HF-S10/11/100 Full 1920 HD?
 

Sony often describes its camcorders as having full raster HD video.

In such camcorders, Sony's ClearVid array has 45-degree rotated pixels to increase the signal density. But, the fact remains, the chip is still a native 960 x 1080 chip.


Similarly, the Canon HF series are marketed as full HD cameras.

But, I'm trying to find out if the sensor is truly full HD, i.e. 1920 x 1080.

No, it's larger than that :)

The single CMOS image sensor in the Canon VIXIA HF S series is not native 1920 x 1080. When shooting video, it uses a native 3264 x 1840 pixel array, which is then down-sampled to 1920 x 1080 for recording. In still photo mode, it's 3264 x 2456 pixels.

Sony (and other camera manufacturers) describes its camcorders as having full raster HD video because that's exactly what they're recording... full raster HD video. Remember, it's the recorded signal that matters. The pixel density of the sensor itself is only one part of the total equation regarding image resolution. You can't determine that by isolating just one spec and disregarding all of the other components in the chain. You have to factor in a variety of other elements, such as the optical low-pass filter, the bit depth of the digital signal processor, and what kind of pixel offset technology the sensor block is using (of which, in the Sony three-chip cameras, the ClearVid array is one particular type). You can't discount these things by looking at only one specification; you won't learn anything from that and it won't give you any indication as to what the final recorded image resolution really is.

Why would it need to be? Or in other words, what difference would that make?