low light/gy-110

[Sean Maroney]

is it me or is the gy-hd110u just not a very good low light camera??????

[Bill Ravens]

all HDV cams require many more photons than DV cams

[Chris Hurd]

High Definition and low light situations don't mix. It's a mutually exclusive situation. Always add light for proper HD video.

[Brian Drysdale]

None of the prosumer HD cameras are as sensitive as say a PD 150. You can set up the camera with some black stretch and gain, but if you need a light sensitive camera you're better staying with a SD camera.

Interestingly, I understand that the HD100 is a stop more sensitive in SD mode that HD mode - I haven't tested this, but an online tester/reviewer mentioned it.

[Alex Bowles]

...for a 1/3 inch camera.

Sensitivity to light is a function of chip size, and more specifically, pixel size. When you take a 1/3 inch chip, and divide it by 1080 lines, the pixels are smaller, and therefore less sensitive than the larger pixels found in a 720 line / one-third inch chip camera like the JVC.

Another advantage of the JVC is that it's the only camera in this class with a native 720 x 1280, square pixel chip. Everything else squeezes the image along the X axis, giving you those non-16:9 aspects like 1080 X 1440. The relatively generous surface area originally led to what was known as the 'split screen problem' in the earliest models.

But you're right, in spite of all this, low light shooting is very difficult without boosting the gain, which presents its own problems. If low light is essential, your best bet is to go with a 2/3 inch camera.

If you can't do this, I'd suggest getting comfortable with the color correction tools in any good NLE. You'll probably be amazed at how much detail is actually living in the dark. Extracting this be a bit time-consuming, but the assumption is that, if you're shooting on 1/3 inch, you've got more time than money anyway.

Hope this helps,

Alex

[Antony Michael Wilson]

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

None of the prosumer HD cameras are as sensitive as say a PD 150. You can set up the camera with some black stretch and gain, but if you need a light sensitive camera you're better staying with a SD camera.

Interestingly, I understand that the HD100 is a stop more sensitive in SD mode that HD mode - I haven't tested this, but an online tester/reviewer mentioned it.

Interesting but my suspicion is that the reviewer had not realised that the camera defaults to 1/25 shutter (or equivalent in NTSC land) in SD mode but 1/50 in HDV. This would account for the extra stop.

[Diogo Athouguia]

Originally Posted by Antony Michael Wilson

Interesting but my suspicion is that the reviewer had not realised that the camera defaults to 1/25 shutter (or equivalent in NTSC land) in SD mode but 1/50 in HDV. This would account for the extra stop.

That was what I thought when I first read Brian's post, but then I tested and noticed that It really is more sensible in DV mode. Try switching the iris to auto and change the mode from DV to HDV.

[Marc Colemont]

If you use the default camera settings then the camera does not perform that well in a dark environment indeed. I suggest to download the scene files you can find here on the forum. And go from there. I have loaded 2 scene files in my camera. The 'TrueColor V3' and the 'Low light'. That way I can quickly switch between indoor and outdoor situations. It's not like my PD-150 result in dark environments, but the results are fine.

[Trevor Allin]

Hi Sean

Have you tried the scene file called "Low Light" in the sticky at the top of this forum?

Trevor

[Steve Oakley]

having shot dozen's of cameras including a F900, D600, D700, D30 series, 400A, ect the HD100 is right there with them. its rated at F8@2000lux ... in 24P. going to 30 will be a slight loss of about 1/4 tp 1/3 of a stop which you might not even notice. I've found the camera to be very comparable to the big cameras, and more than light sensitive enough for professional purposes.
that said, there is much in the camera's adjustment that can change its sensitivity quite a bit, gamma, knee, black stretch, ped all affect how it responds in a significant way. raising or lowering the gamma can make a very big difference in how it looks in low light - from good to not good. thats what all those settings are there for, to optimize & stylize the image based on the lighting factors you have.


Steve Oakley