Help poor low light performance HVR-V1e
 

Hi

I recently got my hands on the HVR-V1e, I seem be getting a really noisey image in low light situations. Night time shots filming the christmas lights e.t.c and filming in doors.

The picture just isn't what I would expect. I know it's probably something that I'm doing wrong being fairly new to all this.

I've played with the gain, irus, exposure 1 and 2 with no luck. When looking at the view finder the image looks pretty good in the view finder, but when uploaded to my macbook it just isn't up to par.

Any help with settings e.t.c
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1...lkstilllm9.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/4...lestillan1.jpg

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6...enstillsk4.jpg

Thanks

i think you'll find many threads here re low light capabilities. i have a v1p and compared to my pd170, it's a joke in low light. then again, i don't shoot low light scenes unless they're really necessary, and in which case, i'll add light one way or another.

i'm always surprised when people (including myself) expect a camera to shoot a black cat in a black room and have it look as if it was under the mid-day sun.

i've read the newer ex cameras are much better - but then again, adding light is infinitely better than trying to extract it when it isn't there....

leslie

It's not clear from your post whether you're using manual exposure control or not. The V1 makes beautiful video at up to 6db gain. 9db is frequently acceptable.

Higher than that is always objectionable, in my opinion.

Take a look at the tools from neatvideo.com. The samples I've seen over in the Vegas forum show astounding cleanup of gain-noise.

Sometimes video will look much better underexposed with black blacks than gained-up.

If you haven't tried the following settings, try this; it is used by another V1E user on this forum.
Camera in manual mode with blacks compressed, knee high, cinegamma off (very important) but color gain up at 3, and gain no higher than +6. Also, shooting progressive 25p allows the use of 1/25th shutter speed without too much smear.

If it's still too dark, you need a light. There's no way around it, especially shooting High Def.

Thanks for the info guys, i'll give it ago tomorrow evening and let yu know the results

Test
 

Here is night shot out of the truck window using these night setting, I wanted to try them, still got some noise when darker.

John, if by "another V1E user on this forum" you mean myself, I can confirm fully you got it right. Especially, I like the conclusion of yours: "if it's still too dark, you need a light". This is what I always kept saying; in fact I could only add: do not try to brighetn the reality, or you'll end up with lots of noise and resolution drop (especially in 25p). If it's dark, let you video be dark - use lighting to bring your subject out of the darkness in a creative way...

I used Expo 1 setting for low light PLUS blacks compressed, knee high, cinegamma off gain up at +12. Never use 25p. Shuttle speed 50. Some shots if is dark just dark. Need light I used SONY Led light up the objects.

Thanks for all the help guys. After playing with the settings I think I've finally cracked it.

http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ehvrv1eye2.jpg