Marty Cerven
Contributor
Yes James with the hero 2 it does get a bit grainier as all in camera noise reduction is also turned off, this is the same with the 3 black but it does much better in lower light overall so its not as noticeable. I noticed a bit more grain shooting 1080p60 vs 30p modes in the black but still not as much as what the hero 2 does in any modes with lower light levels.
A great plugin to use for post noise reduction is neat video and this will even make what looks pretty noisy on the 2 look better then the regular MP4 file without pro tune. The benefit of pt disabling sharpening and noise reduction is that sharpening can't be undone but is very easy to add in post. Noise reduction will lose some detail so by not having it in the original file you will have more detail on shots where no noise reduction is needed. If you do need to reduce the noise having complete control over it in post let's you decide how much is needed so you should be able to find a good balance between the 2.
Overall the 3 black has not much noise in good to average light and it only starts to show up in pretty poor light levels. The hero 2 does show it in pro tune in even pretty good light so its something you will need to add to the workflow if using the hero underwater with pro tune. With the 3 you can get away without noise reduction in most cases and even when I have used it its only a fairly subtle change.
A great plugin to use for post noise reduction is neat video and this will even make what looks pretty noisy on the 2 look better then the regular MP4 file without pro tune. The benefit of pt disabling sharpening and noise reduction is that sharpening can't be undone but is very easy to add in post. Noise reduction will lose some detail so by not having it in the original file you will have more detail on shots where no noise reduction is needed. If you do need to reduce the noise having complete control over it in post let's you decide how much is needed so you should be able to find a good balance between the 2.
Overall the 3 black has not much noise in good to average light and it only starts to show up in pretty poor light levels. The hero 2 does show it in pro tune in even pretty good light so its something you will need to add to the workflow if using the hero underwater with pro tune. With the 3 you can get away without noise reduction in most cases and even when I have used it its only a fairly subtle change.
