Are these TRUE HD?

Dee Joslin · October 28th, 2006, 12:17 PM

And here's a real surprise. I bought my wife a Canon HV10. I have the JVC HD110. That little HDV camcorder spits out a great 1080i picture. It's 1920X1080 CMOS sensor is on par or better than with Sony HDV like the FX-1. Actually I like the Canon picture better than the Sony.

I was very surprised (although the reviews are relatively good) when I hooked it up to a HDTV and pushed play. Not any noise to speak of. And some manual control is available too.

Some of these sub $1500 camcorders are putting out pretty good HDV material.

Peter Ferling · October 31st, 2006, 03:17 PM

I bought an HC1 to test the waters. I've used it on about four professional shoots now. I will continue to do so until I get something with better manual controls, (either a Canon A1 or the Sony V1U).

It's not a professional camcorder, but the image quality is worth it.

When viewed on my Sony Bravia LCD, the image quality is just as good or exceeds that of the Hi-Def channels I get with my cable service. In my experience it is HD.

Let me add to this, it's possible some of the training jobs I've done with this camera will still be viewed ten years from now, and I'm certain it will hold up to whatever monitor it is viewed from.

David Tamés · October 31st, 2006, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laurence Kingston

I have the Sony HVR-A1 and in good light it looks almost the same as the FX1 or Z1. The FX1 looks quite a bit better in low light, but you can work around that.

Laurence is so very right here, and I have shot several test images to demonstrate there is very little practical difference (except in low light) between the little A1 and the larger FX1/Z1. The only two things I don't like about the A1 is poor low-light performance and no true 24P. But given how small and light it is, it's a champ in it's class. No fair comparing it to more expensive cameras. That's another game all together.

Thomas Smet · October 31st, 2006, 04:44 PM

I was recently helping out a friend who uses a SONY DSR-500 2/3" chip DVCAM camera who broke his leg and I spent some time to compare his camera with my sad little SONY HC1. I wanted to do this because most people have been comparing 1/3" DV to 1/3" HDV and I wanted to see what a very highend SD camera would do compared to HDV. Well I can say that even though the DSR-500 is clearly a much better camera in terms of optics and pretty much everything else, my little HC1 beat the crap out of it in terms of detail. Even when I scaled down to SD resolution the HC1 just blew away what the DSR-500 could do. My friend said the DSR-500 looked like it handled contrasts better but then again we were comparing a 1/3" single chip with very bad controls to a 2/3" 3 chip camera. A good HDV camera with great chips and great optics will easily blow away even the most high end SD cameras. I even think my HC1 beat the pants off of the high end SD camera and that is pretty much the bottom of the pile of HDV.

Yes my friend has better controls and for the most part will shoot better material due to the way the camera handles but if shot right the HC1 in the right environment will blow it away.

Just to note this test was done indoors and not in bright sunlight where HDV will always look good. I did this indoors because I figured the DSR-500 would have had the edge on an indoor shoot but it still fell way behind.

October 28th, 2006, 12:17 PM	#16
Dee Joslin Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: Scranton, PA. Posts: 91	And here's a real surprise. I bought my wife a Canon HV10. I have the JVC HD110. That little HDV camcorder spits out a great 1080i picture. It's 1920X1080 CMOS sensor is on par or better than with Sony HDV like the FX-1. Actually I like the Canon picture better than the Sony. I was very surprised (although the reviews are relatively good) when I hooked it up to a HDTV and pushed play. Not any noise to speak of. And some manual control is available too. Some of these sub $1500 camcorders are putting out pretty good HDV material.

October 31st, 2006, 03:17 PM	#17
Peter Ferling Trustee Join Date: May 2005 Location: Wyomissing, PA Posts: 1,141 Images: 57	I bought an HC1 to test the waters. I've used it on about four professional shoots now. I will continue to do so until I get something with better manual controls, (either a Canon A1 or the Sony V1U). It's not a professional camcorder, but the image quality is worth it. When viewed on my Sony Bravia LCD, the image quality is just as good or exceeds that of the Hi-Def channels I get with my cable service. In my experience it is HD. Let me add to this, it's possible some of the training jobs I've done with this camera will still be viewed ten years from now, and I'm certain it will hold up to whatever monitor it is viewed from.

October 31st, 2006, 04:44 PM	#19
Thomas Smet Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Milwaukee, WI Posts: 1,719	I was recently helping out a friend who uses a SONY DSR-500 2/3" chip DVCAM camera who broke his leg and I spent some time to compare his camera with my sad little SONY HC1. I wanted to do this because most people have been comparing 1/3" DV to 1/3" HDV and I wanted to see what a very highend SD camera would do compared to HDV. Well I can say that even though the DSR-500 is clearly a much better camera in terms of optics and pretty much everything else, my little HC1 beat the crap out of it in terms of detail. Even when I scaled down to SD resolution the HC1 just blew away what the DSR-500 could do. My friend said the DSR-500 looked like it handled contrasts better but then again we were comparing a 1/3" single chip with very bad controls to a 2/3" 3 chip camera. A good HDV camera with great chips and great optics will easily blow away even the most high end SD cameras. I even think my HC1 beat the pants off of the high end SD camera and that is pretty much the bottom of the pile of HDV. Yes my friend has better controls and for the most part will shoot better material due to the way the camera handles but if shot right the HC1 in the right environment will blow it away. Just to note this test was done indoors and not in bright sunlight where HDV will always look good. I did this indoors because I figured the DSR-500 would have had the edge on an indoor shoot but it still fell way behind.