finally figured out how to lower grain on harsh blacks on nx5u
 

For any noobs out there (like me) who are having trouble getting a decent grain free image from the nx5u. Even with zero gain I was getting huge problems with high contrast scenes. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong.

First you have to pretend the auto functions are not there (autofocus is still ok). Then you have to set the color setting presents to "cinema" (guy on forum here said it, sorry, I can't remember who). That removes the ultra washed out appearance of this camera out of the bag, and that in itself reduces the grain significantly.

Finally, you just have to over expose it about 2 or 3 stops, so the blacks are exposed correctly. The rest will be blown out slightly, but you can just do a gamma correction and color correction in your NLE.
Not a perfect fix I realize, but it seemed to really do a good job in low light when I shot a sermon on the weekend.

Hope this helps... before I worked this out (with help from another post here), I was ready to turf this camera.. but now sliced bread is getting a run for its money :)

2 or 3 stops! I sure hope there's no highlight detail you want to retain.

Hi Ben what exactly do you mean by Expose it about 2 or 3 stops? Do you mean open up the Iris? Whenever i hear expose or over expose i get confused as to weather or not people are referring to Gain or Iris or AE control. Thanks