Nighttime Jitter Issue with HVX 200

[Chris Elley]

Carlos,

Your description sounds very similar to what I experienced in terms of jitter. I deliberately refrained from using the word “interlace” in my description, because I didn’t want to start a whole progressive-interlace discussion, but you are absolutely right that it “looks” like good ol’ school interlace problems. The most puzzling part was that the jitter stopped and started arbitrarily within a single clip.

As you have read, I will be sending my footage to Jan for analysis. She will no doubt share her findings in the forum.

Chris

[Carlos Prio]

What adds further confusion is that the foreground objects don’t seem to suffer form the same jitter… It’s the background elements that are out of focus which jump like beans. Yes, vertical & horizontal elements are the must emphasized… thus the “interlace” description.

I had planned to shoot some daylight test footage today but was not able to. I will try tomorrow just to rule that out, then I will recreate the night/incandescent home shot stuff and see if I can recreate it. You can imagine that I was shocked to see my very first images jitter to a level that distracts the average viewer. I expected HD hotness!!! and got sub-HDV freakiness.

Carlos Prio
field dominance
prio(at)fielddominance.com
305/971-7037 ext. 208
cell. 305/785-7746
Miami, FL
G5 Dual 2.0 w/ 2.5 gigs of ram, 160hd
OSX 10.4.3
FCP HD 5.0.4
Lacie 320 & 1T d2 extremes
BMD HD w/ Multibridge HD
Cinema Display
100a, fx1, hc-1, and waiting for the HVX200

[Blub06]

This might sound odd, but no more odd then your problem. It sounds as if the compression process is at work here. I am talking about what is going on inside the camera not in post. When a compressor has a hard time locking on it does odd things. I wonder, was the background darker then the foreground? The compressor might get screwed up dealing with the different light volumes and when faced with a darker area it eventually cracks. Its a little like an auto focus problem when it has a hard time locking on a single spot, it keeps locking on one spot then another then back again.

I know all to well how strange if not wrong this idea sounds, I know I know I know, the description is extremely interesting and if my conceptual take on this problem is right it seems it could easily be solved with a software update. Unless the chips cant give the compressor what it needs to do its job. This seems unlikely, it is Panasonic after all, they know a thing or two.

Chris

[Christopher Karcher]

Hi Jan,

I received my HVX on friday…Congrats on a remarkable product!

I wanted to mention I had a similar problem as described in this thread on my new HVX and I can repeat the issue:

turn on the autofocus and over-expose a scene: I used a single light source on a desk about 3-4 feet from the camera. you will get an image jitter in the spots of the frame. it is sort of strobing vibration.

once I bring down the exposure, or turn off the auto focus everything is perfect.

FYI: I also notice the problem if I press and hold the “Push Auto” button. This only occurs when overexposing, or in areas of the frame that are overexposed.