Digital Zoom Option at DVinfo.net

Holly Rognan · October 18th, 2006, 01:09 PM

I understand that digital zoom degrades quality and it is no substitute for an optical zoom, however, wouldn't it be possible to do a high quality digital zoom with an HD camcorder, during SD recording? Wouldn't it be possible to maintain quality and crisspness of SD without sacrificing the resolution?

It is easy enough to crop HDV footage for better framing in SD, without having digital artifacts and resolution loss, so wouldn't a digital zoom be a decent option for wildlife filming in sd? It would allow an 80x zoom with no loss in quality in theory. All of the extra pixels are currently being downsampled anyway, can't they be utilized for this?

Forgive me if I am missing something but it seems like a feature that a few people would desire and seems like it would be easily implemented.

Holly Rognan · October 19th, 2006, 04:28 PM

No one has a response? Is it a silly question, or is it already being implemented in some of the consumer hdv camcorders?

Chris Hurd · October 19th, 2006, 04:37 PM

It's not a silly question, Holly, but the fact is that such a feature simply isn't available on the XH series camcorders. The Sony V1U has an extended zoom feature, but not the Canon XH G1 or A1.

October 18th, 2006, 01:09 PM	#1
Holly Rognan Major Player Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Coalville America Posts: 244	Digital Zoom Option I understand that digital zoom degrades quality and it is no substitute for an optical zoom, however, wouldn't it be possible to do a high quality digital zoom with an HD camcorder, during SD recording? Wouldn't it be possible to maintain quality and crisspness of SD without sacrificing the resolution? It is easy enough to crop HDV footage for better framing in SD, without having digital artifacts and resolution loss, so wouldn't a digital zoom be a decent option for wildlife filming in sd? It would allow an 80x zoom with no loss in quality in theory. All of the extra pixels are currently being downsampled anyway, can't they be utilized for this? Forgive me if I am missing something but it seems like a feature that a few people would desire and seems like it would be easily implemented.

October 19th, 2006, 04:37 PM	#3
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,366 Images: 513	It's not a silly question, Holly, but the fact is that such a feature simply isn't available on the XH series camcorders. The Sony V1U has an extended zoom feature, but not the Canon XH G1 or A1. __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

October 19th, 2006, 04:28 PM	#2
Holly Rognan Major Player Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Coalville America Posts: 244	No one has a response? Is it a silly question, or is it already being implemented in some of the consumer hdv camcorders?