How can I improve the local contrast of a camcorder?

[rvs75]

Hi,

My old camcorder produce bad local contrast. How i can reduce this problem.

http://imageshack.us/a/img19/3356/hjd0.th.png (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/19/hjd0.png/)

Sorry for my bad english.

[Guest]

At least tell us the brand and model number of your camcorder.

[rvs75]

It's a Hitachi DZ-BX35E.
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/camcorders/hitachi-dz-bx35e-review-49282346/

[Guest]

You can try recording NOT in low light mode. Edge ghosting in that mode is known to be extreme.

[rvs75]

I always use this camera in Auto mode :confused:

[Guest]

Maybe Auto is selecting low level mode. Can't you force it to normal mode?

If not then consider getting a better camera. Maybe you'll get some filter gurus interested in trying to ameliorate it if you can't upgrade.

[rvs75]

I think the Auto mode is the normal mode because the others modes are Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, Sand&snow and Low light.

Currently, i can't buy a better camera. I use this and my camera.
My camera is better for image quality (H264, HD, ...) but only outdoors. And the process to save on DVD is complex and slow (resize, denoise for indoors record, Mov container, Audio in PCM S16 LE, transform framerate 29.97 progressive to 50 interlaced,...)

And I have ten or + DVDs from camcorder to fix...

[TheSkiller]

You should consider, if the final video is supposed to be played on a TV, that you cannot do faithful contrast and color manipulations without judging it on a video monitor. A computer monitor tends to fool you easily into thinking the video looks dull while on a TV it looks just right.

About local contrast enhacement, have a look at this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1555234#post1555234), try NonlinUSM.


However the parts your arrows point to are not really related to local contrast, you are talking about the contouring which all camcorders do to some degree to create artifical sharpness.

Please don't post screenshots this big it tears apart the whole thread. Use links.

[rvs75]

My english is very bad, sorry :o
I want reduce the "local contrast" (or "Edge ghosting", Neuron 2 said), not apply it !

[Yellow_]

Does the camera have even basic 'picture styles' like ability to use a flatter contrast, by dialing down contrast, dialing down saturation and even artifical sharpness, ie: ringing.

Is it really your camera or maybe the contrast appears to be worse than it has really been recorded. Typically so many consumer video cameras capture 'full range' so unless you ensure you know your source levels and compensate in your media player to suit, viewing a full range levels video as if it were 'restricted' levels will result in a far more contrasty appearance to the video.

So before trying to correct something that might not be as bad as it seems ensure you are previewing it correctly including any luma level mangling by the decompressing codec.

A simple test to establish levels, decompress a very contrasty over and underexposed shot in Avisynth with something like ffmpegsource2, a codec suite known not to screw with luma levels, add histogram(mode="classic"), check luma range, establish whether the camera captures full or restricted range, then for correct preview 'compensate' in avisynth with the correct pc or rec matrix in the converttorgb() command, or if using a decent media player like media player classic ensure it set to correct levels handling.