High Video Noise

[jayredliner]

Hi everyone. I'm getting what I would call unacceptable noise in my Inspire 2 videos:

Sample

Shot in D-Log @ UHD onto Micro SD at ISO 200 @ 5.6.

Very basic colour correction and LUT applied. Exported in H.264 UHD.

Anyone have an idea if that's the nature of the camera/sensor, or if I'm shooting/exporting/processing incorrectly?

Although it was sunset, the amount of light was plentiful (both from the sunset and ambient from the reflection off the white snow) and not a condition where I would expect this amount of noise.

Thanks!

 

[NickU]

Looks like it's exposed for the sunset/sky, which in turn means the ground/snow is underexposed, hence you've got some noise in the snowy areas when you've applied the corrections/luts - it's also a light grey area, so any noise will be more visible there to start with.

 

[Feet Up]

Hi Jay,

D-log falls apart pretty quickly with h.264 at 100 Mbs. ISO 100 at a larger aperture will help.

 

[jayredliner]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking @Feet Up, didn't realize the D-log was that bad. I'm going to try and shoot in Cinestyle or one of the others to compare. For anyone else having this issue, here's a good video on it.

 

[Barry Goyette]

Shooting in D-Log with H264 is probably most of the problem (just don't!), but I've noticed that even ISO 200 adds a fair amount of noise over base ISO. So I'd question the need for f5.6 in this situation. F4 is closer to the sweet spot of these m4/3 lenses...and that would get you back to ISO 100. D-Cinelike in H264 looks really nice and seems to match a typical Alexa or Canon WideDR gamma LUT --meaning it's a pretty good starting point for further grading. If you like D-Log, then switch to ProRes --it works really well on I2 (except for the lack of M4/3 lens corrections).

 

[Barry Goyette]

You might also try turning the sharpness down a bit...that should at least minimize the effect of the fine luma noise (which honestly isn't that bad in this clip). The bigger noise worriy with the X5s is the rather blotchy color noise, which can cause a more visible localized flicker in the footage. This is definitely being exacerbated by the use of Log in an 8bit environment, but I've noticed a fair amount in the PR clips as well. One of the best things in a raw workflow is the ability to manage that blocky color noise.

 

[Jeremey]

Would it be safe to assume this info (which appears to be geared towards the X5S) would also hold true for the X4S? I just received mine and I'm trying to figure out the best settings for video but that will also give me options to grade / match to other footage.

The 500 ISO lock in D-Log was the first thing I didn't care for as it seems to increase the noise and even with the ND filters getting the F-Stop down is difficult mid-day. So I am curious if I should go with the Cinelike and custom settings of -1 -3 -3 and that way I should be able to stick with 100 ISO.

Thank you for your help!