Fluorescent lights are bad for banding. I notice that I do not get them in the sun, but cheap lights really affect the sensor. Thanks for the testing! Great to see a walk-a-round with a Z8.
You noticed how it went away when the camera is in P Mode, you can manually dial in a shutter speed to eliminate it but it takes time and sometimes might not cover all the lights.
I’m happy to know the electronic stabilization works very well from the camera. I’ll have to work on getting things even smoother in Resolve. It’s just great to know they can compete with Sony there.
Any electronic stabilization system benefits from high shutter speeds, because that reduces motion blur. That is what action cameras do. The thing Panasonic and Olympus have done well is the IBIS is very strong, that doesn't get motion blur even with slower shutter speeds like 1/50. The artefact you get with that is the wobble. Fortunately Panasonic found a fix for the wobble electronically on their G9II. So you'll get insanely smooth footage even a 1/50s shutter. I think Sony, Nikon and Fuji have a similar approach to video stabilization. Weak hardware stabilization to avoid wobbles, then adding electronic stabilization to look smooth. But as we found out, electronic stabilzation wont get rid of the motion blur jitters due to slow shutter speeds. Canon on the other hand have even stronger stabilization than Panasonic but that is only troublesome with the excessive wobbles.
Thanks for explaining this, no where has Nikon indicated this in their documentation, this is useful information users need. I was a bit annoyed when the manual didn’t speak to the stabilization but instead, referred on to look at the explanation on how it works on the photo side. We shouldn’t have to reference photo info when looking up info on video specific features. I guess they still think in a photo camera mindset with video as an add on.
I was worried about shooting at 1/250 and eVR engaged because I usually am in 1/50 in 25fps. But when I saw how stabilised the footage was, I thought, perhaps I can shoot in 1/250 and convert in post to make it look more natural? Any ideas on how?
Whatever you have the camera fps set to, if the shutter bumps up, it still keeps the fps, at one point in the video, I put the camera in Program and it jumped up to 1/1000. To get it smoother, you will have to do your best during filming to keep it steady, I was walking at a fast pace while handholding the camera and you saw some of the footfalls, maybe some ninja walk can help or being more purposeful with the steps to minimize the camera movement. I applied stabilization in Resolve using the Similarity option as that worked better for that situation. Try out the different options to see which one you prefer, you can also use the adjustment sliders to make some changes, to see how that works out. Hope that helps.
You can with turning on the High-Frequency flicker reduction and then adjusting the shutter speed. As you normally set the shutter to double the frame rate, for example if you are shooting 4K30, you should be at 1/60 seconds. The HFFR allows you to adjust to say 1/64.3 (I can’t recall the number I used here) or 1/58.5, as you are adjusting you will see on screen or via the EVF the results in realtime. The same holds true for true for the photo side as well.
@@csc-photo You can select a rate closer to the power rating in your country (50Hz most of the world/60Hz in North America) as a starting point. PAL frame rate of 25 is common, doubling that gets you 50 (NTSC is 30, doubling to 60), that gets you in the zone and with the HFFR setting, you can adjust in smaller steps from there. This is where it seems Nikon (unless they have some other unadvertised settings to mitigate this) has some room for improvements with the eVR. I plan on doing some more testing to learn and share the results of how to make the best of the eVR, in all conditions, if possible
LOL! Sometimes. Nikon didn’t explain this in their manual or reference guide. If they had and we missed it, then I would agree. 1/250s is 10 times the normal rate of 24 fps. If you don’t eat to be at f8 and want to shoot at f2.8, you have to raise the shutter speed to a high level. Not actually normal video settings but, maybe Nikon was doing this to limit this to modes that are not manual, to make it easy. The other issue of dropping the shorter speed below 1/250 and keeping a higher f stop, makes the electronic stabilizer useless.
1/250 In order to get rid of the micro jitters? Wow… What a piece of crap that camera is. That’s a dealbreaker. Doesn’t matter how good the video looks if you can’t walk around with your camera… What good is it?
LOL! The Z8 is a great camera all around, being able to use all the features is helpful, Nikon didn't explain this in their manuals and a number content creators pointed this out in their video, which might turn off some folks, as that is something they look for. It seemed odd to me that Nikon made this great camera and there was this really great feature that wasn't working as it should. With the A7R V's IBIS, the performance was great, improved further by using an OSS based lens and then even more with their Catalyst software. The Z8 I feel is better as seen in the video, I was walking at a good pace and it was managing the steps quite well. For some Panasonic and Sony fans, it might be a deal breaker, this video shows it is a great performer, contrary to what most YT reviewers has been saying on that feature. As others coming from competing brands, who this matters to, this is good information to know.
Yep, it is. I had the A7R V with improved Active stabilization, a bit better than the FX30, Dynamic stabilization came out later in the ZV-E1 and newer cameras. Maybe in the future, even the top end cameras will have gimbal like stabilization. For now, folks have to shell out more dough for gimbals.
OMG, when this thing works, it is really great. What has been your experience with the Z8 electronic stabilization.
Fluorescent lights are bad for banding. I notice that I do not get them in the sun, but cheap lights really affect the sensor. Thanks for the testing! Great to see a walk-a-round with a Z8.
You noticed how it went away when the camera is in P Mode, you can manually dial in a shutter speed to eliminate it but it takes time and sometimes might not cover all the lights.
Great information, thank you Wayne!
You are welcome!
Nice video as usual
I’m happy to know the electronic stabilization works very well from the camera. I’ll have to work on getting things even smoother in Resolve. It’s just great to know they can compete with Sony there.
Any electronic stabilization system benefits from high shutter speeds, because that reduces motion blur. That is what action cameras do. The thing Panasonic and Olympus have done well is the IBIS is very strong, that doesn't get motion blur even with slower shutter speeds like 1/50. The artefact you get with that is the wobble. Fortunately Panasonic found a fix for the wobble electronically on their G9II. So you'll get insanely smooth footage even a 1/50s shutter.
I think Sony, Nikon and Fuji have a similar approach to video stabilization. Weak hardware stabilization to avoid wobbles, then adding electronic stabilization to look smooth. But as we found out, electronic stabilzation wont get rid of the motion blur jitters due to slow shutter speeds. Canon on the other hand have even stronger stabilization than Panasonic but that is only troublesome with the excessive wobbles.
Thanks for explaining this, no where has Nikon indicated this in their documentation, this is useful information users need. I was a bit annoyed when the manual didn’t speak to the stabilization but instead, referred on to look at the explanation on how it works on the photo side. We shouldn’t have to reference photo info when looking up info on video specific features. I guess they still think in a photo camera mindset with video as an add on.
I was worried about shooting at 1/250 and eVR engaged because I usually am in 1/50 in 25fps. But when I saw how stabilised the footage was, I thought, perhaps I can shoot in 1/250 and convert in post to make it look more natural? Any ideas on how?
Whatever you have the camera fps set to, if the shutter bumps up, it still keeps the fps, at one point in the video, I put the camera in Program and it jumped up to 1/1000. To get it smoother, you will have to do your best during filming to keep it steady, I was walking at a fast pace while handholding the camera and you saw some of the footfalls, maybe some ninja walk can help or being more purposeful with the steps to minimize the camera movement.
I applied stabilization in Resolve using the Similarity option as that worked better for that situation. Try out the different options to see which one you prefer, you can also use the adjustment sliders to make some changes, to see how that works out. Hope that helps.
Can we eliminate banding in M mode? Is it just the shutter speed that affects this? I’m not a video-primary guy so I struggle with this a little.
You can with turning on the High-Frequency flicker reduction and then adjusting the shutter speed. As you normally set the shutter to double the frame rate, for example if you are shooting 4K30, you should be at 1/60 seconds. The HFFR allows you to adjust to say 1/64.3 (I can’t recall the number I used here) or 1/58.5, as you are adjusting you will see on screen or via the EVF the results in realtime. The same holds true for true for the photo side as well.
@@waynerm002 Thanks, will try this!
@@csc-photo You can select a rate closer to the power rating in your country (50Hz most of the world/60Hz in North America) as a starting point. PAL frame rate of 25 is common, doubling that gets you 50 (NTSC is 30, doubling to 60), that gets you in the zone and with the HFFR setting, you can adjust in smaller steps from there.
This is where it seems Nikon (unless they have some other unadvertised settings to mitigate this) has some room for improvements with the eVR. I plan on doing some more testing to learn and share the results of how to make the best of the eVR, in all conditions, if possible
Interesting test. Perhaps I missed it, what lens was used for this test?
You did, I included it in the start of the test, it’s the Nikon 17-28 f2.8.
Hey how about manual settings and auto iso?
Yep, you can do that.
Like Diana says its always user problem
LOL! Sometimes. Nikon didn’t explain this in their manual or reference guide. If they had and we missed it, then I would agree. 1/250s is 10 times the normal rate of 24 fps. If you don’t eat to be at f8 and want to shoot at f2.8, you have to raise the shutter speed to a high level. Not actually normal video settings but, maybe Nikon was doing this to limit this to modes that are not manual, to make it easy.
The other issue of dropping the shorter speed below 1/250 and keeping a higher f stop, makes the electronic stabilizer useless.
1/250 In order to get rid of the micro jitters? Wow… What a piece of crap that camera is. That’s a dealbreaker. Doesn’t matter how good the video looks if you can’t walk around with your camera… What good is it?
LOL! The Z8 is a great camera all around, being able to use all the features is helpful, Nikon didn't explain this in their manuals and a number content creators pointed this out in their video, which might turn off some folks, as that is something they look for. It seemed odd to me that Nikon made this great camera and there was this really great feature that wasn't working as it should.
With the A7R V's IBIS, the performance was great, improved further by using an OSS based lens and then even more with their Catalyst software. The Z8 I feel is better as seen in the video, I was walking at a good pace and it was managing the steps quite well. For some Panasonic and Sony fans, it might be a deal breaker, this video shows it is a great performer, contrary to what most YT reviewers has been saying on that feature. As others coming from competing brands, who this matters to, this is good information to know.
sony's new dynamic stabilization is a lot better than Nikon
Yep, it is. I had the A7R V with improved Active stabilization, a bit better than the FX30, Dynamic stabilization came out later in the ZV-E1 and newer cameras. Maybe in the future, even the top end cameras will have gimbal like stabilization. For now, folks have to shell out more dough for gimbals.