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Worried with grain
Hi ALL,
Yesterday night we shot with the Panasonic HVX 205a, using 1080i 24pA. We Logged and Tranfered removing pulldown since we want the fps to be 23,98 and the best quality possibility to transfer to film. The PD used a Cinema choice set in the menu (I don´t know if this activates when you use that resolution or if he chose it himself)
The lighting was low since the movie is a dark-rainy night, Bergman-like style, mistery, etc.
My worries are:
1- I have shot before with the JVC HD GY100u and I find that the result of the Panasonic compared to my camera (at least visually in my FCP) doesn´t look at all as crispy and HD as we expected. The clips are very “grainy…”
2- Even when we chose the right Codec in FCP I noticed that the Codec managing the films is the DVCPRO-30 but when I checked the Properties of the movie in FCP´s browser, it shows “Apple Pro Res”. The size is 1280 x 1080 as expected though and the frame per seconds is 23,98. Is this o´right?
We are not feeling sure at all at the format that we chose (after being adviced) to transfer to video at the end, but since the advice was from this excelent forum we wonder is we are missing something else.
Is the resolution we see the real result? (we selected RT in the Timeline and I also checked the clips in Quicktime) Or there is something else that we should have considered?.
Please, some help.
Saludos,
omar
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4 Replies
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The Panasonic HVX does a poor job in low light. I bet that’s where the graininess is coming from. If you shoot with this camera the best way to get a dark look is to light it for best exposure and color correct for that dark, contrasty look. From what I’ve always been told, this is how they shoot dark/moody horror films as well.
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Hi.
Be sure to monitor your actual footage from an external professional broadcast CRT monitor.
Your tiny FCP windows are not the ones you want to judge the actual video quality. You can also view the noise (or grain) issue on full HD second computer monitor (should be quality one too) with FCP External view. Be sure to view at 100% with no scaling.
Again, this is a secondary option with computer monitors. Best is to judge with good video card / output -> professional video monitor, or calibrated expensive flat screen.There are different settings in the FCP timeline options (full, dynamic and so on.). Be sure to view and render the timeline video in full quality. Also keep the timeline compression setting the same as the footage.
In my experience Panasonics (DVX and HVX) tend to render “softer” video than the other manufacturers’ cams. Some noise is there too.
So if you mean more sharp HD video quality by “crispy”, then sure I bet JVC renders crispier video. That’s the one thing people who use Panasonics cams like, is the “not-so-video-clean” images it produces.If you shoot in progressive mode, it eats up light from the sensor, so dark scenes should be well lit, then make the footage darker in the post. Especially with DVX or HVX it’s important to avoid shooting in the dark, since noise becomes evident. NO gain, unless it’s part of the style.
I don’t know about your work flow or the codecs you work with, but here’s a cool cheap FCP plugin program that saved me and my footage, literally shot in near dark with DVX.
Neat video:
It costs about a hundred bucks, but it’s worth every cent. It removes unwanted and even excessive grain (or noise) from video, AND it has a neat sharpen tool that can bring snap to otherwise soft Panasonic footage. With my DVX wide angle shots, it made the footage twice as sharp as the originals, without the typical artifacts caused by most sharpen filters. The noise removal is unbelievable in this price range.
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Thanks a lot guys!
lot to learn!!!
Will check everything suggested.
Big hug
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I’ll second NeatVideo, it’s astoundingly effective.
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