Randall E. Drapeau
March 29th, 2007, 06:32 PM
I really wanted to get the Panny SD1.
I prefer SD cards to HDD and most certainly, tape. However, editing is still a problem and it seems that HDV is ahead of AVCHD in terms of picture quality.
So, yesterday morning I headed over to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku (Tokyo) and picked up the Canon HV20. It helped that my work place is practically next door.
Fortunately, I had some time in the afternoon so I charged up the battery and took it out into the streets of Nishi-Shinjuku and started shooting random stuff. I brought my monopod along and that helped reduce "the shakes."
I also shot some stuff later that night (around 10 p.m.).
I forgot to ask the guy at the store to see if he could get me a copy of the English manual (I have the English version on my computer) so, regretfully, all the footage was shot in full auto.
I'll let you be the judge. As I'm typing this it's uploading to RapidShare.com -- a one minute video at about 65 MB. My computer is a single core P4 2.8 gHz with a gig of ram. It plays the file fine in WMV. I had to dumb it down a little to get it to fit the RS 100 MB limit.
It does seem like it's 1440x1080 instead of 1920x1080. Must have made a wrong turn somewhere. Still, I have to say, I'm stoked. I love the high resolution. The colors seem a bit soft but not too bad. There's some blurring but I'm 99.9% sure this is pilot error.
This is the first time I've shot, edited and encoded HDV. All in all, not bad for a first effort, I think. I use Vegas 7.0 and, keeping it simple, it's just about as easy to edit HDV as regular DV. Pleasantly surprised by that. No other software involved -- just Vegas right out of the box.
This cam cost me 107,300 yen out the door so I guess that's around a 1000 USD. With about 25,000 yen added to the "Points Card" I was able to get an extra battery and an HDV tape and still have points left over.
Now, this isn't the best example I've seen of what this little cam can do, but I'm a happy camper. I figure with a little more study I can start shooting in the 24p mode and I'm really looking forward to seeing how that looks. I think this camera has a lot of potential.
While I hope this is my last tape-based camera, I'm really glad I bought it.
I couldn't help but include some photos of the "unpacking" ritual complete with a camera girl :)
OK, here's the link to the vid:
http://rapidshare.com/files/23418440/Shinjuku2.wmv.html
I prefer SD cards to HDD and most certainly, tape. However, editing is still a problem and it seems that HDV is ahead of AVCHD in terms of picture quality.
So, yesterday morning I headed over to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku (Tokyo) and picked up the Canon HV20. It helped that my work place is practically next door.
Fortunately, I had some time in the afternoon so I charged up the battery and took it out into the streets of Nishi-Shinjuku and started shooting random stuff. I brought my monopod along and that helped reduce "the shakes."
I also shot some stuff later that night (around 10 p.m.).
I forgot to ask the guy at the store to see if he could get me a copy of the English manual (I have the English version on my computer) so, regretfully, all the footage was shot in full auto.
I'll let you be the judge. As I'm typing this it's uploading to RapidShare.com -- a one minute video at about 65 MB. My computer is a single core P4 2.8 gHz with a gig of ram. It plays the file fine in WMV. I had to dumb it down a little to get it to fit the RS 100 MB limit.
It does seem like it's 1440x1080 instead of 1920x1080. Must have made a wrong turn somewhere. Still, I have to say, I'm stoked. I love the high resolution. The colors seem a bit soft but not too bad. There's some blurring but I'm 99.9% sure this is pilot error.
This is the first time I've shot, edited and encoded HDV. All in all, not bad for a first effort, I think. I use Vegas 7.0 and, keeping it simple, it's just about as easy to edit HDV as regular DV. Pleasantly surprised by that. No other software involved -- just Vegas right out of the box.
This cam cost me 107,300 yen out the door so I guess that's around a 1000 USD. With about 25,000 yen added to the "Points Card" I was able to get an extra battery and an HDV tape and still have points left over.
Now, this isn't the best example I've seen of what this little cam can do, but I'm a happy camper. I figure with a little more study I can start shooting in the 24p mode and I'm really looking forward to seeing how that looks. I think this camera has a lot of potential.
While I hope this is my last tape-based camera, I'm really glad I bought it.
I couldn't help but include some photos of the "unpacking" ritual complete with a camera girl :)
OK, here's the link to the vid:
http://rapidshare.com/files/23418440/Shinjuku2.wmv.html