Again, pardon the redundancy if this has been covered (I couldn't find it with a search, or in Panasonic's online lit):

Are there any comparisons posted of full-res frames of the same scene shot at 1080i vs 720? The infamous 4-way shootout only shows 1080. Since there's some question about pixel shifting and other electronic tricks to get to 1080, I'm wondering if 720 might be slightly lower-res, but still perceptually look better. (i.e., less resolution, but apparently crisper at that res)?

If not, if someone's willing to do it -- exporting frames to an uncompressed TIFF or other non-compressing format, that would be ~really~ nice to see.

This has already been discussed to death, and hopefully doesn't need to come back to life.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=60226

thanks... didn't have quite the right combination of words in my search to find it.

And if you dare read through 11 agonizing pages, there's more here:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=45609

The simplest thing I can say is that there is a slight res increase in 1080 mode, but more significantly there are less compression artifacts in 1080 mode as well. Although rest assured that 720 looks gorgeous itself, and upres'd in post to 1080 is quite nice too.

Actually, I just made it through the first thread's five pages... perhaps I should've searched "stick a fork in it." <g>

As an RIT grad, I've grown used to the endless molar-gnashing of the micro-slice-and-dice crowd. I was more interested in a couple of representative frames, non-jpeg, period, since I don't yet own the camera and wanted to be more up-to-speed when it arrives. (I learned about 30 years ago that 90% of people will think a lower-res, contrasty image is sharper than a higher-res, lower-contrast one. Perception's what I'm interested in, more than an extra 10 TVL.)

Thanks, by the way, for all the informative posts. Big help to those of us a few steps behind y'all.

I was more interested in a couple of representative frames, non-jpeg, period, since I don't yet own the camera and wanted to be more up-to-speed when it arrives.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?p=428473&postcount=9

Tis the best I'll do at this point. Jpegs in Highest quality do fine for this comparison, in my opinion. ;)

Just as a piece of anecdotal information, when I hook the HVX up to my 34" Sony XBR960 CRT HDTV and toggle between 720 and 1080 there is a noticeable improvement in image quality. But keep in mind this is just the component out from the camera. I imagine if you are thinking of a theatrical presentation, the benefits of the 1080 would be more apparent. Though a 720 blow-up would still look great, I'm sure.

Peter