Pocket 6k Horizontal Noise patterns

So I shot a wedding this weekend using the Pocket 6k and Pocket 4k. All in ProRes LT and going between 4k and 1080. When I started looking through the footage yesterday, I noticed that the Pocket 6k produced some weird horizontal noise patterns when I was shooting some very low light almost silhouette type shots with the bride and groom I punched up the gain a little bit in this photo to better be able to see it.

Horizontal Streaks_1.3.1.jpg (982.02 KiB) Viewed 8114 times

We were behind schedule during this shoot and moving very quickly, so I honestly can't tell you what ISO I was shooting at during this shot. But it seems that this noise patterning exists on all of the footage from the shoot with the couple in this area. I looked at a lot of the dance footage I shot later that night, where there was even less light, and there is no patterning on that footage. I've tried replicating the noise at home in low light, shifting through almost all of the ISO settings and I haven't been able to replicate the noise pattern that showed up here. Any thoughts? Here is a link where you can download one of the clips to see what I am talking about.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

These particular clips were shot at 1920x1080 in 60/23.98 fps. Sensor windowed to 5.7k since you can only shoot 50fps if you're using the full 6k sensor when shooting in 1080. Any thoughts on what may have caused this to happen?

It's been shot in ISO640 - you can readout the metadata:

Code: Select all

com.blackmagic-design.camera.p : 23.98
com.apple.proapps.shootingRate : 60
com.blackmagic-design.camera.c : Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K
com.blackmagic-design.camera.s : 180°
com.blackmagic-design.camera.s : Angle
com.blackmagic-design.camera.a : f2.8
com.blackmagic-design.camera.i : 640
com.blackmagic-design.camera.w : 4350
com.blackmagic-design.camera.w : -1
com.apple.proapps.customgamma  : com.blackmagic-design.camera.filmlog
com.blackmagic-design.camera.g : 2:1
com.blackmagic-design.camera.g : 90
com.blackmagic-design.camera.f : 6.9.1
com.apple.proapps.clipID       : A004_08211851_C185
com.apple.proapps.reel         : 4
com.apple.proapps.scene        : 1
com.apple.proapps.shot         : 99
com.blackmagic-design.camera.e : interior
com.blackmagic-design.camera.d : day
com.blackmagic-design.camera.l : Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
com.blackmagic-design.camera.l : 125mm
com.blackmagic-design.camera.l : 6590mm to 7760mm
com.apple.proapps.cameraName   : A
com.blackmagic-design.camera.c : Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, Color Science Gen 4
com.blackmagic-design.camera.d : 2020:08:21
com.blackmagic-design.camera.d : Low

The lines are wandering downwards through the shot.
My guess would be that there was some mismatch between shutter angle, frame rate and a weak light practical flickering at the location - causing the interference pattern.

You could use a deflicker plugin to remove this.

That really looks like you were starving the sensor from light. Were you using any NDs at the time?

Hey guys thanks for the input!

I just made a very interesting discovery. It seems that the battery pack that I was using with the camera, the powerbase Edge, is causing some sort of electrical interference with the camera. I have the battery connected to the bottom of camera as seen in the image below. When I do this, it creates those horizontal streaking noise lines. When I detach the batter from the camera and hold it further away, the noise stops. Interestingly enough, I noticed also that the noise only happens if I am using the supplied LP-E6 adaptor that is pictured below. If I use a Dtap cable from the battery that plugs directly into the cameras power port, then the noise does not happen even if the battery is attached to the camera. This is super weird, any thoughts on thiS? Here's a link showing the example of the noise being created and then going away depending on the position of the battery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HJkHvG ... sp=sharing

camerabattery.jpg (737.27 KiB) Viewed 7941 times

adaptor.jpg (700.47 KiB) Viewed 7941 times

I have also witnessed sudden and occasionally severe horizontal noise issues with my Pocket 6K on a shoot this weekend. This was the first time I used my 6K with an external power source on a longer shoot (gold mount battery plate directly into camera with Anton Bauer Digital Series batteries) with LP-E6 in the side handle for recharging/hot swapping.

I didn't happen on very many clips, but a few of them shot around 400 - 800 iso with plenty of light exposure exhibited horizontal banding-like noise patterns that I've never seen on this camera previously while only using the LP-E6 batteries.

But I can confirm that the pattern and occurrence of the noise was inconsistent. Curious...

I've had pretty crazy horizontal lines from the dummy battery on the Powerbase EDGE, I've also noticed the camera won't turn on when an SSD is plugged in with this configuration. I've emailed Powerbase about it but they don't reply. I've ended up just using a D Tap cable.

I have the same issue with my new BMPCC6K Pro. It happens 2 times and don't know how to recreate it. I was powering the camera with the original battery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SibHNbQkuf7NxUV2aZpYA2uSJPAc_VTo/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SibHNb ... sp=sharing

Any advice?

Your link is broken.

the link broke when the entry is edited

try this youtube link:

https://streamable.com/xbgak7
You can see the problems here:

Live from my Smartphone:

Same problem here using new IDX battery. Is there a fix for it?

Same problem. BMPCC noise lines.

any fixes for this problem? I have had this problem of horizontal lines appearing intermittently on my 6K when I mount the Core Edge on the bottom of it. This happened before and I returned the battery. Bought a new one, and then suddenly, the horizontal lines appear while I was filming in very low light. Why is this happening? And why sporadically? Any ideas of how to fix this?
thanks
Michael

Seems like possibly several issues in this thread. One, Questionable lighting sources. Most cheap LED light fixtures that might be in a location that I've seen can cause horizontal lines. Two, RF interference from certain electronics close to camera and maybe the possibility of cell phones near the camera, (everyones got one in their pocket), if no accessory is used and the ISO setting making it more pronounced. Its not the battery but the electronics, cables, or dummy plates that may be in the these accessories. Its been discussed regarding other cameras:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/22890136

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicdmcl1/18

Maybe a cheap way to find out is to add a ferrite core to any cable from the power source.
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q ... c-adaptors

It has nothing to do with lights, I used the powerbase edge mounted on the bottom of my bmpcc4k while shooting a concert with a guy who used the same camera and settings. Turned out I got the lines and he didn't.

Edit* Tried a D-tap cable and the lines disappeared. Seems like it's only while using the battery-adapter cable and placing the battery directly under the camera (as advertised) that the noise/lines occur.

I know this thread is old, but I did some searching because I have horizontal lines at ALL ISO's below 1250. I'm not using an external battery. Literally just body and lens. No cage, no accessories. I set it to 1250 and horizontal lines go away. Has anyone reached out to Blackmagic regarding this? I'll be sending an email myself shortly.

I know this thread is old, but I did some searching because I have horizontal lines at ALL ISO's below 1250. I'm not using an external battery. Literally just body and lens. No cage, no accessories. I set it to 1250 and horizontal lines go away. Has anyone reached out to Blackmagic regarding this? I'll be sending an email myself shortly.

Check Comparison between the 6k Pro and the GH6 at 8:50. Are these the lines you are seeing?

I know this thread is old, but I did some searching because I have horizontal lines at ALL ISO's below 1250. I'm not using an external battery. Literally just body and lens. No cage, no accessories. I set it to 1250 and horizontal lines go away. Has anyone reached out to Blackmagic regarding this? I'll be sending an email myself shortly.

Check Comparison between the 6k Pro and the GH6 at 8:50. Are these the lines you are seeing?

Hi. I have the same problem on Pocket 6k Pro. Any ISO below 1250 creates these horizontal lines exactly like in this video at 8:50.
1. Do all BMPCC 6k/Pro cameras have this issue or is it some faulty batch?
2. Is there any solution for this problem or I just have to shoot 1250 ISO or above when I see these lines?

The ‘native’ ISO for the Dual ISO sensor is 400 for the lower range and 3200 for the higher range. Given your scene has sufficient light, you’ll see good results normally with ISO 400. Even pushing this to ISO 800, can show more noise than shooting in the higher range ISO 3200. Some folks find ISO 3200 has more noise than they want and shooting at an ISO below 3200 gives them better results. In the higher range, ISO 1250 displays the least amount of noise and is far superior than shooting at ISO 1000 in the lower range. It’s the nature of these Dual ISO sensors. When you can’t add more light to your exposure, going to the higher range is an effective solution.

Bringing this thread back--still having issues with my gold mount battery plate and my Pocket 6K.

When I run power to the camera from the gold mount plate, my image immediately gets this aggressive flickering/noise horizontally, almost like it's boosting the noise floor of the sensor, and then when I switch to running off of an internal battery, that pattern goes away and the noise looks as I would expect at 400, 500, etc.

Thoughts? Bad plate? Should I grab one from Wooden Camera/Anton Bauer instead?

And just to reiterate, what we're talking about here is NOT the standard noise pattern of the sensor, this is clearly some sort of signal interference issue as all goes right back to normal and looks quite clean when I only use the internal battery.

Bit more testing--seems that it happens only when the gold mount battery is very low on power. Just going to have to keep an eye on the cutoff point...