately wouldn’t advise it for film out, but sometimes it works to break the rules.
Other settings to consider are the detail, which I typically run at -26 (all the way out), and I always try to monitor the master ped on a waveform and often find myself crushing it on particual shots, but you must be careful to put it back to normal for others, when there are no strong blacks in the picture, this ajustment fills out the contrast, but if there are serious black objects they do it by themselves without any help from the ped.
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I’ve got the luxury of always being able to color correct my material, so I almost always shoot with the dynamic level set to 500, the maximum. Being an old film guy, I just don’t like the higher contrast and lack of detail in the highlights that normal video offers, and a dynamic level at 200 is very much like that. Like John, I do often blow out the whites, but only for the artistic look, not as a matter of course.
The color grading we do rarely involves much more than lowering the blacks a bit; while it would be easy to do this in camera, I prefer the control offered in post. Unlike film, if detail is not on the tape, you’re not going to get it back in post! You can always have less in the suites, crushing blacks and burning out highlights.
I don’t believe I’ve used the Video Rec mode in years. Film Rec is indeed wonderfully filmic. I just finished four days shooting aerials and was reminded just how broad a range the VariCam could handle; even the most difficult situation, hot clouds and white beachs with dark trees looked really good. With the Dynamic Level set to 500, there was very little burn out in the sky.
None of the parameters works in isolation from the others, so I prepare my settings with a monitor, scope, and DSC charts. I start with the dynamic level at 500 and set everything else from there. Properly setting up a VariCam is neither quick nor easy, and you have to spend a lot of time tweaking one parameter and then returning to others that are affected by it. The end result, however, is quite beautiful.
Good shooting!
Leo
Director/CinematographerSoutheast USA
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John,
Do you think that Panasonic will or has addressed this “noise” issue with a software update? By the way, I had the camera set to video mode not film, so I think I’ll get better results right away. Bare in mind that everything I shoot is for braodcast so, beyond what you have already suggested, is there anything else I should pay attention to?
Thanks Leo or your input as well!
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Hi John and Leo,
I was under the impression that of you put -3DB on the camera, you effectively bring the dynamic range to 300, is that correct?Carlos
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Carlos,
Incorrect! Each of the three switch positions corresponds to a “group” of settings determined by the low,mid and high groupings on page one of the Film (Cam)Main Menu, these settings are independent of what ever gain setting you might have or program into the group.
Things like black stretch/press, master gamma, detail level and matrix/ color correction tables make up this set. The dynamic range is actually set seperately in the “gamma” line of Film (cam) Main Menu. The reference to low, mid and high is really a misnomer as any gain setting can be programmed into these three slots. It might be more useful to think of this switch as determining three prearranged “preset” settings.
JS
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Alan,
Well yes, there is some referance regarding the newest version (“C”) of the Varicam software as regards shaddow detail. perhaps this is an effort to help the noise problem, but in general noise is a function of the hardware amplifiers in use. I believe that those in the Varicam are not necessarily the most quiet available!
JS
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John, the reason I ask is because DP Peter Gray have given an interesting explanation on how Dynamic range works different on the Varicam than in the Cine Alta F900.
Please read -
I guess, is more explicit here at https://www.jkor.com/peter/varicammenus.html under
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Carlos,
I’ve read Peter Greys’ website before; he’s very informed and articulates many HD issues with great care and accuracy. In fact I prefer his explainations to the Goodman book, and anyone who aspires to HD expertise should definately bookmark and study his site. Obviously, there’s too much there for one sitting, so many visits over time are recommended.
As regards the gain vs. noise issues you’ve raised in the first place; it’s true that the least amount of gain (-3 db) will yield the quietest picture. As you increase the gain the noise increases. This is a fact of video photography. Myself, I’ve set my Varicams so that -3 Db is the low setting, 0 is the mid and +3 is the high. This is because I use my cameras mostly in unplanned documentary situations. When in production use, I’ll most likely be connected with my Telecast Copperhead Cine fiber cable system which affords CCU control with the EC3 unit and I can easily adjust the gain position (and every other setting) from the rack with the benefit of a 14″ HD monitor and waveform/vectorscope.
Again, my preferance in most scenarios (exept for guaranteed film out and high end commercials where Da Vinci sessions are assured) is to use the Dynamic Range control in the least amount possible. This assures that the dailies will look the least washed out and that minimal color correction will be necessary. In fact, my hope is that the pictures I create and paint will be carried through editorial exactly as I made them on the set. This is what everyone looked at and approved.
What I’ve discovered as you increase the dynamic range is that you run out of master gamma control and that both the highlights (whites) and the shaddows (blacks) get compressed and the tonal range (to borrow from Peter) gets compressed towards the middle grey. This results in the washed out look we’re all familiar with. You can clearly see this if you aim up on a chip chart and go through the settings observing the results on a waveform display.
As a default setting, I’ve found therefore that the -3 Db Low Film Rec setting, with 200% dynamic range, master gamma crushed to .65, the black pressed to -1 and the detail as -26 gives me a real good starting place. Lord knows, others have there own preferances. Some folks, like Leo always shoot at 500% dynamic and neither crush the gamma nor the blacks like I do, but he does color correct everything! My clients, and perhaps your workflow, presume that the video they’ve paid me a lot of money to create will look just right upon playback normalized on the bars at the head of the tape. They most often edit and finish on their Avids (in SD) and therefore have minimal (if any) color correction. In fact if they bring it in and out SD-SDI there is no tweaking (at least on my Meridian Avid), I’m not sure if Adrenaline is different.
You’ll notice that I haven’t brought up the noise in a long time! That’s because I don’t think there is anything I can do about it. It’s a characteristic of this camera and the Film Rec settings, so you just have to embrace it. I know, because I also own a Sony F900 that it is definately quieter (noise-wise), but it did cost me about $33000 more, just for the body, and in every other respect, I prefer the Varicam, especially because I have the four dynamic range settings which I can invoke if I need them.
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John,
Thank you so much for such a detailed answer, I also find myself doing a lot of camera
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