[Ken Nemetchek]

Gentlemen and ladies, all:

Thanks for your help. Indeed, when I push the ? switch, everything comes into focus. I don’t know that I like that from an operator’s pov, but if that is the way the camera was designed, then I guess that’s one of the differences between these spin-forever lenses and a real lense. I’ll just have to be very careful when doing rack focusing.

Lars:

You can turn off the auto focus and still keep the Auto / Manual switch set to Auto. Go into the menu and then to “4.Auto Sw”. The forth option is “AF”, and the camera comes from the factory with this set to “On”. Turn it off.

Ken

Alberta Visual Communications

[Ken Nemetchek]

Okay, I think you’ll all crazy….

And then I looked at my own camera and found that 3 of 4 tabs are broken off.

Yip, this is a serious design issue. One that I’m sure needs to be addressed as a design flaw.

Jan?

Ken Nemetchek

Alberta Visual Communications

[Ken Nemetchek]

And where would I find this meter? I’ve been through the menu more than once and haven’t come across it yet.

Ken Nemetchek

Alberta Visual Communications

[Ken Nemetchek]

Hmmm, it’s been a while since you posted this, but if you are still having problems…

I have the same control surface and I got it working great with all the software you described. Problems with getting it that way were many, but I found a document on the Behringer site. I just wished I would remember exactly where, then I would really look like the hero. It is there.

Ken

Alberta Visual Communications

[Ken Nemetchek]

Alex:

I did some experimentation on blurring the pixels in the blue channel, but I didn’t find the results satisfactory.

That said, are there tools that can average a given pixel location over several frames? It seems to me that this would be able to get rid of noise better than simply blurring a channel. When I blurred the blue on the frame I posted, I found that the colours in the tractor cab shifted, resulting in a yellow halo on the edges of the white.

Or am I in a position where I just need to make sure that the footage I shoot are exposed higher, in terms of IRE?

A further thought occurs to me: is at least part of this simply an issue of the camera being 8 bit, and so it can’t handle the subtle grad in the sky?

Let me just say that I am very thankful for all of the input given me on this topic by so many of you. Thanks.

Ken Nemetchek

Alberta Visual Communications

[Ken Nemetchek]

Noah:

I did shoot with the #1 scene file, with no changes to the factory settings.

I pulled up the original in fcp and this frame did top out at about 70% on the waveform – I assume that the waveform at 100% in fcp is on par with the 100% zebra on the camera. I watched the entire clip and found the following: the cab of the tractor averaged between 70 & 80; the clip peaked at 90; and the sky averaged about 45, although it varied slightly as the shot continued, ending at about 42.

Now, on the day I usually try to open the iris until the zebra stripes appear and then dial down slightly. If that is the trick, then so be it. My logic is that I will always colour time anyway, so why not see the most in the shadows by exposing as bright as I can, right? Anyway, if the shot is simply underexposed, does that mean a properly exposed shot doesn’t get this video noise, or simply hide it better? Seems to me a curious thing.

With the advice Gary gave me (by the way, thanks very much for that, Gary), I figure that I might be on the right track. If there are a few additional nuggets of wisdom you each can share, I would very much appreciate it.

Ken Nemetchek

Alberta Visual Communications

[Ken Nemetchek]

Noah:

Sorry about the delay, but my web person is out of town.

You can get the image at

https://www.abvc.ca/pics/videonoise.tif

or

https://www.abvc.ca/pics/videonoise.tga

The .tga image is as directly output from the fcp timeline (no filters were added), and the .tif is derived from that.

Although the still doesn’t look too bad on its own, when the sequence plays (there is a pan following the tractor), the sky has a lot of obvious noise.

Again, I am looking for strategies in dealing with this issue, and not in complaining about the camera – which in general terms I absolutely love.

Thanks for any coucil you may be able to offer.

Ken Nemetchek

Alberta Visual Communications

[Ken Nemetchek]

Thanks for the information. I infer from your responces that the extra 20 mbs available in the codec would be used if recording @ 30 fps.

Thanks again.

Ken Nemetchek

Alberta Visual Communications