Continuing on with my Canon HV30 tests, this time I worked on creating a film noir look.  By locking the exposure on the camera, which prevents the electronic gain from introducing noise to the video, I’m able to capture shots with inky black backgrounds.  Now the issue is am I able to throw enough light on the subject to produce the desired effect?  In film noir, one wants to illuminate the subjects with hard focused light.  The goal is to produce stark black and white imagery and minimize intermediate grays.

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I’ve been contemplating using a Canon HV30 for my next film project.  One of my concerns with this camera is its low light performance.  I’d love to be able to recreate some of the great film noir style shots from the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead.  Director George Romero shot this movie on 35 mm black-and-white film.  Of course it’s not reasonable to expect a consumer video camera to perform like a 35mm film camera.  However this did peak my interest in how well the Canon HV30 performs in low light situations.

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