HD Camera?

Energize · 25 Feb 2006 at 22:06

Im looking for a hd camera for my dad can anyone reccomend one? It must use digital media though, not old dv.

philio16 · 25 Feb 2006 at 22:23

Why not DV? It's fine for HD content if I remember reading correctly....(please correct me if I am wrong...)

Dangerous · 25 Feb 2006 at 23:06

There is a good few cheap HDV cameras about starting from about £1000 IIRC, have a look at the Sony HDR-HC1E.

I have the Sony HVR-Z1E and LOVE it but its maybe too expensive.

m3csl2004 · 26 Feb 2006 at 00:42

HDR-HC1E - thats the 1

- image stabilizer is soo good using no hd - and as mentioned it can shoot hd

Space Cowboy · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:20

Just FYI, DV is Digital.

Energize · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:29

philio16 said:
Why not DV? It's fine for HD content if I remember reading correctly....(please correct me if I am wrong...)

I was told that because dv is on tape, that you would have to go trough the whole tape of video to transfer it to pc instead of just ripping it in a matter of mins from a dvd or memory stick. Then Id have to transcode it again afterwards so it didnt take up tons of space. I was also told that they only have a capacity of one hour.

Dangerous · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:31

Energize said:
I was told that because dv is on tape, that you would have to go trough the whole tape of video to transfer it to pc instead of just ripping it in a matter of mins from a dvd or memory stick. I was also told that they only have a capacity of one hour.

You still will have too with HD camera as well and yep 63mins or so

Energize · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:32

Dangerous said:
You still will have too with HD camera as well and yep 63mins or so

Surely they sell hd camera with hard drives? Theres plenty of normal camera that use sd cards and compress it to mpeg4..

Dangerous · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:33

Energize said:
Surely they sell hd camera with hard drives? Theres plenty of normal camera that use sd cards.

Yep but they run out of space very quickly and cant really pop another HDD in there.

Energize · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:37

Why would space matter when you can transfer the data quickly to the pc with firewire and then just overwrite it? If they use mpeg 2/4 compression it would have much more capacity than dv would.

Dangerous · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:41

Energize said:
Why would space matter when you can transfer the data quickly to the pc with firewire and then just overwrite it? If they use mpeg 2/4 compression it would have much more capacity than dv would.

When your out and about you cant spend 15 mins copying files across you need to be ready to change media quickly.

Do you know full 1080i HD footage per hour is about 50GB?

Energize · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:44

If you used mpeg 2 compression at avg 20mbits vrb which is what hd-dvd uses iirc, thats approx 120mb per min which is about 7.2gb per hour. With mpeg 4 compression 5 mbits looks almost perfect. hd-dvds only have a capcity of 30gb yet they can fit 2 hours of 1080p on them.

Dangerous · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:50

Energize said:
If you used mpeg 2 compression at 20mbits which is what hd-dvd uses iirc, thats approx 120mb per min which is about 7.2gb per hour. With mpeg 4 compression 5 mbits looks almost perfect. hd-dvds only have a capcity of 30gb yet they can fit 2 hours of 1080p on them.

When I capture I want to capture in full res then down size it at editing if needed.

Energize · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:51

Dangerous said:
When I capture I want to capture in full res then down size it at editing if needed.

It would be captured in full res. Why wouldnt it?

Dangerous · 26 Feb 2006 at 21:53

Energize said:
It would be captured in full res. Why wouldnt it?

P and I are different

Energize · 27 Feb 2006 at 01:28

Dangerous said:
P and I are different

Come to think of it doesnt hdv use mpeg-2 encoding? So surely youd still have the same problem.

Dangerous · 27 Feb 2006 at 10:12

Energize said:
Come to think of it doesnt hdv use mpeg-2 encoding? So surely youd still have the same problem.

What you mean? I shoot in 1080i using HDV tapes then edit format in Premiere?

For PC use I use P format and for telly I use 1080i

Energize · 28 Feb 2006 at 00:11

Dangerous said:
What you mean? I shoot in 1080i using HDV tapes then edit format in Premiere?

For PC use I use P format and for telly I use 1080i

I thought you were talking about the P and I frames used in mpeg encoding.

So Now I go back to asking why wouldnt 1080i data on a hard drive encoded in mpeg 2/4 be recorded at the full res of 1920x540?

Dangerous · 28 Feb 2006 at 00:23

Energize said:
I thought you were talking about the P and I frames used in mpeg encoding.

So Now I go back to asking why wouldnt data on a hard drive encoded in mpeg 2/4 be recorded in full res?

If you start to record in P you are throwing about 50% of your frame rate.

Hard drive HD cameras are pointless unless you only want to record 2-3 hours then return home. Me on the other hand record 5+ hours of footage on HDV tapes means I dont have to return to PC and wait for it to download.

If you are recording in 1080p you capture in 24/25fps (PAL) or 30fps (NTSC) 1080i is double that

Energize · 28 Feb 2006 at 00:31

Dangerous said:
If you start to record in P you are throwing about 50% of your frame rate.

Hard drive HD cameras are pointless unless you only want to record 2-3 hours then return home. Me on the other hand record 5+ hours of footage on HDV tapes means I dont have to return to PC and wait for it to download.

If you are recording in 1080p you capture in 24/25fps (PAL) or 30fps (NTSC) 1080i is double that

Yes but you are still recording in full res, wheras interlaced you are only recording @ 1920x540 throwing away half the horizontal res and deinterlacing unavoidably causes artifacts.