Hello,

I'm just wondering if the VX2100 and Panasonic DVX100 produce 16:9 the same way and is the final widescreen footage of similar quality and sharpness?

EDIT: Sorry for the wrong camera type in title.

Both cameras produce 16:9 by cropping the image, so theoretically they lose 25% vertical resolution in the process. However the comparision isn't quite that simple. The VX-2100, and all interlaced cameras, do some averaging of alternate scan lines. Imagine a thin horizontal line that's only one pixel wide. It could appear in the odd field but not the even field which would cause a flickering effect. By blending the fields it helps reduce this.

However if you set the DVX-100 to progressive mode there's no blending since all 480 lines are captured at the same time. This should produce better 16:9, but it would still be limited to 360 vertical lines out of a possible 480.

But neither camera has a high enough resolution CCD to provide all 480 lines in 16:9 mode.

Thanks for this answer, Boyd! Strange though that a cheaper camera like Panasonic GS400 does real 16:9 while more expensive cameras don't.