Blackmagic Forum

Hello.. did anyone notice an improved view with far less fpn? i noticed that the fpn on iso 400 dropped on the bmpc4k alot and was wondering if any of you noticed something similar.

What firmware were you running before? BM made some improvements to the sensor calibration in a recent update before today's 1.9.5.

I don't think the have been any made in this update tho.

adamroberts wrote:What firmware were you running before? BM made some improvements to the sensor calibration in a recent update before today's 1.9.5.

I don't think the have been any made in this update tho.

i was on the 1.9 which was the up to date version at the time for the production camera 4k. im saying this because i noticed some amount of fpn on my camera few days ago and told BMD about this which they told me to send then a footage preferably on normal lighting... was on the case when this new update came up so i updated.

i also noticed that when i record while the cap of the lens was closed in which i used to see the fpn on the camera screen. when i transfer it to the computer i barely see the fpn or is it my eyes or the screen. all these was before todays update though.

but today after updating it .. i also noticed the lens kind of flickers.. and no its not the screen flicker that occurs for few minutes after an update. it feels like the lens blinking kind of and the whole histogram also reacting to the flickering.. when i turn on a lighting system it looks normal but if you look at the histogram you can still see it moving a little like its still reacting to something..

Have you noticed fpn on anyone you might have come across? or is it me just worried.

bmd said if i send them the footage if they can see it then i will probably get another on .. but i dont think i have a bad camera since i can barely see it after i transfer it to the computer. but it is there.


I will probably need to clear my eyes up and check again tomorrow morning... just to make sure i am not being put on a black magic spell

I'll shoot se tests over the weekend to see. Only done drive tests today.

adamroberts wrote:I'll shoot se tests over the weekend to see. Only done drive tests today.

yeah i read your post.. i will check mine out as well tomorrow ...good job .. Thanks Adam

I just shot some clips to test the firmware... It's not really a test, but looking at the underexposed footage I shot at ISO 400 and 800, I can see that the FPN is noticeable better. I started grading an ISO 400 shot and then noticed it was actually an ISO 800 shot! I noticed the FPN when raising the blacks, didn't notice them before. Woot!

Again, this wasn't really a test and my eyes could be easily deceiving me... but tonight I'll go to sleep happy

Nick Gombinsky wrote:I just shot some clips to test the firmware... It's not really a test, but looking at the underexposed footage I shot at ISO 400 and 800, I can see that the FPN is noticeable better. I started grading an ISO 400 shot and then noticed it was actually an ISO 800 shot! I noticed the FPN when raising the blacks, didn't notice them before. Woot!

Again, this wasn't really a test and my eyes could be easily deceiving me... but tonight I'll go to sleep happy

Exactly my point Nick... i got the same vibe which led me to posting this.. for some reason i noticed something different in mine, the view from the screen looked clearer.. just like you i thought my eyes were just heavy and needed rest. so i went to bed after talking to Adam.. been working of some test of my own here and noticed the i could only see a visible fpn on iso 800. not that it is not in iso 400 but it has magically gone far lower that when i noticed it on my 4k cam last week on iso 400.. i have been checking it out through out today. i kind of seem to be satisfied so far though. Please check your when you wake up and let us know if i have a partner in crime

Well, on my BMPC4k (the one that is showing minor FPN) now shows something more like a 'regular' color noise, with pixels dancing (coherent in color, but.. some are darker then clearer, etc) where I was seeing FPN.

My cat (grey and black) was suffering from FPN, don't tell him, now he has noise on the black stripes..

I have ZERO vertical striped FPN in my unit - which is something of a miracle having gone through a 2.5K BMCC with "rolling noise" and having to return a BMPC 4k a few months ago with FPN in well exposed footage. The image is whistle clean and now exhibits nice granular noise that I find pleasing and natural.

If I underexpose too much and try to pull up the shadows I start to get "normal" FPN similar to later GH1 and GH2 models - but in my opinion it also handles this better than other cameras out there costing way more.

Whatever the engineers did they deserve kudos - the BMPC 4k is my favorite image right now!

I originally had a unit with AWFUL fixed pattern noise. BMD replaced the unit with no questions asked. The second unit was much better, but still displayed some FPN. After 1.9, the FPN was completely gone in normal usage, even using 800ISO. With 1.9.5 seems to be even better in low light. However, I am having a weird issue with 1.9.5 and so had to roll back to 1.9. Hopefully that will be fixed, since I like the 1.9.5 features like extended WB control and in camera media formatting.