Memory Stick for V1U
 

Can anyone recommend a memory stick that is compatible with the V1U? All the cards I seem to find have the MAGICGATE coding which if I understand right will not work. Also is it any better quality than the stills I get off the video, which seem good. Thanks Garry

I purchased a 4 gig Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo MagicGate Mk 2 for my V1 and it seemed to work fine. I never wound up taking any pictures with it so I can't speak to the comparative quality. I used it to store camera settings. I no longer have the V1 so I can't check photo quality for you.

I have an FX7, and your post prompted me to have a look at the quality of the still images, which I had not done before.

Here is an image unloaded directly from the memorystick (1440x810): http://wildlifehealth.tennessee.edu/...memorycard.jpg

Comparing with the equivalent shot extracted from the video clip is somewhat apples and oranges, as the FX7 records 1440x1080 non-square pixels and interlaced (whereas the V1 could be set to progressive). So the image that follows was obtained by loading the raw video into Virtualdub, applying a smart deinterlace filter, and resizing to 1920 x 1080: http://wildlifehealth.tennessee.edu/video/fx7_tape.jpg

My conclusion - the version from tape has better resolution and also much lower noise! (I attribute the low noise to the smoothing effect of combining two fields during the deinterlace.)

Edit: I suppose a fairer comparison would use a moving subject, as taped footage of that would not deinterlace as cleanly. But with the V1 in progressive mode, you should be sweet!

Video Frame Capture
 

Thanks Graham! Well, It looks like a memory stick photo does not give any advantage over capturing a still from video. Thanks alot for the comparison!
Garry