Gain 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 dB, ALC
I based the comparison at Gain 0. Increasing the Gain significantly increased visible noise.
I prefer not to mess around with Gamma during shooting but leave it to the editing stage.
I never boost Gain when shooting in low light underwater (or use gimickery like "Black Stretch")...simply switch on the HID50's...But it's still good to have a camera with decent low light performance to begin with.
That's very interesting since I thought at 0db, the image was quite clean and keep blacks very black with little noise. I felt even at +9db, the camera was doing ok. I just did looked at Phil Bloom's and Tim Daley's HM100 test clips (I'm on the road and don't have the test clips I did) and if 0db is noisy to you, then how would the HVR-A1 satisfy your standards? I've had the HVR-A1 for awhile, I'm very surprised you find that the lowlight is better on the HVR-A1. The camera suffers gain noise pretty quickly. I think the HM100 has is pretty good in lowlight, considering the size. If you can post a still from the clip with settings, I think we can find out more.
The issue of sensor size isn't that simple either. A 1/3" sensor seems to have less pixel density but a 3X 1/4" splits the light into R G B, so each 1/4" sensor is only responsible for one channel each. Depending on the DSP, the 3X sensor cameras can be more sensitive than a single large sensor. On top of that , you have the XDCAM EX codec, which is nice for motion and busy scenes
Regarding using the camera settings to adjust the picture, gamma curves and to a lesser extent, black stretch, gives the picture more latitude for post. Depending on the camera, adjusting the in-camera settings is crucial to getting the most out of the picture, since the image is not RAW but compressed. Getting the picture with the most latitude and color so that post is easier is what most productions do. Of course, this is for broadcast and film outs, but the principle is still the same.
