NR with Ninja Blade

[Mervin Langley]

Am I correct in assuming that any NR applied in camera will not be operating to recordings on the Ninja but only to the cards?

Thanks.

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Mervin,

The Ninja can only record what the camera sends out over the HDMI port. Connect the camera live to an HD display and play with settings on the camera - what effect does it have on the output? What you see is what you'll get.

We are local to you and do have a Ninja 2 loaner available for trial. As an aside, I used to live in Burlington and also shot weddings there, small world.

Thanks

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Mervin Langley

Am I correct in assuming that any NR applied in camera will not be operating to recordings on the Ninja but only to the cards?

This is an interesting question. I've locked antlers with a few folks about this. Here's where my current understanding is at:

1) AVCHD contains noise reduction, or CREATES a sort of pseudo noise reduction as part of the compression process.

2) If you compare AVCHD with Ninja recordings, it appears that 'there is no noise reduction on the Ninja recording' - it looks noisier because the codec can cope with it, but if you provide a static scene that's easy to compress, there's no difference between AVCHD and ProRes.

3) If you compare AVHCD with Ninja recordings where the scene contains some motion, some action or perhaps (egad!) somebody forgot to Auto Black Balance, the AVCHD does look cleaner but the ProRes is easier to clean to a higher standard with a noise reduction plug-in like Neat Video.

4) Applying noise reduction in camera is a deep, dark rabbit hole, and like sharpening, I have been working on the assumption that it's best to do this in post rather than in-camera - unless, of course, you need to deliver edit-ready or live pictures in a fast turnaround environment. I think this would be fun to explore but I haven't had the chance to yet.

5) The 'Auto Black Balance' thing is very important. This is, in fact, an analysis of static noise and I'm now trying to use ABB whenever I can - this is over and above any noise discussions between AVCHD and ProRes recorders. It's an absolute arse to remember to do throughout a very active shoot, but the results are worth it over and above using noise reduction elsewhere in the production chain.