Canon HV20 Questions – Help Please!
 

Hey ppl,

I’ve been out of the ‘video camera scene’ for a while and have just recently become interested again due to the release of the Canon HV20. I have a few questions about it and would truly appreciate if someone (preferably someone that uses/owns a HV20) can answer my questions. Here they are:

1. Does the PAL model of the HV20 have 24P? Or is it 25P? (I really hope it’s 24P!…)

2. Is the CMOS sensor in the HV20 a true 16:9 CMOS sensor?

3. Can ‘Depth of Field’ be controlled well/at all with the manual features of the HV20?

4. I’ve read that the HV20 captures true progressive images, yet it’s 1080i? Is this at all similar to the Panasonic GS400’s ‘pseudo-progressive scan’, where both the positive and negative interlaced images were record to tape at the same time to give a progressive look?

5. I have a Panasonic GS400. Is the ‘pseudo-progressive scan’ of my GS400 just as good as the 24P/25P of the HV20? And are the manual controls of my GS400 superior to those of the HV20?

I’d truly appreciate some help in answering these questions!

Thanks in advance! Really appreciate it!!!

John:

1. Can't answer this one, I don't have PAL.

2. Yes. 1920 x 1080 CMOS.

3. Yes, but remember the keys to depth of field control is focal length of lens, size of image produced, and shooting aperature. With a tiny imager found on most video cameras, the depth of field control is very limited, whether at 1/3 or 1/4 inch in size. Thus, we go to 35mm adapters. I am using the Letus35. Check out this thread for particulars:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=91465

4. Don't know about GS400, but 24p is transported in a 1080i stream, and is supposed to be real progressive after edit processing. I pulled into a 24 fps time line in Vegas, and outputed to 23.967 fps file. Judge for yourself.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4UCEHLIF

5. Same answer as 4.

The PAL version has 25p not 24p

This is actually a good thing since its very easy to convert to 24p if thats what you want. Also it doesnt need IVTC and you can edit directly in a 50i timeline :)