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OK so you may have seen from my other thread I am having issues with noise present in my raw footage. It does not look like an ISO noise, it looks like grain from overly sharp images. So what I decided to do is a comprehensive comparison of a variety of settings so I could see which work best in a given environment. Below is a vimeo video with the results of my flight today. I tested a variety of settings from full-auto, to adjusting everything according the the Neumann Films LUT package for the Inspire. It seems to be a common problem that video is blown out with shutter speeds 1/60 or slower, so I tested that as well. This is a 1080p H.264 mp4 clip. I also encoded a ProRes 422 file that I can make available via dropbox. The grain is difficult to see in the Vimeo player, but when I playback in full-screen the ProRes clip, it's definitely there on the default sharpness tests.
Constants:
Stock ND filter
LOG colour profile
'Clear Skies' LUT used in each clip with no other adjustments
Now I wouldn't classify myself as an experienced videographer by any means, but I do know my way around a camera, and the results were very interesting to me. My theory (and I would welcome yours as well) is that the default DJI sharpness is too high, resulting in noticeable grain that is difficult to remove in post. Also, the DJI -1 sharpness value is too low, meaning images look too soft and appear out of focus, but the noise is now gone. When viewing the comparisons you will see what I mean. Now the good news is, if this indeed is the problem, it could potentially be solved by a camera firmware update. As of this moment however I have to simply choose between the lesser of two evils, a grainy picture that looks sharp, or a soft image that has no grain.
Quick note on the LUTs as well. After purchasing and fooling around with these, I am fairly impressed. In my opinion they are quite aggressive, and you will likely have to go in and adjust saturation, brightness and colour balance further in post, but they do a pretty decent job of bringing the image to life. That said, as you will see the recommended shutter speed of 1/60 is essentially impossible to use unless in low light situations. While it produces the nicest looking image, it is completely blown out in pretty much every daytime setting. This can likely be solved by better ND filters, but for now 1/60 is unusable for me. The LUTs are also pretty much useless in low-light situations including sunsets and shooting at dusk, they darken the image too much and while you can correct this, you are better off grading from scratch.
Anyways I hope this helps some people, I know it helped me with fine tuning the camera settings!
Constants:
Stock ND filter
LOG colour profile
'Clear Skies' LUT used in each clip with no other adjustments
Now I wouldn't classify myself as an experienced videographer by any means, but I do know my way around a camera, and the results were very interesting to me. My theory (and I would welcome yours as well) is that the default DJI sharpness is too high, resulting in noticeable grain that is difficult to remove in post. Also, the DJI -1 sharpness value is too low, meaning images look too soft and appear out of focus, but the noise is now gone. When viewing the comparisons you will see what I mean. Now the good news is, if this indeed is the problem, it could potentially be solved by a camera firmware update. As of this moment however I have to simply choose between the lesser of two evils, a grainy picture that looks sharp, or a soft image that has no grain.
Quick note on the LUTs as well. After purchasing and fooling around with these, I am fairly impressed. In my opinion they are quite aggressive, and you will likely have to go in and adjust saturation, brightness and colour balance further in post, but they do a pretty decent job of bringing the image to life. That said, as you will see the recommended shutter speed of 1/60 is essentially impossible to use unless in low light situations. While it produces the nicest looking image, it is completely blown out in pretty much every daytime setting. This can likely be solved by better ND filters, but for now 1/60 is unusable for me. The LUTs are also pretty much useless in low-light situations including sunsets and shooting at dusk, they darken the image too much and while you can correct this, you are better off grading from scratch.
Anyways I hope this helps some people, I know it helped me with fine tuning the camera settings!
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