"ISO" and noise on the M-X. . . and how good are the noise/clip bars?

[Stephen Pruitt]

Hi all. . . this is a theoretical question (some might say "heretical," but that's another story):

The original M had a "native" ISO of 320. The new M-X has a native ISO of 800.

Background: I LOATHE noise. I can take clipped highlights in places, but I hate noise under all situations.

Now, if I were shooting film, and I wanted less noise, I'd just use a slower film (ceteris paribus, of course). The question I have is this: Do I get a cleaner image dialing the M-X back to 320 than I would keeping it at 800? I know I get more noise if I dial UP the gain or the ISO, but do I get less noise dialing it back?

Finally, how good are those little clip/noise bars to the left and right of the RGB exposure graph on the monitor? That is, if I don't have anything showing in the "noise" bar, am I assured I'll not have noticeable noise in the image (assuming I'm not cranking the image up in post)?

Just got my M-X today and I'm looking forward to trying to dark shots, but it is difficult for me to process my footie as our editing suite is installed at another location.

Thanks.

Stephen

 

[Gabe Conroy]

M-X is still a native 320 sensor. It can be used at 800 because of the super low noise, so that's why some people call it an 800 ISO sensor. So yeah, technically noise will be less at 320, but a lot of people like shooting 800 to protect highlights because practically speaking noise isn't a problem at 800 on MX. You should probably experiment to see what's acceptable to you.

 

[Mark Andersen]

One of the first tests I did was shoot the MX camera at 800 and 400 on the same scene to see if there was a difference in noise. In short, I couldn't tell a difference. The scene shoot at 800 didn't seem to have more noise than the 400 iso scene. Granted these were fairly bright daylight shots, but even in the shadows they looked the same. It was pretty unscientific, but that was my initial impression.

 

[Sean Finnegan]

I recently did a music video with cinematographer Brandon Trost on the RED One with a M-X sensor. We rated it at 500 ASA and it was gorgeous, and there were a couple night exteriors where we bumped up the ASA to 2000 and it was still gorgeous. Seemingly, the noise has been structured to look a lot like film grain. It's actually really gorgeous at 2000 ASA. Brandon was so impressed he was saying he'd shoot a whole feature at 2000 ASA "just because".

 

[David Battistella]

If you truly LAOTHE noise then I really suggest you invest in NEATVIDEO.

I have used it on high ISO scenes that let you dial in the amount of "acceptable" noise.

As has been stated, JIM (RED) rates the MX at anywhere from 320-800 ISO depending on the scene and the amount of noise you can take.

Personally. I think the M-X (in a night exterior for example) sees pretty much what your naked eye does at 1000ISO with an acceptable amount of noise.

But our tastes really could difference and if you feel that strongly about noise, then NEATVIDEO is for you.

David

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

You will soon see that the new noise pattern is quite scrumptious... our Pablo operator keeps (mistakingly) referring to HIGH ISO shots as having "wonderful grain" but if you want super clean, indeed as DB suggests. NEATVIDEO will be your best friend in most situations.

enjoy the M-X and welcome to the future. Now if only you could help with some of the noise on these boards lately

 

[Stephen Pruitt]

Oh, God, Tim. . . I don't know what to say. . . odds are I AM that "noise."



Thanks for the help, guys. I will definitely look into Neatvideo. . . I've never even heard of it.

Thanks!

Stephen

 

[David Battistella]

Now if only you could help with some of the noise on these boards lately

Amen to that!