Advice & thoughts on why my trial night video shot turned out so grainy

[f13dfx]

Hi everyone! Just purchased an HV20 because of all the rave reviews. This is my first ever HDV camera, so please bear with me

I am very impressed with the "day" trial videos that I have taken. What clarity, even with regular mini-DV tapes!

Well, since I live in Vancouver and yesterday was a great day (we rarely get sun at this time of the year) I decided to drive down to Stanley Park and take some "night" video looking across the harbor into the brightly light downtown skyline. When I got home, I transferred the video using my HDMI connection into my BlackMagic Intensity Pro capture card @ 1920 x 1080 as opposed to the 1440 x 1080 if I used firewire.

Anyway, the result was a very grainy but clear video looking across the water into the downtown skyline. I checked the exterior button settings on my camera and I noticed that it was NOT on "Auto" and was on "P" which would mean that it would have been a programmed setting. I have shot video in the house at night with incandescent lighting and it had no grain at all. But I don't know if it was on the AUTO or P setting, since I have never changed any of the settings, unless of course I accidentally nudged the button over.

Well, all I want to know is what would be the ideal settings if I were to re-take the night harbor video. And if you could possibly explain why I got such a grainy shot of the harbor using the P setting. BTW, I just used a standard TDK mini-DV tape, which yielded very clear (and not grainy) day shots.

Thanks in advance to those who reply!

[CycleWriter]

Please search the forum as there are lots of threads with info on low-light settings and such. The short answer is that the HV is not a very good low-light performer, but there are many documented tips and tricks to help overcome some of the shortcomings. Welcome to the forum.

[Lunchbox]

You should read Duke's tutorial on how to get rid of gain noise

http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=4195

[Rikki]

Also dumping from tape via HDMI at 1920 is a waste as the data has already been lost when it was SAVED to tape as 1440.

[Dr. Benway]

I've just shot some stuff today and will be reviewing it later in Vegas. I will let you know how that looks.

Regarding the SD card/Cellphone trick I still don't think it has been explained very well. People either seem to get ahead of themselves. You need to start with a bottom line.

Camera in what standard? HDVPF/HDV/DV Wide/DV Normal.

Which Mode: P/TV/AV/CINE MODE/SPOTLIGHT et al.

What shutterspeed: (NTSC or PAL) 1/25 - 1/50TH and on up. I use a PAL version.

With all the twists and turns: the abundant advice here, a useless manual and new and conflicting use of HV/Video terminology, it pays to get to grips with the modes which perform the best.

Do you know how to set/adjust the exposure? The click wheel thingy.

Press it in, click down until EXP shows, click-up and you see the slider in the upper left hand corner of the LCD.

Click wheel left or right to move the slider.

Press the photo button halfway in. What does it show? f1.8 at 1/25th. Or is it 1/24th for your NTSC version?

Keep clicking left and checking with the photo button until you get to f2.0.

If you click back, to the right, does the aperture change to f1.8?

One click left is it f2.0?

One click right is it f1.8?

Apparently one click right of f2.0, back into f1.8 means there is zero gain.

Does anyone disagree?

The tricky part - that I only partly get due a lack of patience - is, and I struggle to explain it, judging the scene through the lcd, seeing where the exp slider is, making adjustments. Sometimes the lcd is dark and the slider has no room to move.

So is that when you bring in the cellphone/light source? To 'open-up' the camera/reset the exp?



Some people seem to think that 'Spotlight' mode is a good allround performer for general use and low light.

[f13dfx]

Lunchbox:

Thanks for the link, great tutorial. Boy, what a difference. I'm gonna try it and report back!

You should read Duke's tutorial on how to get rid of gain noise

http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=4195