Macau By Night (HVX Low Light Test)
 

This was a small test I did with the HVX shooting at night. The noise you see on the blacks IS NOT on the raw footage I edited. Viewed on a Plasma TV, and on my HD CRT 32", its PERFECT. There was something weird going on on the H264 conversion...

Anyway, it has a nice tune and shows a bit of my hometown at night, so enjoy!

(I suggest you view the video at Half Size, to get a closer Idea of how the raw footage looks like...)

http://hvx200.moctel.com/Users/SPZ/

Be sure to click on the nighthdsequence-h264.mov (or something)

Thanks to Marc for hosting the footage!

( I originally posted this at dvxuser.com, but would like to share with the good guys here in Dvinfo :) )

dude, what settings did u have the camera on??
I have to say, that i am more than impressed with that performance. The colour gradation and luminance of the spotlit areas like the head lights and neon signed were super clean. I couldnt notice anything wrong with any of it...
Im really REALLY impressed with the black levels.. usually u see some noise gradation, but tis was nice and clean.. whats black is black

good stuff.. ill be hanging onto this clip so when it comes time to buy one of these cams. i'll use it as a part of my Pro and cons list... lol

Thanks, Peter! The camera was set to 1080p 25, Cine-like D, gain 0, detail coring +3 master pedestal -2. The rest was default.

This camera is excelent. After all the research, comparison shots, etc, I feel confident I did the right choice. Now its time to shoot a short film! :)

That looks great!

Who are the people saying that the hvx low light performance is poor? they must work for sony? =)

thanks!

Thanks for posting this. I see what you mean about the noise in the blacks--it seems very apparent to me at places in the footage. Would it be possible for you to post 8-10 uncompressed frames from early in the clip (where the dark sky makes up a large portion of the frame) to show the low light performance without the H.264 artifacts?

Thanks again for sharing the shot, Kevin

Does the DVX is more sensitive in low light then the HVX ? or they are both the same ?

1 stop dif dvx v. hvx

I'll try that. What version of quicktime are you playing the footage with? People with quicktime 7.03 or higher are getting results that are not as noisy as on my 7.00 Powerbook...

Sergio,

Beautiful footage and well-paced, fluid edit. I'm checking flight times :)

Hi Sergio,

I have Quicktime 7.0.4, but I am viewing this only on a 15" PowerBook. I also took a look on a Cinema display, without seeing much difference. You hit the nail on the head, though. I was hoping to see the raw frames to figure out if there is something about how I am viewing the footage that makes it look noisier than it seems to appear to others.

Thanks for responding,
Kevin

Derek, are you coming to Macau? :)

Its a unique placce, I tell you... (My day job is on the Tourism Bureau, so I may be a bit suspect...)

I love this town. Seriously, there's no other place I'd rather live than here...

During my use of the HVX200, i learned that the Gain can be set to +12 dB and no grain occurs, even on 1080i24p, It DEFINATELY improved the low light capabilities, we used it at a night club and captured so much more than our digital beta cam could

Maybe someday. I hope the Tourism Bureau knows what a valuable employee they have! Keep up the great, inspiring work.

By the way, since I had your movie on my computer I did some experiments in Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 on my Mac to see how it would compress and look. I don't have it handy right now, but I could put it on the web and send you a private link on Wednesday if you wish. I was very happy with the results on the web, as I have been from the beginning with Kaku's first stuff - which is one of the top reasons I bought this cam.

Just what I need to pump me up for my trip! I'm leaving for Hong Kong Thursday morning, will be heading over Macao for a day sometime in early May to check the place out -
How much does an HVX go for in Macao / Hong kong :) ?

Derek, thanks for the compliments...Be sure to contact me if you come by someday!

As for the sorenson compression, I would really like to see that-please send me a mail for us to talk further.


You should contact Shun Hing HK directly, the HK Panasonic distributor (Long distance call, but is better to contact them personally- Make sure to call at about 9am London time, or 10am- That's about 16h, 17h here. They close at 17h45, if I'm not mistaken)

(852) 23130888- the 852 is the country code

Ask for Marcus Lau. (The "HVX guy" over there :) )

Make sure to let them know you know about the american prices...

Still didn't have time to get that raw footage... Will try to do it tonight!