Dragon noise - is this too much or is this normal? Seems strange.

[Will Keir]

The best way to avoid noise is to shoot 6K 5:1. Like Bob said, monitor at lower ISO.

Shoot anything in 2K with shadows, good chance you'll have noise (compression artifacts technically)

Did you blackshade after the camera was pretty hot/warm? usually after 20 minutes of being on.

Also, the third clip is corrupted. The image noise is what I would expect for underexposed. If you were monitoring at 250, you would have seen the histogram being underexposed big time. You also also shooting 4K and 10:1 compression. All recipe for more noise. If its low key kind of look you're after, I'd suggest swapping the Skin Tone OLPF for the Low Light one.

 

[Julio Quintana]

The STHL OLPF is fantastic in daylight and you will not have noise if you give it enough light. You say you shot at 250 ISO, but did you actually use a light meter and set your fstop to the appropriate exposure for 250ISO? I can't imagine that you would get noise with that approach.

 

[Brian Boyer]

Edit:
Both of the shots here are from an earlier shoot. Is this caused by the 800 ISO? Should I always keep it on 250 on Dragon when possible?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vfkvsy3z76lcvi1/epic_dragon_01_08_noise.zip?dl=0

Thank you!

I'm confused. You think the kitchen and bicycle shots are too noisy? Did you originally provide other pics than these?

There's a little noise/texture in the darker area by the stairs but it's barely visible in motion and I have to get fairly close to the screen to really notice it.

It's even less visible in REDgamma3, REDgamma2 or graded from REDlogFilm (REDgamma4 is a little too aggressive to me in most cases).

What's the problem with the bicycle shot? The inside of the truck? I mean, I'm right up on my monitor in order to see that.

This looks like standard STH performance to me. If you're sensitive to the slightest bit of noise and you're looking for super-clean images, rating at a lower ISO (with a light meter) and/or using the LLO OLPF would help clean things up.

Given the overall white production design, I'd be more concerned with holding highlights than a little noise/texture in the shadow areas. Rating these shots at ISO250 (with a light meter) might compromise the most important elements of the look. In particular, you'd have to watch those whites and highlights more closely.

Keep in mind, I think Dragon's texture looks pretty good and adda a little character, so there's that.

 

[Milan Spasic]

The STHL OLPF is fantastic in daylight and you will not have noise if you give it enough light. You say you shot at 250 ISO, but did you actually use a light meter and set your fstop to the appropriate exposure for 250ISO? I can't imagine that you would get noise with that approach.

This.

STH OLPF lives in my camera 99% of the time and is as clean as a whistle. Like with everything else, it has to be exposed correctly. Never had issue with polluted blacks, even when stacking NDs.