While im new here, (1st post), and relatively new to the software beyond being blown away by how well it works (Win7 64 bit Premiere Pro with HDV HD content), i can say we will be completely retro-editing everything we've done with it (advertising, a few weddings, mostly events and music videos) for our sample videos and ALL future projects.
While a lot of noise is due to lighting/gain, there is also the issue of colors, codecs, sensors and how the camera handles all that, and nevermind what post can do to an otherwise acceptable sequence. Video is not film, and is rather finicky. While i have never had a complaint on noise or really anything in terms of noise/jumpy pixels with my XH A1 footage, i have always been rather personally disappointed with it in terms of random color noise (especially in deep blues and purples on the Canons), and i felt the 'soft sky' to reduce blue channel noise was not an acceptable solution. I have never shot anything with the XH A1 units without either a LOT of ambient light and stop it down/filter to nail exposure, or we use 4,000 to 5,000 watts of serious lighting with a 35mm adapter, so we have a wide range of filtration and apertures, rather than using ambient and minimal set lighting to expose, so our sharpness and depth of field and overall creativity is not limited. Neither camera has ever been used with the auto gain on or the gain set above -3 (the minimum setting, and the cleanest).
I played with the demo on 2 different sky shots and 3 very busy 'codec breaker' shots, and was amazed at how well it handled the noise and detail, with minimal loss of detail. We now capture direct to CF media, and although Neat Video does increase render times substantially, it is nearly the same render time as our capture+render times when we shot to HDV tapes, with much better results.
Our company is not big budget, in fact were a very recent upstart, offering HD at less-than SD prices, trying to break into the market, and from my own impressions as well as that of my editors (i direct and shoot mostly, but im the Jack-of-all-trades guy) its a very effective plug-in tool, and works flawlessly (which is a rarity in itself).
Between my own impressions and that of my editors evaluations of the results, we already feel it is an indispensable tool, and we feel it will likely be used on EVERY shot, unlike most other purchased effect.
To be perfectly honest, this is a product i feel should be MANDATORY in any workflow, and i wish i had come across it 2 years ago when we started up. Granted we are pretty low to mid-budget, but i am confident this is a tool that will help us transition to bigger projects, and indispensable in the long term.
my personal email is
p_raris@hotmail.com, email for any more review/opinion/information etc.