Anyone experiencing noisy blacks on EX footage?

[Don Greening]

[Will Schmidt] “My EX records far noisier blacks than I would normally expect. Anyone else experiencing this? “

No, not really. I have limited comparison experience but my EX records better (less noisy) blacks than any of my MiniDV cameras (PD170, XL2 etc.). You’ve probably checked the following already but make sure you don’t have the picture gain set on auto, otherwise the camera will crank the gain up without your “permission” as it were. More gain means more noise. Also check to make sure that any picture profile settings you’ve tried hasn’t resulted in lightening up the blacks to get more detail. This will also increase picture noise to some degree in those areas.

For the least amount of picture noise shoot with a gain setting of -3 (minus 3). To quickly return to the default settings there’s a reset in the camera menu if you want to try that.

– Don

[Will Schmidt]

Thanks Don,

For some of my recent footage I suspect it may have been a case of leaving the direct menu on AGC which over rides the normal menu setting. I’ve been tending to shoot with -3db but still think the noise is more than it should be. May have to get to a rental house and compare to another camera in order to be certain what I’m getting is normal for the EX.

Cheers,
Will