Extremely high, unacceptable noise at base ISO in Clog3 (EOS R8)

[ShockingTax45]

Hi, I've searched all the other forums and haven't found a solution. I'm shooting at a base ISO of 800 in Clog3 mode with my EOS R8 and I'm experiencing extremely high noise in the shadows. I've watched a ton of YouTube tutorials on how to expose in Clog3 mode, and they all recommend using zebras and setting them to 55%, which equates to ~70 IRE for skin tones or 35% for mid-gray. After setting the exposure with zebras, the image is very noisy and I don't know what to do about it. The image from the old, APS-C M50 is much cleaner. Another thing is that even with correct exposure, the transition from dark gray to black is very harsh and looks terrible. After conversion with the LUT (CinemaGamut_CanonLog3-to-BT709_WideDR_33_FF_Ver.2.0) from the support page. It seems to me that the logarithmic profile is designed to provide much better quality than the standard profile, but in my case, it's the other way around. I think I'm missing something very obvious and simple, which makes everything complicated. Below are some sample Davinci Resolve stills. Thanks.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

I agree Zebras are useful to identify clipping.  I think False Color does a better job for overall exposure.  There are 2 trains of thought.  Some use a manual aperture and dial the histogram back from the right just a bit to ensure even exposure.

Others prefer to slightly over exposing the highlights (right on histogram) to minimize noise in the shadows.  The R8 provides best results when recording in LOG at 800 base ISO.  

Try over exposing your capture slightly.  It will look a little blown out on the LCD, but I think it will allow the sensor to do a better job with DR and keep Resolve from adding noise. 

Let us know how it goes.