Flag for XF305 and best noise reduction

[Bob Prichard]

I'm looking for a simple way to reduce glare on the lens when shooting toward the sun. Does anyone know of a simple flag that can attach to the lens hood? I have a shotgun mic on top with a large windscreen, so a card fixed to a clamp on the end of a bendy wire that attaches to the flash shoe does not work.

Also looking for the best noise reduction software for some footage I shot where I left the gain on. Would like to save the footage if possible.

[Syeed Ali]

Originally Posted by Bob Prichard

Also looking for the best noise reduction software for some footage I shot where I left the gain on. Would like to save the footage if possible.

I find NEAT video very useful.

Neat Video - best noise reduction for digital video

[Alan McCormick]

2nd on Neat Video - came in very handy on my 1st shoot/edit

[Doug Bailey]

Hi Bob,
If you set the max auto gain to 12 you will be OK if the auto gain switch is on unintentionally.
Regards,
Doug.

[Bob Prichard]

We are showing these landscape videos on a 60 inch screen and have found that the only scenes that were truly noise-free were shot with -6db gain. Those shot with +6db are too full of noise to be useful. Even 0db had some noise.

From now on, I will only shoot with -6db of gain and use a slow shutter in dark situations.

Also, we have not found Neat Video to be as useful in reducing noise as noise reduction in FCP.

[Alan McCormick]

Originally Posted by Bob Prichard

Also, we have not found Neat Video to be as useful in reducing noise as noise reduction in FCP.

mmmm that is not my experience Bob, are you sure you setup the "noise area" correctly?

I used the Auto selection and as long as it selects an area that has minimal detail then it will remove the noise. Just for info I had 9dB gain set as max on a particular shoot and was gobsmacked when I checked it out in FCP as the dark areas showed bad noise problems. Neato did it's trick with the only downfall being a 6X render that was needed so a 10 minute clip took 60mins to render out. In hindsight it was "well worth it" as at least the clip is now useable (pretty damn good actually) so I am well pleased.

Of course in future I will be monitoring my LCD very, very closely using the magnify option and black and white to check out noise more carefully (thanks to someone on this forum for this tip).

[Bob Prichard]

Originally Posted by Alan McCormick

mmmm that is not my experience Bob, are you sure you setup the "noise area" correctly?

I used the Auto selection and as long as it selects an area that has minimal detail then it will remove the noise. Just for info I had 9dB gain set as max on a particular shoot and was gobsmacked when I checked it out in FCP as the dark areas showed bad noise problems. Neato did it's trick with the only downfall being a 6X render that was needed so a 10 minute clip took 60mins to render out. In hindsight it was "well worth it" as at least the clip is now useable (pretty damn good actually) so I am well pleased.

Of course in future I will be monitoring my LCD very, very closely using the magnify option and black and white to check out noise more carefully (thanks to someone on this forum for this tip).

Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of having areas of minimal detail in our landscape videos as we rarely have areas of sky. It is precisely in the areas of maximum detail where we are getting all the noise.

[Harry Pallenberg]

I agree - you should play with the settings on NEAT VIDEO - should return much better results than FCP.
They have a few tutorial videos on the site that really go over all the options...

[Mikko Topponen]

Originally Posted by Bob Prichard

Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of having areas of minimal detail in our landscape videos as we rarely have areas of sky. It is precisely in the areas of maximum detail where we are getting all the noise.

You need to create a profile for the camera. Just shooting something and using auto isn't going to cut it.