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How to avoid Blackmagic Production Camera 4K fixed pattern noise

Andrew Reid

By Andrew Reid,
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Andrew Reid Long-time member

Andrew Reid

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Blackmagic Production Camera 4K sample - no FPN noise

Above: my sample showing no fixed pattern noise in low light at ISO 400 on the Production Camera - it's all about the grade

Almost all Blackmagic Production Camera users have experienced fixed pattern noise - a banding effect or grain texture over the image - and they are quite upset at Blackmagic over the issue. But is the fixed pattern noise problem on the Blackmagic Production Camera a case of faulty cameras OR is it a limitation of the spec?

This is a complex issue and every user seems to report something different. However in my own experience with the camera and of looking at the experiences of others I have to say that all units look to perform in the same way. It is a limitation of the spec, not a case of a large number of faulty units being shipped out.

Yet many users - over 200 of them - are now putting pressure on Blackmagic to acknowledge a hardware or quality control 'fault' and to do hardware replacements. Sorry but I just don't think this is right.

It is best to look at how to handle the camera in order to avoid the FPN in the first place...

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Andrew Reid Long-time member

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"Something INCREDIBLE is arriving this week at EOSHD for the Pocket Cinema Camera… It will lighten all our spirits! Be sure to check the blog in the next few days."

Comme on Andrew, spill the beans, it's Sunday !

 

Well since it is arriving this week, and this week being 'the future' I don't have much to spill at the moment. I know what it is, but before I have it in my hands, it would be silly to blog about it wouldn't i!

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Liszon Frequent member

Liszon

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Well since it is arriving this week, and this week being 'the future' I don't have much to spill at the moment. I know what it is, but before I have it in my hands, it would be silly to blog about it wouldn't i!

 

Do you want to play "hunt the thimble"? :)

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Stefan Antonescu Member

Stefan Antonescu

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Well since it is arriving this week, and this week being 'the future' I don't have much to spill at the moment. I know what it is, but before I have it in my hands, it would be silly to blog about it wouldn't i!


Well, you could give us a hint... I just registered so I could ask you.

I'm a long time lurker and have been reeding your blog for years (actually wanted to say "following you for years", but thought it sounded creepy).
Anyway, thank you very much for this blog and all the time and work you have put into it, so anyone can get inspired.

You certainly inspired me to get the same white Ikea table to go with the Dell U2711. :-)
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Superka Member

Superka

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Some users says that FNP appear after some time of shooting, maybe when sensor heats up.

I think you should have added one more point: "avoid shooting at air temperatures above 15 C".

Cooling the sensor must work fine. 

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Dan Wake Frequent member

Dan Wake

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Same huge problem with 7D RAW video here. 

 

I have found this topic, I do not know if it solve the problem, my english is not perfect (really far...) and maybe I misunderstand. But I will give a try.

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5693.0

 

p.s.

 

I got 7D only because I wanted to shoot in RAW (video) but the stripes are so heavy, so I really hope to find out a productive solution.

 

All the CANON camera that I have tryed suffer from vertical banding  fixed pattern noise. So this problem is really old. But nobody talk about it. I wish to know if esod HD talked about it in the past 5D, 7D, Rebel Series, etc, etc... series. Nobody in every website I visited talked about it. and the most always said that the image quality from canon DSLR were oustanding. But in low light "vertical banding" is everywhere. 

I cannot understand why anybody never talked hard about this problem. maybe I guess could be because Canon camera are the main tool of works of many people so they want so keep clean the "image" of theyr tools. I'm totally wrong and stupid talking about this I hope. 

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Guest d5f8611fa423d0e628c016f9d5c93b47

Guest d5f8611fa423d0e628c016f9d5c93b47

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Something INCREDIBLE is arriving this week at EOSHD for the Pocket Cinema Camera… It will lighten all our spirits! Be sure to check the blog in the next few days.

 

A battery grip!

 

... which also acts as a quality audio input device!

 

... and also acts as a modest, ergonomic and stylish cage!

 

... and also adds a small yet effective EVF!

 

... and also acts as a (remarkably tiny) high-capacity SSD recorder!

 

... and is also a fold-away quadcopter!

 

... and is only $500!

 

:)

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Jairo Román Mukul New member

Jairo Román Mukul

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Hi andrew, I want to buy a blackmagic camera, I want 4k, but i´m worried about fpn, so i´m thinking about buy the 2.5k model and pocket cinema camera as "b camera". But also i´m worried about the fact than blackmagic cinema camera is from 2012.  I want to shoot in 4k, and i want to shot in raw, is a dream. For that reason i don´t buy gh4 camera. You are a colorist master, i´m learning, i don´t know how the fpn goes to affect mi shoots, and how reapair it in davinci, no yet. What happen with your video in the aeropark?  

 

 Sorry for my english.  What do you think? 

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sunyata Frequent member

sunyata

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I did no noise reduction or FPN removal at all for Aerogirls yet it is clean.

 

I shot Video Mode, exposed for Video and that's just the way it came out!

 

 

Yea, that's awesome, only drawback is that it's rec709 in Video mode. It would be ideal to somehow negate the noise using Film mode too, I'm wondering if the pattern noise is static enough to take a test shot and subtract it in post. In Nuke I think you would just do a subtract and then do an expand on the noise to alter the amount to subtract. It might not be static enough to work though.

 

If you wanted to post the footage to do this with I'd be happy to test it in flame or nuke, but you could use after effects too. Maybe Resolve's procedural cc window also. 

 

This is what supposedly the Axiom guys are doing with the same image sensor. They are trying to subtract the noise, but at the FPGA level.

 

fixed-pattern-noise-illustration-01_0.jp

 

Your footage looks really good btw. I'd be interested to see a comparison with the GH4 and BMPC in Video mode since they would both be shooting rec709.

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Guest d5f8611fa423d0e628c016f9d5c93b47

Guest d5f8611fa423d0e628c016f9d5c93b47

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My bet is on the EF to MFT Speedbooster.

 

Nah. If they can do it for the Pocket they can do it for all of the other MFT's too. And anyway, I don't think Andrew would describe it as incredible - it would be great news, but we've been waiting for it for ages. This sounds more like a surprise to me ...

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Dan Wake Frequent member

Dan Wake

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Yea, that's awesome, only drawback is that it's rec709 in Video mode. It would be ideal to somehow negate the noise using Film mode too, I'm wondering if the pattern noise is static enough to take a test shot and subtract it in post. In Nuke I think you would just do a subtract and then do an expand on the noise to alter the amount to subtract. It might not be static enough to work though.

 

If you wanted to post the footage to do this with I'd be happy to test it in flame or nuke, but you could use after effects too. Maybe Resolve's procedural cc window also. 

 

This is what supposedly the Axiom guys are doing with the same image sensor. They are trying to subtract the noise, but at the FPGA level.

 

fixed-pattern-noise-illustration-01_0.jp

 

Your footage looks really good btw. I'd be interested to see a comparison with the GH4 and BMPC in Video mode since they would both be shooting rec709.

hello please can you thell me there did you get that image? thanks a lot

I need info I wish to learn this technique! :)

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sunyata Frequent member

sunyata

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That is a photo from the Apertus / axiom camera website, they are working on an open source 4k camera and it's using the same CMOSIS sensor as the BMPC, as best I can tell. It looks the same and has identical stats and FPN noise issues. 

 

They were explaining with the photo how they were subtracting the noise in the FPGA though, I want to try doing it in a compositor.. but I don't have the footage.

 

The main project is about to start crowd funding:

 

https://www.apertus.org/

 

Where they talk about the FPN issues:

 

https://www.apertus.org/merry-christmas-2013

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