HF G50 - Video Quality

[TheG33kman]

Hello. I have a G50 with some unexpected behavior that I'm hoping to get a second opinion on.

The video quality of my G50 appears to be sub-par, specifically with what appears (?) to be sensor noise.

Videos are worth 10,000 words. Here's a sample shot:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Q5_W_ROG5L3bLIexwvlTZG8M4Cz8vJU/view?usp=sharing

I used manual: 1/250th, 2.6 aperature, 0 gain, 4K/24p, direct to SD card.

Google overly compresses these things and will likely mangle some of the problem out, so I added a 2x and 3x zoom after it in post to show the problem more clearly. But really, download the original file and its much more apparent - especially when viewed on a 4K display.

All over the image there is a shimmering haze of random speckles/distrortions. It's much more bothersome on clean edges where the border appears to wiggle as the pixels shift position, and on bright portions where dots come and go with a high-freqency. The closest analogue I've seen to this is when using a DSLR with high ISO in night shots. But this shot is in ideal conditions on a sunny day in shade, outside, no gain. Filming inside (my primary use) with 1/60th, 2.6, 12 gain, on 1080p through HDMI-out the picture gets worse as the speckles become larger.
FWIW, there are 4K shots from the G50 on YouTube that don't seem to be anywhere near as bad. And even when uploading mine to YouTube, it still looks worse even through the compression.

Other things I've tried:

• Filming the brightest white snow in the sunshine
• Auto setting vs manual
• Plugged-in versus on battery power
• Using it "cold" versus warmed running for an hour.
• Record direct to SD card versus through HDMI out
• Disabling stabilization

So bottom line:

Is there any setting I might be missing that could cause this?

Am I just being overly picky and expecting too much for what was "only" a $1,100 retail camcorder?
Or is this problem so abnormal that I should get it repaired?

[rcflyer]

ok, i have an update on my g50. i made a complaint about 4K video i recorded with my g50. i finally got time to dig into the issue more and i tried something that i didn't think of before and that was go via HDMI directly to my sony 4K tv and i was shocked.. it played perfectly. before i put the videos on a USB thumb drive and that didn't work and i tried an externall hard drive .. nope poor quality . studdering and jerkyness everytime. i thought it was the camera for sure. well i tried something else that worked for me too was i have a USB 3.0 HHD enclosure for laptop drives so i put a SSD drive in it and plugged it directly into my tv and it worked too.so my conclusion is that the 4K clips from this camera needs a robust data stream from the device your using . the picture and smoothness is there , you just have to work for it. also my 'puter monitor can only do 2K as well as my video card so i beleive the videos are getting held back because of hardware issues. 

[t_dhawkins]

It was my experience that this phenomina occurred across all resolutions and formats. Glad you found a work around too bad it has to be that way. 

[t_dhawkins]

Dont have a official test to quote but I spent some recent time with a G50 in low light and just took the G60 into the same environment. I thnk the G60 works better. Seems to be honest in very low light. I was in AUTO. I will try the canned setting option for low light later today.

[Inapickle]

Denoising in post is always a trade off. Neat Video is good. I prefer to use AVISynth filters that best suit the type of noise present.

[redrob]

It sounds like this was worked out towards the end of the thread. 

I currently own a G30, G40, G50 and XA11 -- I'm considering selling my G30 and getting a G60.  Doing so I'd be settling for 15x zoom instead of 20x, and would lose wireless control which we sometimes use.

Has anyone here missed that extra bit of zoom, or does the G60 more than compensate for that with a digital-type zoom using the larger sensor size?