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Hello Everyone,

 

I'm hoping someone can solve my dilemma regarding a ton of noise in my video. I have tried to shoot in both FF and S35 mode. I'm moving a portion of my business into videography and looked at the A7Rii as being a great balance to continue 75% photography and 25% video capabilities. I typically shoot photography in full manual, but when required will shift into Shutter Priority mode or Aperture Priority mode when the situation requires.

 

Yesterday, I tried to shoot a video of my home and to ensure I had enough light coming in throughout the home, I turned on every pot light I have. My camera settings, 1/50s shutter, aperture F4, ISO800, shutter priority, +1 exposure compensation PP7(Slog2) tried both FF and S35. Brought the video into Final Cut Pro X and could start seeing noise immediately. Reshot several times raising Exposure Compensation to +2 and tried ISO through to 3200. It just got worse. The amount of noise was crazy. 

 

I know that everyone will say to get faster glass, but when there are limited native options, and I'm not prepared to buy canon glass and an adapter as someone at my camera supplier recommended. I need to solve this before even looking at this option.

 

If anyone can make some recommendations, I would be grateful.

 

Thanks,

 

Robert

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I'm using the FE 16-35 F4 Lens. As I said, the obvious is to go to a faster lens, but for doing an home interior video, or the interior of an aircraft like I do, the shallow depth of field doesn't help, so I would have to go to at least F5.6. I then have to consider whether or not I shoot in FF or S35. If I shoot in S35, I am still getting noise, not as much, but now I am shooting at 24mm which I am losing much of the purpose of using a wider lens.  A lot of the reviews I am seeing are with the lens that I have. The unfortunate part is unlike photos where the photographer actually shares their settings, videographers don't. Also spending over 2k Canadian for a Zeiss Loxiz 21mm f2.8 when only 25% or less of my business is video still doesn't help me.

 

I'm more interested in potential setting issues, or potentially issues with the camera as to why I am having this issue.

 

Thanks,

 

Robert

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You are right - faster glass probably isn't the answer - sure you'll get more light in, thus being able to lower the iso, but you will have shallow DOF making things look out of focus. This isn't as bad when shooting wide though.

 

2 things spring to my mind:

 

1) You must shoot super35 to get the best noise performance out of this camera, but for interiors, that crops the sensor and makes your wide lenses seem less wide.

2) pushing exposure comp is going to add noise - you'd be better just leaving it at zero and increasing the iso

 

What fps are you shooting? 50p? 25p? 24p? . If you are doing home interiors and have not got much movement you could probably go to 1/25 shutter if you are doing 25p or less.

 

Show us a clip - you shouldn't be getting noise at iso3200 on S35....... I'd love the high MP for stills on the A7rii but I'm gonna compromise and get the A7sii as I take mainly video, want to shoot wide FF and also want to shoot at smaller apertures to get a deep DOF. This will require high iso inside and this is the camera for that (for me, anyhow)

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Hey Budboy,

 

I am having the same issues with my brand new a7sii.  Im a videographer by trade, i'm using good glass with proper settings and am having trouble getting video footage that isn't noisy.  I've tried nearly every picture profile and setting across the board.  My old Canon 7d shoots better video than my A7sii (which is supposed to be nearly noise free).  I would assume that the a7rii has a sensor that is pretty similar to the A7sii and i am finding more and more examples of bad sensors coming out in these cameras.  I think Sony may have an issue with some defective sensors in their camera.  Photos look great and I've seen amazing video coming out of these, but unfortunately not out of the one I have and a few others I've seen examples from.  

 

I'm sending mine back for a replacement.

 

Good luck, Let me know if you figure anything out!  

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MontanaVid - This is worrying - you say a videographer by trade so I assume you know what you're doing..... I'm thinking of the A7sii mainly for the spectacular low noise at higher iso. What iso do you find you start to get noise? 12800 should be clean as a whistle.

 

ps - from my knowledge the A7rii and A7sii sensors are pretty different.....

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You are right - faster glass probably isn't the answer - sure you'll get more light in, thus being able to lower the iso, but you will have shallow DOF making things look out of focus. This isn't as bad when shooting wide though.

 

2 things spring to my mind:

 

1) You must shoot super35 to get the best noise performance out of this camera, but for interiors, that crops the sensor and makes your wide lenses seem less wide.

2) pushing exposure comp is going to add noise - you'd be better just leaving it at zero and increasing the iso

 

What fps are you shooting? 50p? 25p? 24p? . If you are doing home interiors and have not got much movement you could probably go to 1/25 shutter if you are doing 25p or less.

 

Show us a clip - you shouldn't be getting noise at iso3200 on S35....... I'd love the high MP for stills on the A7rii but I'm gonna compromise and get the A7sii as I take mainly video, want to shoot wide FF and also want to shoot at smaller apertures to get a deep DOF. This will require high iso inside and this is the camera for that (for me, anyhow)

 

Hi pilsburypie,

 

I'm shooting at 24p. I can't really lower my shutter as shooting a home tour requires movement hence using a Ronin M. Check out this video https://vimeo.com/136749633. The videographer is in Toronto and I emailed him. Although he shoots in slog2 he told me not to as PP7 in the a7rii produces a lot of noise. Initially in his review, he dogs the A7rii, but then starts to love it when he shows his samples. I do know I'd have to get an even wider lens for interiors, but DOF is still an issue. Other recommendations to use PP5 for daylight and PP6 for night low noise, but when in Niagara Falls yesterday, I tried PP5 and everything was blown out.

 

I'll perform some more tests, clip them and then post here.

 

Thanks for everyones help!

 

Robert

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Hey Budboy,

 

I am having the same issues with my brand new a7sii.  Im a videographer by trade, i'm using good glass with proper settings and am having trouble getting video footage that isn't noisy.  I've tried nearly every picture profile and setting across the board.  My old Canon 7d shoots better video than my A7sii (which is supposed to be nearly noise free).  I would assume that the a7rii has a sensor that is pretty similar to the A7sii and i am finding more and more examples of bad sensors coming out in these cameras.  I think Sony may have an issue with some defective sensors in their camera.  Photos look great and I've seen amazing video coming out of these, but unfortunately not out of the one I have and a few others I've seen examples from.  

 

I'm sending mine back for a replacement.

 

Good luck, Let me know if you figure anything out!  

 

MontanaVid, thanks for sharing your experience with the a7rii. I am having great results with photos and based on your comments regarding video wonder if I've got a bad unit. I'm saw so many great A7rii videos which reinforced my decision to buy the unit. I wish someone would come out with a testing procedure with exact settings so we can compare.

 

To be honest, I vacationed in Brazil this past year and only took my $400.00 HX60V. As a point and shoot travel camera that only shoots 1080p I can honestly say it performed well. Low light video of Rio's Carnival was visible, but not as much as with this new $6000.00 camera with 16-35mm lens.

 

Thanks,

 

Robert

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You are right - faster glass probably isn't the answer - sure you'll get more light in, thus being able to lower the iso, but you will have shallow DOF making things look out of focus. This isn't as bad when shooting wide though.

 

2 things spring to my mind:

 

1) You must shoot super35 to get the best noise performance out of this camera, but for interiors, that crops the sensor and makes your wide lenses seem less wide.

2) pushing exposure comp is going to add noise - you'd be better just leaving it at zero and increasing the iso

 

What fps are you shooting? 50p? 25p? 24p? . If you are doing home interiors and have not got much movement you could probably go to 1/25 shutter if you are doing 25p or less.

 

Show us a clip - you shouldn't be getting noise at iso3200 on S35....... I'd love the high MP for stills on the A7rii but I'm gonna compromise and get the A7sii as I take mainly video, want to shoot wide FF and also want to shoot at smaller apertures to get a deep DOF. This will require high iso inside and this is the camera for that (for me, anyhow)

So I ran tests today and here are the results. All clips were shot at 4K, 1/50, ISO800, F8, +1 Exposure Compensation. The room had all pot lights on, and you can see the light coming in from the window so there is not a low light issue here.

Tests 1-4 are at S35 at 16mm

Tests 5-8 are FF at 24mm

 

Please provide an honest opinion of what you think is happening. The PP1 Custom was setup based on recommendations by someone who has tested and says its the best setup and to me, it's up there with the worse like not even applying a PP. PP5 was also recommended if there is a lot of light in the room so that's why I used it. I did try PP6 low light and although it was colourful, it had as much noise as PP7. Also slog2 seemed to do the best at not blowing out the highlights like all the others. Also, I see no difference between S35 and FF

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Bloody hell! There is some noise there. Still unsure why you're adding +1 exp compensation as opposed to exposing correctly.

 

Not having this camera and only basing my knowledge on the plethora of vids on YouTube doing these tests, I can safely say you have too much noise for this iso. Just look at some of the tests. Pretty clean to 6400 in super35.

 

I can only suggest 2 issues myself. 1. The exposure compensation boosting noise. Remove this, and increase Iso to properly expose. 2. A duff camera.

 

Good luck but something is up there. Iso 800 should be crystal clear.

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Hello pilsburypie,

 

Thanks for your suggestions. I did some more tests and actually found a great article surrounding the A7S which explains a ton. I had been reading other expert comments and they all say to increase exposure, but correct me if I am wrong, I was assuming the entire time to increase the exposure with exposure compensation and not what you said, properly expose by increasing ISO. So I took your advice and increased my iso to 3200 and Voilà a much better image. I guess being a photographer I was thinking of ISO as a hinderence, but in video higher ISO is actually your friend.

 

I also tried this in Full Frame and although not as good as S35 I was able to clean up my video very nicely. One other thing, I was able to shoot F8 which solves my issue when filming aircraft interiors.

 

It's funny, but I spent 2 hours at the camera store where I buy my gear and no one could clue into what I was doing wrong., You did it with one simple sentence!

 

Thank you for your help!

 

Robert

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Really glad I was of some help. Photo and video are near the same with iso - proper exposure and not boosting the image PP or with exp comp will really help. Pumping the gain will be disasterous.

 

Think of it this way..... There is this thing I was taught a good while ago HAMSTTR..... Histogram and meter settings to the right. Look at a histogram and you see the blacks on the left of the graph and the whites on the right. You don't want any of the graph right at either side otherwise you get clipping and information is lost. But, if you can expose properly, or even over expose slightly without clipping the whites you can bring the exposure back down in PP and really reduce noise. So much so check this example... An underexposed shot at 3200iso brought up in post or adding +1 exp comp (like you) will have more noise than a 6400 iso shot slightly overexposed (HAMSTTR) brought back down PP.

 

Keep that exposure compensation on 0! let the camera correctly expose and keep an eye on the histogram. Experiment exposing to the right on the histogram and see what you make of it. It is useful for me as I shoot a Canon 1Dsii which is a great camera but really starts to show noise over iso800 due to it being 10+ years old. I can't wait to get my A7sii!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can I just make a correction in my posts - I mentioned to avoid adding exposure compensation - I was incorrect in that. My thought process was it just added gain to the image, but it does not. It actually adjusts the exposure via shutter speed/aperture, depending on your settings.

 

But, I still hold by my statement to expose to the right and bring exposure down in post

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Can I just make a correction in my posts - I mentioned to avoid adding exposure compensation - I was incorrect in that. My thought process was it just added gain to the image, but it does not. It actually adjusts the exposure via shutter speed/aperture, depending on your settings.

 

But, I still hold by my statement to expose to the right and bring exposure down in post

Not a problem, I was actually going to update my post. I've managed to work through noise removal and color grading. My settings are as follows:

 

24p -1/50th

FF or S35 @ 21mm

F9

Picture Profile 7 slog2

Autoiso 800-6400

Custom white balance

Expose between shadows and highlights and use AEL

Add 2 stops exposure compensation.

 

Bring it into FCPX and adjust exposure. I bring the faintest peaks below 100 and if need be bring the shadows up slightly.

 

Then I used Colorist III and adjust everything else. I bring the highlights, midtones and shadows up and adjust the curves to get contrast set. Then I look at color and enhance where needed.

 

Once I preview it and it looks good and balanced I use neat video to remove noise and sharpen it.

 

Comes out pretty good. Now the only problem is rendering and I'm on an older imac. I'm going to downscale to 1080p using sony catalyst and try the same thing. Hopefully I won't lose much detail if I stick to prores 422.

 

Robert

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To get the best image with the least noise needs a bright exposure (without clipping) which you can then bring down to taste in post. I got my A7sii a few days ago and am having good results with setting zebras to 100+, setting up my shot, dialling in exposure comp until the zebras start to appear, then knocking it down 1/3 stop. That way, maximum light is hitting the sensor without clipping. In post if I want the darker look, just reduce exposure and you'll have the least noisy image possible. Always best to start off with the best image out of camera before you hit the noise reduction which can reduce detail.

 

Glad you're finding a workflow that suits.

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