grainy night vision

[kvn4]

my night videos are grainy as heck.is there something im not doing or is it a defective camera

 

[jokiin]

screenshot?

 

[kvn4]

ill have to run again at night,i formatted the card before i posted.ill do tonight and repost with screenshot tomorrow.daytime is fine though

 

[kvn4]

fell asleep early last night so no recordings yet.

 

[kvn4]

ok same grainy/very dark recordings.will do screen shots this afternoon as heading out.gonna take filter off and see how camera works without it in day and night then comare tomorrow. thanks k

 

[kamkar]

Grain / noise are often the result of low light footage if the ISO are too high.

But as ISO are the sensitivity factor ramping it up will give you brighter low light footage, but with more noise in the footage.
Second avenue to get brighter low light footage are ramping up exposure time, but really long times like used in photography dont work with video footage containing movement.
And really already 1:30 second exposure times in low light dashcam footage are way too slow and why you see more and more motion blur as the light fade, ideally exposure timings should not drop below 1:500 second for footage with any kind of movement.

 

[kvn4]

still testing camera,cpl off then on.had camera hardwired wrong as it was recording all the time. i may just use the front camera for daytime recording in colder days and not install rear.getting colder here so may install rear one in spring.

 

[Igoras]

Just wanted to complain on the same issue, since other that that the camera is perfect.

As kamkar1 said, noise comes at the low light videos, e.g. country roads with no light and it's quite clear why that happens - the camera has to put higher ISO to make the things brighter. And with most DSLRs there is "max usable ISO", that is usually a few stops less than the max ISO the camera supports (i.e. manufacturer's marketing dept decided to put there) - it's sort of limit when grain noise is less than the effective data coming to the sensor - beyond that limit the grain can be that high that it just blinds the actual picture.

Here is the very case I believe - if the firmware could limit the ISO at some level few stops less, the picture won't be that bright in general but now the bright part is mostly the noise that covers the actual picture. I wonder whether it's possible to update the firmware with such ISO limit - don't really want to set EV to -0.7 since it will result in dark videos during the daylight as well. I've also tried different exposure metering options hoping that the camera will meter the light of the car lights only during the night time, it didn't work.

I've uploaded a sample of night footage that goes through some well-lit and dark roads:

Attaching also a screenshot from the dark part of the road and how it could look with some lower ISO (not exactly the same since I just lowered exposure here, with lower ISO there will also be less noise).

 

[kvn4]

Igoras, thanks for input .love the music, i like my mic on too so i can listen to music when i review my videos. same as you as i do have metallica , rammstein ,megadeth and slayer to listen to.funny thing is is that im older than all of them except 2. my videos are from parked overnight and could be because its almost pitch black.

 

[Igoras]

kvn4, also, this time the song fitted perfectly in the file slice the dashcam creates.

As for your videos, I believe it's not the pitch black (as it should be in dark) but rather some random noise from the camera sensor.

Still it would be great if we could get any support from manufacturers here, but I see there are a few similar topics with no reaction at all...

 

[kvn4]

i only really drive in the daytime so its my ocd so not worrying too much but i do like the camera no complaints for day time driving.i got the dash cam because i totaled my wife new car(7 months young) it was definitely car in front but law states hit from behind its my fault.if i had a dash cam i would of had evidence of it. im installing rear cam in the spring as car interior is stiff.