Digital camcorder newbie question

BrianD3

I'm thinking of getting a DV camcorder. I have been reading up a bit on them and one thing I find puzzling is resolution. My understanding is that a DV camcorder can produce video which will display at 720 X 480 pixels when played on a PC. Although this doesn't seem to be quoted by manufacturers who quote "lines" of resolution, with most DV camcorders having 500+ lines.

First of all is this understanding even vaguely correct.

Secondly, if a DV camcorder can produce video at 720 X 480, how come there are digital still cameras on the market now that can take videos at 800 X 600 (i.e. SVGA) Does this mean the digital camera would take better quality video than the camcorder - seems bizarre.

I haven't much of a clue about this sort of thing so any explanations/tips are welcome

BrianD3

SantaHoe

Well from my understanding...
PAL resolution is 720*576 pixels, and that's what you'll get when capturing to the PC/TV (because that's the standard resolution for TV's ect)... the camera will interpolate/interleave the image to this size from however many lines of resolution it can capture.
Lines of resolution can vary depending on the quality of the camera... obviously - the more lines of resolution, the better the image quality will be.
So you can't really go on final output size in this case.

I'm not sure about live footage taken from digital still cameras, but if we're to look at it technically - PAL runs at 24/25 frames per second with an image size of 720x576... now even capturing this as an uncompressed full-quality DV from your run-of-the-mill DV cam will cost you a few Gigs of storage for just a few minutes of footage.
The only way a still digital camera is going to pull this off is by having either a MASSIVE storage device... using an extremely high rate of jpeg compression (which will kill image quality anyway)... or by dropping frames (which won't provide a smooth playback).
Or a combination of the above.
I've got a video capture system on my own 4MP digital still camera and it's really not worth talking about.

Personally I'd go with a good quality DV cam.

Actually I'd like to see a sample of this 800x600 video capture just to satisfy my curiousity.
In the end, the only real judge is your own eye.

Anyway, hope you've found this helpfull... maybe it's not 100% accurate, but I believe it to be generaly true.

BrianD3

Santahoe, thanks for the info, things make a bit more sense now.

The digital still camera that I'm on about is the Konica Minolta Z2. It captures movies at various resolutions, one of them being 800 X 600 @ framerate of 15 fps. It also has a 640 X 480 @ 30 fps mode. Both with sound.

Most digital still cameras up until very recently captured at 320 X 240 at about 12-15 fps so this is quite impressive. A lot of cameras are now starting to offer a 640 x 480 mode, but AFAIK the camera I mentioned is the only one on the market which offers 800 X 600.

There's a review of the Z2 at Steve's Digicams here:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/z2.html

BrianD3

Apple_A_Day

For the home user Digital Video is so simple to work with you begin to appreciate the difficulties the VHS brigade faced. There is plenty of information and tutorials on the internet to get started with unfortunately most of it is based in the states so people get confused with PAL and NTSC resolution. Judging by your reference to 720x480 NTSC resolution you seem to be a victim of this. The 500 lines resolution mentioned is the maximum number of vertical lines the format can resolve, i.e. 500 vertical lines drawn on a card and filmed to fill a frame should be perceivable as individual lines and is a measure of the detail that can be resolved by the format.

Here is a list of common video resolutions:

720 X 576 (480 NTSC). Used by most DVD.
704 X 576 (480 NTSC). Used by some DVD
480 X 576 (480 NTSC). Used by SVCD
352 X 576 (480 NTSC). Used by DVD and China Video Disc (CVD). It is also the "official" SVHS resolution, determined by the creator of HS, JVC.
352 X 288 (240 NTSC). Used by VCD and DVD. It is also the "official" VHS resolution, determined by the creator of VHS, JVC.

The movies that most stills cameras produce are of poor quality due to the very high compression rates employed.

Have an Apple !!

blondie

for best resolution get a 3ccd dv cam
they can be expensive enough but def worth it
anything less produces home video looking footage which is fine for exactly that - home videos, but for anything more substantial just isnt on

the canon XL1s is a fine example

lodgepole

Originally posted by blondie
for best resolution get a 3ccd dv cam
they can be expensive enough but def worth it
anything less produces home video looking footage which is fine for exactly that - home videos, but for anything more substantial just isnt on

the canon XL1s is a fine example

The Panasonic AGDVX100 is cheaper than the Canon and even cheaper if you buy it in the US (just make sure to buy a PAL model). I know someone who bought one in New York for under €2000. It's a better camera too.