Reds are flickering/flashing...
 

I just shot a spot where I shot a bunch of bright reds. Everything that is red in each shot is flashing or flickering. It is really nasty too, especially when I enhance the colors in post. Does anyone know if there is software to correct this in post or if there is a way to control it from the camera? I'm cutting on Premiere Pro with the Canopus DVstorm2 card.

Or just an explanation would be nice. I know that I should try and avoid shooting anything bright red on video, but this is ridiculous.

See this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=52718

Hi Ben. Strange effects I have seen with my XL2 are white balance fluctuating when shooting under fluorescent lights with the shutter speed too fast and flashing or flickering when something in the image has very fine grid-like details. So far, I haven't seen anything like you describe and I have taken shots with v-e-r-y saturated reds due to inadvertantly leaving the saturation adjusted too high.

Can you let us know what mode the camera is in? (e.g. I usually shoot in Tv mode or full manual.)

Richard

Thanks for the thread link...the forum wouldn't let me search yesterday.

I was shooting in Tv mode in 24p. Exposure was right between 4 -5.6. I shot some of the footage with my custom settings on and some with it off and still had the flickering. I know that this is not just an XL2 problem. I had the same problem years ago with the PD-150. Anyway, I hope someone comes out with a post solution soon, or hope that the H1 won't do that.

Here is a link to the spot. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see the flashing but look for anything red.

www.fueldfilms.com/Feet.mov

Hi Ben,

Have you verified that you see the flickering in the source 720x480 AVI file?

The QT clip is extremely compressed. All I really percieve is edge blockiness (as expected, most noticeable in diagonal lines when there is slight motion in the video) and color averaging where there were chroma gradients. I would attribute both of those effects to compression. The eye catches motion in the bright red better than other colors; that would be true even if the motion only exists because of artifacting, rather than actual motion in the higher resolution source footage.

When I looked for the same migratory blotchy look (color averaging) and the edge artifacts in the other colors, I saw them. A good example is the bright blue plastic chair on the right of the image just over half way through. Where natural reflections cause the imaged color to lighten, you can see a blurred, shimmering effect as the compression changes a bit frame to frame.

That said, there is a known 24p anomaly in PPro that causes strobing in super-white images. I don't know if oversaturation in one color could do the same. See: This Post

I'm not saying it ain't there; just that I don't think I'm seeing what you're seeing, or at least interpreting it very differently. So I guess step one is to view a 30p or 60i source AVI clip and see if whatever you're seeing in the MOV is actually in the source. If you can post a short MS DV AVI from your project, that would be great.

Oh, another quick thing to try would be to add a Broadcast Colors filter before rendering and see if that changes anything.

Cheers.

Thanks Pete. I'll look into a few of those things on Monday!
There is flickering in the original footage. I applied a few filters to boost colors and the flickering worsened. The flickering is kind of hard to see in the small quicktime. I'll see if I can't post a different version.

Thanks