Finally got mine today and of course I had to try it right away. I don’t get my batteries delivered until tomorrow so I could not try it outside. Tried it with some water splashing in the kitchen.
First learning was that high frame rates definitely requires a LOT of light, even on f2.1 and ISO1600 which was what I tried tonight! Need to look at some LEDs stronger than the Aputure 120dII and 300dII I have now. You definitely want to shoot at ISO400 if possible due to the increased noise at ISO1600.
(BTW the f-number might be wrong in some clips in that video, I tried f2.8 as well)
Positive first impressions: Great build quality GUI is very clear and easy to use
Minor things: The fan is quite loud It takes about 40 seconds to boot up
But one potential issue I discovered was that if I leave the SSD connected to my Mac Studio, after I transfer the files, it gets EXTREMELY hot after about 20-30 minutes. I don’t read or write to the SSD, it’s just connected with the included USB-C cable. When i disconnect it after 20-30 minutes I can barely touch it, it’s that hot. Is this in order??
Ummmm, iv encountered the same issue with u, just connect with my Mac and do nothing, it heats drastically hot, ud better cool it down with the electric fan.
Thanks for the tests at iso 1600. Noise looks really well controlled at iso 1600. I’m sure it will look better with some noise reduction on top and maybe some subtle film grain on top.
You can’t really see the noise that well in this YouTube clip where I exported it to h.264 10 Mbps and then YouTube does its thing. It’s definitely noticeable on ISO1600, especially if it’s a bit underexposed as well, which was what I had to deal with last night. When you try to bring it up you realise the limitations. BUT, overall I’m very happy with the quality, sharpness, details etc. Especially shooting wide open at f2.1 with a budget cine lens.
I can also mention that I did some quick tests last night, where I made my desired adjustments in the Pixboom Cine software, then exported it to ProRes and brought it into Premiere. For me at least, I got better results by just leaving ALL the settings in Pixboom Cine ‘as shot’, then exported it to ProRes, brought it into Premiere and made some small adjustments to exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows and WB in Lumetri Color. I felt I had more wiggle room with a ProRes file in Premiere than with the RAW file in Pixboom Cine before the noise went bananas.
But it’s in the back of my head for sure. I’ve used Topaz before. Not for noise reduction but for slowing down footage. And I got some pretty nice results from slowing down 120 fps clips from a Canon C70 of kite surfers, so I can only imagine what 937 fps would do.
The problem I have with noise reduction is, that I keep watching before/after in different settings, and I do not like the destruction of details, even with minimum noise reduction. I like sharpness and details, and noise reduction of any kind destroys the details. Tough equation.
That’s true as well. Unless there’s a lot of chroma (color) noise, I usually leave a bit of monochromatic noise because it helps preserve fine detail that can be lost with aggressive noise reduction. If there is significant color noise, I’ll apply a light amount of noise reduction first, then add film grain back on top to give the image a more natural, organic look.
