[Chris Downie]

Hey all, just wanted to join the conversation and say that I too have a D3200 which has a strange levels flicker in the shadowy areas of the video. I first noticed this issue after filming some dark stormy clouds drifting by. I was so disappointed when I realized my video was unusable for my needs. However, I do have a fix that can be used for certain types of shots. This method enabled me to make my video acceptable for what I needed. Here’s what I did…

In Motion 5 I added two layers of my cloud video and pushed the top layer forward by 1 frame in my timeline. I then changed the blending mode of the top layer to “Lighten.” This method will cause Motion to compare the two layers of video and display the lighter pixels of either image. Since I’m dealing with slow moving clouds I can do this without introducing new artifacts to my video. For other shots you could try masking the shadows in your image and then applying the lighten filter. I nearly eliminated all flicker from my shadows using this method. I went back later and added a third copy of my cloud layer and pushed this one back 1 frame in the timeline. Changed the opacity of to 50% and blending mode to “Lighten.” This eliminated all visible flickering in my shadows at the cost of making my video slightly softer.

Anyhow, I hope that this info will be a spring board for you to come up with your own solution that will allow you to use your D3200 footage.

Best,
Chris