The111 1 #1 May 5, 2005 I am trying to decide between several different camcorder models, and am wondering how much the video resolution should play into my decision. I really have no finite grasp on how big of a difference there is between 690k and 2050k pixels (HC42 vs HC90). I know one is a lot better, but for all I know the 690k may look great and be plenty good enough for me. How can I get an idea of how videos at these resolutions look? Also, the PC1000 says 670k "x3" because of the 3 sensors (which I'll admit I don't fully understand the benefit of)... does that mean it ends up looking like 2MP, or is that spec misleading? (I would probably know the answer to this if I fully understood the whole 3 sensor thing). Are there any good websites with this kind of info out there? I searched these forums and did a lot of Google searches and can't seem to find any primers on basics like resolution, and the whole 3 sensor thing I still don't fully understand. Thanks.www.WingsuitPhotos.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IvanPeters 0 #2 May 6, 2005 I'm not sure that this is 100% technically accurate, but I believe the general idea goes something like this: Video resolution doesn't change. There are some small variations in the number of lines generated by different cameras but the general idea is that an NTSC image is 720x480. That's about 350k pixels. Cameras with higher resolution CCD's use the extra resolution to better calculate the colour values for each pixel. In theory, the higher the resolution, the better the calculation. I've not seen any footage from any of the current sub-megapixel cameras but I've always been able to see a quality difference between the older ones (say a PC-101) and a megapixel camera (like the PC-120). But there is more to it than just the CCD resolution so I would expect the current crop of sub-megapixel cameras to be better than the 101. I have found it harder to see a difference between a one megapixel camera and a two megapixel camera (like my TRV-60). I believe that if you want to do widescreen without loss of quality then you need a 2 megapixel CCD as it has the spare capacty to handle the changed form factor. The 3 CCD camera has one CCD dedicated to each colour (red, green and blue) so it doesn't need all that extra resolution to do the calculations. Ivan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mccordia 74 #3 May 12, 2005 So long story short...the resolution is always the same....no matter what type of camera...whenever you record to standard mini-DV...your end signal will have the same resolution... the lenses/ccd only determine the sharpness/quality of that final image... Unless you really want to go all out, and buy a Sony HDV (1440x768 25 fps PAL widescreen resolution..) or Panasonic HD camera...JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StefB 0 #4 May 12, 2005 Do you shop for freefallvideo? Then check the forums for people with experience with the PC1000 3CCD camera. Some newer Sony 3CCD cameras had serious trouble with image shaking in freefall which makes the 3CCD cameras useless for freefallvideo - unfortunately because they produce very nice video pictures... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
