DVX or HD?
 

Hi,

I'm going to be making music vids for MTV and a comedy sketch show for Channel 4 in the UK. I would like to be able to zoom in and pan up/down/left/right in post production, without compromising pic quality/detail. I would rather do this on DVX but I don't know if the res is going to allow me to zoom much without compromising pic quality on a tv. Do I need DVX100 or HD..

Cheers for any input.

Thanks,

Matt

If you're wanting 24p (or 25p), the camera doesn't matter; you're going to get that kind of strobe in pans and tilts. The number of motion samples per second is what does it, not the spatial resolution. It's a process of learning to work with the framerate.

You can work in 50i and not have the strobe, but if you convert, the strobe will be there as if you had shot in 24p/25p all along.

If I understand Matt's question, he's not worried about the stobing during pans and tilts, but about whether SD video has enough resolution to allow zooming, pan and scan during editing. I don't have any experience with the DVX, but it seems that pixel count would be very important for the kind of thing you want to do, so having some sort of HD camera would make a big difference. Any kind of zooming with SD video is going to give you a soft image.

Oh, sorry -- misunderstood.

SD definitely would not have resolution to allow much of that. A little, but not a whole lot.

BUT . . .

I'd still point out that the same thing applies re: 24p. If you zoom in and do a pan/tilt, you need to obey the rules of 24p or you'll still get the strobe.

If you want to pan around the image, start with as large an image as possible. HD or HDV.

First off, what will do the pan and scan? Dedicated hardware or Avid/FCP? A sub-pixel sampling bit of software such as AfterEffects and Shake will do well, but pan/scan in your NLE will need care and long render times. You may need a workflow that does a pre-edit before comping in AE/Shake.

Secondly, are you shooting SD or HD? The DVX is SD DV - DV has low colour resolution. You want as much rez as you can get if you're doing pan and scan.

I shoot on a Z1, but work with footage from both Z1 and HDX.

IMHO, you should look at the HDX200. The HD is sharper and has better scope for post production than HDV unless you really know what you want.

HDV's an interesting medium for downsampled SD, but crop a SD hole in HDV footage, and it's softer than DV. Maybe the Canon has better optics, but the HDV's lack of colour resolution might bite back.

Hi Matt. Please don't post duplicate threads in different forums, it's against DVinfo policy. I've merged both threads together here. Thanks for your understanding; see the following for more info on our policies:

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Hi,

Wow thanks for all the in depth replies. And Sorry Boyd for duplicating it.

I will be using Vegas (but I can use FCP if necessary). The reason I am wanting to have the option to zoom + pan during editing is because it's smoother, non-destructive, and I can get it more perfect that doing it whilst filming.

Cheers for the recommendation, Matt Daviss- I'll look into the HDX200. A few questions:

1. How far do you think you can you zoom in to HD, without loosing detail on a tv screen?
2. I was going to get a G35 but it won't fit the HDX200. Are there any good adapters to fit it? :p
3. Will Vegas handle HD footage? I can use FCP if necessary. My current system specs are:

PC1: AMD 3000fx, 1.5GB RAM, a few 7200rpm 200GB HDs
PC2: P4 2.4GHZ, 1GB RAM, a few 7200rpm 200GB HDs
MAC: DUAL G5 1.8GHZ, 3.5GB RAM, 160GB INTERNAL HD (contains OS X 10.3.9), 320GB INTERNAL HD (full), 320GB FIREWIRE400 HD (full)

Thanks :)

Vegas has EXCELLENT pan/crop tools and is well-integrated with HDV. It, however, doesn't handle the DVCPRO-HD from the HVX200 natively; you'll need to get additional software to work with it in Vegas.