This month, I wanted to take the time and talk about a small problem I encountered last year while filming our feature film Hands of God. As you have read from our blog, we used the JVC GY-110U HD camera with the Redrock 35mm Adapter and Nikon Lenses for our shoot. During the production, the JVC camera’s CCD sensors would occasionally overheat and cause small white pixels to appear in our shots. Here are some examples below of some of the issues that occurred:
These white pixels would appear only when we were using the Redrock 35mm Adapter. We have no idea what could be causing it other than the fact the CCD sensor was overheating on us. Thanks to some friendly people at Creative Cow, we managed to fix the problem later during the production by doing the following:
On the GY-HD110U/GY-HD200/GY-HD250 series cameras this process is provided in an advanced Menu accessed while in 24p mode. You must be in 24p mode for this operation: Hold the Focus Assist button (the one on the camera body) simultaneously with the Menu/Status button for at least 5 seconds.
You will see an advanced menu where the second line says CAMERA1. Move the cursor down and push the shutter wheel to enter that menu. Now you see a list with the sixth item being PIXEL COMPEN. Move down to it and select that item. The word CANCEL blinks. Change it to EXECUTE and push again. It takes about 10 seconds or so to perform the operation then it tells you to power off the camera. You are done. Make sure Focus Assist is now OFF and exit 24p mode if desired.
NOTE: This works best on a camera that is warm. We advise turning the camera on and let it sit for ½ hour or so before doing this operation. You can even wrap it in a blanket. It may be necessary to perform the procedure more than once. This works for all the ProHD JVC cameras.
Great, we’ve fixed the problem with the JVC camera and didn’t encounter the HOT/WHITE Pixel anymore during the rest of the production. Only one problem remained. What do we do with the footage that was already shot and had the dead/hot pixels in the shots? Our DP, Benny Ontiveros had the answer!
Click on the Video Link below to follow Benny Ontiveros’ Apple SHAKE tutorial on how to get rid of the hot/white/dead pixels from your footage.
HOT / WHITE Pixel Fix on the JVC GY-HD110U/GY-HD200/GY-HD250 from MindWarp Entertainment on Vimeo.
That sucks, but glad you found a fix. It’s like when you find out your brand new puppy tries to chew up your tile floor, so you get him fixed…I’m an idiot.
Hi guys,
My brand new HM100 has developed a white/hot pixel on my CCD. Is there a way to fix it using advanced menus on this model as well, like there is one on HD110 etc?? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks…
From what I’ve heard from JVC, the pixel compensation cannot be done in-camera on the HM100. This function only exists on the GY-HD110U/GY-HD200/GY-HD250 and the brand new GY-HM700. I’ve heard that the procedure can be done, but requires service by JVC as it has to be “hooked up to a computer” to do it.
You may want to double check with JVC’s tech department on this. The camera should still be under warranty if you bought it just recently. Sorry I couldn’t be more help.
Hey Carlos..
ya that’s what JVC told me too. However was looking at fixing it without having to send in my camera since I purchased it from another country altogether, and it’s under local warranty, not international. But I never thought something this high end would go bad so soon. Thanks for your reply.
It was mentioned that this process can be done for the GY-HM700.
Does anyone know how to access the advanced menu?
Is the process the same once you are able to access this menu?
Thanks.
FOUND IT.
how you get access to the advanced menu on the GY-HM700.
1. While pressing DISPLAY button, turn on the camera power.
2. While pressing on FOCUS ASSIST button located on the side of the camera, press the MENU button to display ADVANCED MENU.
While shooting using JVC’s GY-HD110u the viewfinder’s colors becomes varied or inconsistent. Has anyone else experienced these problems?
Thanks for posting this, It worked on my JVC all I can say is,,bless you!!!
Does anyone know how to unlock the menus on a GY-HD100U ??? I get “Menu Locked” It will show the menu but without a cursor to advance/choose or change anything. Pulling out my hair and almost bald…any help would be much appreciated.
Bruce
I messed up the email…It’s
Thanks
BC
[...] If you have run into this Red Hot Pixel problem and need to recover your footage, then follow the SHAKE guide below. I used this exact process when I came across this problem with the JVC100U model and was able to recover the footage with minimal blur. [...]
Great way to fix the white pixel problem using Apple Shake! I experienced the the same problem with my old JVC GY DV 500. I won’t hope there’s a way to get rid of it during shooting the footage.
But does anyone know how to fix it in Adobe Premiere CS4 or Adobe After Effects?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Joerg