Recently my brother in law purchased a Canon ZR70 MC and I have been messing around with it and I've noticed that the image is rather grainy. I've tried messing with the camcorders settings endlessly, but I can't seem to get rid of the grain. Does anyone have any experience with this camera and can offer me some help?

Also, I didn't want to post this in the XL1s forums, so I just posted it here. My apologies if it is in the wrong forum.

One last question, would a skycrane and any other support for camera's fit my ZR70 MC? I know it'll look a little funny with a small cam, but hey! It's all I have right now.

Thanks in advance!

Hello Roger,
I am not specifically familiar with the 70 but I have a 40 and suspect that its imaging system is probably identical to that of the 70 (except in the minds of the Canon marketing department).

I suspect that the "grain" you see is the result of shooting in low-light. Video cameras left to their own defaults will attempt to deliver a better exposure by turning-up their gain when faced with a dark image. This results in a grainy image. With a single imaging chip (CCD) of ony 1/6" the ZR's generally have to crank gain even in moderate light.

Poke around to see if you can find a way to (a) defeat the auto-gain setting and/or (b) manually adjust your shutter speed to indirectly control the camera's gain.

Failing that, turn a light on.

Funny how you mention low light as a problem because whenI switchon the cam's low light setting it's choppy and grainy as hell.
I did notice that the grain will kinda disapear under extreme light, b ut what about those nice shots with low light and not too much exposure?

I know I can't defeat the auto-gain setting, so my only choice is adjusting the shutter speed manually.

Thanks for the help!