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Not bad at all except on 1 main point: look at the videos of the girl, the autofocus is very poor and seems to work less well compared to the recent other HD consumer/prosumer cameras. On the japanese market this camera is advertised as the new HD reference on the high level of the 'consumer market': this non pro ' marketing segment' needs automatisms like the autofocus... Need to wait for a HD8?... |
Looking at the 174MB file on the first few clips you can easily see that compared to the HC7 and the HV20 the resolution looks identical so this proves that pixel shifting really works, while the colors look incredible and very natural, much better than the samples of the HC7 and the HV20 that I saw so far but once you see the cat, the motion looks a bit worse than the competition. When it gets to the duck the bit rate dips to just below 8mbps for some strange reason. Even if you think the cat footage is very good, when you view the model, it becomes a little pixilated.
I thought the pixilation was the camcorders fault but when you see the bit rate dip below 8mbps in one of the clips, it must be because of the software that they use to edit it with. “Animated picture sample. With smart rendering mode of attachment software "PowerDirector 5 NE Express" you could see the fluctuation of chroma level while cutting and fold, re-rendering you did” In the 34.5MB file the pixilation is gone and that was in fact a raw M2T file. Basically the 174MB file is not fully RAW. Any opinions? Bruno Donnet, You can’t just use that as an example on how good or bad the auto focusing really is. Have you downloaded the 174MB file? The auto focus on some of the motion shots isn’t that bad. Anyway the camcorder does have a focusing ring around the lens so you are able to manually focus it yourself instead of constantly relying on the camcorder. |
I am confused and disappointed about this cam being interlaced. I read somewhere that the image is captured in progressive mode and later interlaced. Now JVC says "That's native 1920x1080i resolution that is maintained all the way from the lens and CCD". So is it no longer captured in progressive? Why does it matter? I was hoping that it would be possibles to convert it to progressive on a computer with better results than covering interlaced video captured in interlaced mode. While the cam output is high resolution this resolutions is wasted when watching on computer LCD monitor. I guess this is "OK" since this resolution is as good as it can get in under $2000.
I am also confused why there coexist these two recording modes, FHD and 1440CBR. Isn't this just 1440CBR cam and FHD is really just an extrapolated resolution? If I am not incorrect years back the HD1/10 when claimed as 720p some argued that the 720p detail isn't relay there. Saying that I am suspicious about the FHD recording mode... I am assuming that when a video recorded in any of the 3 modes is deinterlaced to 720p, the details, latitude and color would be by generations better than those produced by HD10. Any opinions? |
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Sure, the manual focus ring and the 'AF assit' function help to have a perfect focus, but this camera is targeted to be used by 'prosumers' and not professionals: good quality and automatism are the main line to follow, manual features are required too but only as 'options' (and sometimes, as 'potential options' that will be used 1 time in the life...). I've paid attention to something-else: if you check the focus of the none moving scenes, you will see that the center of the picture is OK but not the left or right sides (considering the objects at the same distance). It's not clear for me if the cause is the optics or the compression rules used by the Everio HD. I agree with you that the color and resolution are very good despite the small size of the sensors and this Everio HD 3CCD seems wonderfull on the paper, but right now, I'm a little disappointed and I'm waiting for more reviews/tests and more real footages. |
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There are way to many situations you can get your self into where a focusing ring will be much better than having the camcorder focus itself because you’re the one who decides what should be in focus. Using a Z1u to video tape certain events for a TV station with the focusing ring have gotten my footage to be excellent. I experimented once for several seconds videotaping a speaker walking back and forth because I was getting tired holding the camcorder with one hand and I noticed that the camcorder had a lot of trouble focusing just on the face. My stock footage that I shot in the Azores nearly 2 year ago always had excellent focus because of the focusing ring of the HC1. Their will be situations where a focusing ring must be used as well as situations where auto focusing much be used and having both is a very good thing. |
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For the moment, after having watched the first videos of this Everio HD, I consider that its focus must be piloted 100% of the time in manual mode: that's not any more the same story than to say 'having both', espacially for a non professional guy like me... |
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but the problem is that it seems that the autofocus of this Everio HD is simply untrustable... Personally I would like to think that JVC will undoubtably field a solid contender in this highly contested market. I look forward to a full production model in the hands of a professional to provide me with a much more solid evaluation of this camera. |
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We're in April- last I read it was supposed to be released this month- any further info floating around on this cams release date?
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Circuit City shows them in stock. And for $200 off. And today only another 10% off. So tempting!!!!!!!!!
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/JVC-H...oductDetail.do |
Steve, the first user feedback on this forum is here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=91005 Pat |
Thanks for the link- not so good news over there- posted my sad response as well.
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My first day playing with HD7
I had this camcorder few hours now and shot about 1 hour of test footage with it, mainly bright daylight.
I was very enthusiastic about it, now slightly disappointed. My first impression is that optical image stabilization is totally useless, makes things worse at 7-10x. When OIS is off the shake is smooth "natural", when it is on it becomes very erratic. It is obvious this camera can not be used without tripod! Shame on you JVC! At wide end OIS may help a little, but not sure. I just switched it off. The files have extension *.TOD. There is a beautiful promo sample video on camcorder, it looks superb, so it is capable to deliver in controlled environment. The promo video has extension *.TPD. Both can be played with VideoLAN or Media Player Classic without any problems, just associate the file extension. I did install the SW pack that came with camera, but had no time to play with it. When you plug the camera into PC it appears as two removable drives, one for HDD and one for SD card. You can record video on HDD or SD - at least there is a menupoint to select SD as target, but I don't have an SD card right now. It took me a little over a minute per gigabyte (70 seconds) to copy multiple clips I captured (that is without USB hubs, straight into PC to second empty HDD). It took me 11.5 minutes to copy 9.5 GBs of footage (13.95MBs per sec). The build quality is great, the camera looks sweet. When on manual focus and tripod the image is sharp, but not razor sharp. One thing that worries me is, but I assume t is the way VLC and MPC play the clip, is that it appears interlaced. When I pan, I can see the comb lines on vertical edges. Probably the old codec does not decode this new format properly. I will try the bundled SW and let you know how that looks. The photo capability is nothing great, it produces files in the range of 600-800 KBs, resolution is the same as the video, quality is just like any frame of video, so I think I will not use it much (and I was not expecting to). The lens exhibits pretty bad purple CA (tree branches against sky) several pixels wide, thin branches become blue. I was expecting greater lens from all that marketing blurb about Fujinon and broadcast bla-bla... Just to demonstrate the OIS behaviour I posted an unaltered TOD file direct from camcorder, it has extension *.TOD. VLC and MPC play it fine, but I have CCCP installed (Combined Community Codec Pack) - maybe that is what handles it, don't know. Windows Media Player also playes them, but stopping after few frames here and there. This was at 10x zoom, OIS on, me stable, both hands on camcorder, holding my breath (when I did not speak). I never seen this bad stabilization on any of my previous cameras, even electronic stabilization is better than this. OIS alone is making me wonder if I should keep the camcorder as occasionally I do shoot handheld... The link (hope it will show fine in the post): http://download_dot_yousendit_dot_com/E2567A90053A6C42 I checked my account and it said it has about 50 downloads left, so hurry and good luck. The service wants you to register (for free) before you can download anything... Later I will post indoor lower light sample videos, but not unrealistically low light, just enough for reading at my desk. |
Proper link
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More samples
Please note this is not "proper" testing I just was eager to play with camcorder and see quickly what it has to offer. I am sure few days down the road, once I figured all tricks and read the manual I will be able to produce better quality footage.
Additional impressions. The battery does not last too long. I fully charged it for about 6 hours before starting to shoot and after I shot an hour and copied over to PC it was in red and showed 10% capacity left... Sure, I was playing a lot with controls, going through menu, etc. But in best case I believe it will last for two hours. This is the BN-VF815U type that shipped with cam, 1460 mAh, Li-ion. The cam is powered from stand-by state by opening the LCD sreen or pulling back the EVF. As soon as you close the LCD or push viewfinder back - it powers itslef down. This is forcing you to use one of these displays, which drain about the same amount of energy, so you cannot extended the battery life when shooting stationary scene from a tripod by closing the LCD. Not good. At the same time I like the fact that as soon as I flip open the LCD the cam powers up and is ready to shoot within a second or two! The power supply plug into cam is a proprietary type, so you will have to buy a JVC PSU if you need an extra one. The viewfinder will not angle, it only goes straight back, so only can shoot from eye level with EVF. The cam has all manual controls I wanted, very nice, menu is easy to navigate, a lot of buttons, all easily accessible (I tried Canon HV20 and could not push any of the important buttons without repositioning my hand). The only function I could not locate so far is the exposure lock. There is this Bright control, which controls the gain, but it also drifts automatically when the overal brightness changes, it just remains let's say -2 steps below the "proper" exposure, whatever the cam thinks it is based on overal brightness. All sample videos are straight from camcorder, no editing or conversions. The files will be available for 7 days or 100 downloads. Video shot from tripod, manual focus, OIS off, 10x zoom, the shake in beginning and the end is when I pressed the REC button, this is a follow up to my previous video shot handheld (turtles): http://download.yousendit.com/E232BCD634C9B909 Flower, same as above, in the shade of house late afternoon, see the out of focus areas, nice: http://download.yousendit.com/9421FD010316A693 I have a lot more samples to post, but the upload is real slow because I only have the slowest free account on yousendit... Will post some more tomorrow. So the question in my mind right now is: should I keep it or return? I have two weeks to find the answer. I like a lot this camera, but was expecting more from "pro" lens. The sensor is good enough. Assuming I can prove that it is in fact progressive. On another post someone mentioned that this camcorder is 1080i not 1080p. I read it differently. I think based on info I could gather that the progressive frame is devided into two halves to be recorded in an interlaced way for compatibility issues. But the editing software should be able to reconstruct the progressive image without any loss or conversion. I think i vs p would be the thing that will push in one direction or other. I will never accept an interlaced HD cam, I would rather wait. Good night, Tibor |
I have not seen a JVC camera with good battery life. The DV500 sucks near 20W, the GY-DV300 doesn't last 2 hours on a 428 battery, the HD100 & Later don't last 50min on a JVC battery.
This 815U battery, is it the same mount as the 428/438 batteries? or is it a smaller even more consumerish mount battery. |
http://www.jvc.com/presentations/eve...lid=MPEverioHD
"The 1920x1080i picture you get at the camera is maintained for recording, with no conversion to degrade the full native resolution." So the native resolution is no longer P but I? I doubt you can de-interlace it with no loss in resolution but you got plenty to waste. |
HD7 i vs p
Peter, I don't know for sure. I need to spend few hours with different editing SW to find this out. First to shoot proper test footage. Just don't have time.
My understanding is, that it is progressive. The progressive frame is divided only for recording into two halves. This way older player and editors can import footage as if it would be interlaced. Supposedly newer editors and players should recognize that it is a progressive footage stored interlaced, so they put together the lines into the same frame resulting a progressive frame identical to original captured one. This is how I read it. There is no deinterlacing involved, simply copying pixel data in the proper place. So image information is not lost. If my tests will show that this is in fact an interlaced imager - I will return the cam without a hesitation. |
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http://www.jvc.com/press/index.jsp?u...m=565&pageID=1 But I may be mis-interpreting your comments (I'm not a professional). Erik |
More sample footage
I am posting links to low light footage I shot yesterday. The files will be available for 7 days or 100 downloads.
The light was provided by two 150W halogen lamps pointed at high white/slightly gray ceiling, at my desk level there was just barely enough light to read a book. But it was evenly distributed. Camcorder on tripod, OIS off, manual focus, auto WB, F1.8, 1/60 sec exposure (except where noted otherwise). Big red ball bouncing, note how the gain changes in the background when darker ball fills up the frame: http://www.yousendit.com/download/Ql...QzNiV3cwTVE9PQ Yellow ball bouncing 1/60 sec: http://www.yousendit.com/download/Ql...SWVvQnMwTVE9PQ Yellow ball bouncing 1/250 sec (gain was at max by itself): http://www.yousendit.com/download/Ql...SU9nYU0wTVE9PQ White balance on auto (a white card entering the scene): http://www.yousendit.com/download/Ql...Tk04NVUwTVE9PQ WB manual first balanced on white card, then shot: http://download.yousendit.com/BAC53FA05A8F318E Later I will post some samples showing the CA. |
I'm obviously over my head here, so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and listen to the experts and hope to learn something :)
Erik |
Yousendit limit extended
I am sorry, but I did not realize that beyond limitations of only 7 days and 100 downloads there is also a 1 GB download limit on yousendit.com for free accounts... What is the point of having a free service that does not work?
Sorry guys, I will try to find a more reasonable service and repost these clips. I have more clips to share with you, so you could judge by yourself whether this is a camcorder for you... Also want to add another observation. The file numbering is very odd. It goes from lets say MOV030, MOV031, ... MOV039, MOV03A, MOV03B, ..., MOV03F, MOV040, MOV041, etc... So when you copy the files to PC and sort by name - your clips are not in chronological order. Why JVC did it this way, I have no idea, but it inconvenient. There is a small 1KB file with extension *.MOI for each *.TOD file, presumably storing shot parameters, but its content cannot be viewed. The bundled SW does not show the shot parameters either or maybe I just did not find how to display them yet. The cam stores the list of clips on cam in a XML file, which can be opened in a browser, but it does not have shot parameters either. |
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If they include a player and the image is I instead of P then the case is closed. I have downloaded the first 3 but put only one on my server here: http://s87224782.onlinehome.us/MOV022.TOD |
Found a new file sharing site
Because my yousendit free account download limit was exceeded in only few hours I found another site and
this does not want you to register and is much faster too. Unfortunately it only gives 20 downloads per file valid for 5 days. So if it runs out, it runs out. I cannot keep uploading the same files all day long. Sorry guys. Big red ball bouncing, note how the gain changes in the background when darker ball fills up the frame: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...9-de591b1c3901 Yellow ball bouncing 1/60 sec: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...f-9e02b37aef59 Yellow ball bouncing 1/250 sec (gain was at max by itself): http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...b-f989f5a61117 White balance on auto (a white card entering the scene): http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...3-adb5c315fe0a WB manual first balanced on white card, then shot: ...coming... Later I will repost the videos I posted yesterday and also new ones. Good luck. If someone has an FTP they can share I am willing to upload everything one more time. |
More samples
WB manual first balanced on white card, then shot:
http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...3-adb5c315fe0a Kid on bike, 1/250 sec, manual focus, tripod. Note light streaks from sun reflections on helmet. This is the video that I was trying to render as a progressive video (not deinterlacing it, but "properly" combining the two half frames from interlaced file). If anybody finds a solution for playback and decoding of this file as progressive - PLEASE POST YOUR SOLUTION BACK HERE! I tried the bundled software and Vegas 7 so far no luck... http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...2-6d9e70b8bd99 Wind blowing through tree, lots of moving fine details: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...2-cf892d2f14b5 CA in worth case scenario - thin branches against the sky: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...a-00c8999ba57d To confirm the battery life issue. Not only it is less than 2 hours (I am not sure how much, but closer to one hour), but it also takes very long time to recharge. From fully discharged (at least the camcorder stopped functioning) to fully charged (when the LED stopped blinking) it needed 2 hours 45 minutes. The battery remained cold. So an external charger and a second (and third) battery would be a must. When you shoot from power supply it does not charge the battery either... Another unpleasant surprise, the sensor exhibits charge leaking from grossly overexposed pixels (streaks). When the electron well of pixel becomes full it leaks along the column of pixels. This is a sign of cheap CCDs. I am more and more disappointed... The tripod mounting hole is way back and to the left of the center of gravity of cam. Not a major thing, but something to know about. |
An easy way to find out whether you cam captures progressive or interlaced video
I have good news for all of you guys! I have a proof that JVC HD7 camcorder is in fact progressive!
I was scratching my head how to prove it with 100% certainty without relying on any software and figured it out this morning. This method is extremely simple and 100% reliable, does not require any special processing software or any knowledge of computers. It can be used with any camcorder regardless of recording format (DV, HDV, HD) or region settings (NTSC, PAL). You are welcome to adopt it, but please give me the credit for inventing this method. I may even consider patenting it, why not? People patent totally obvious common things and this is not so trivial... What you need for test: ======================= You need tripod to stabilize the camcorder you want to test, a flash and a moving object (a ball or kids car or something you can move in front of the camcorder). The background should be of substantially different reflectiveness (brightness) than the object. Lock you cam on tripod, focus to objects distance and set focus on manual. Adjust your exposure speed to 1/30 sec in case of 30 frames per sec video and to 1/25 sec in case of 25 or 24 frames/sec video. This will ensure that there are not gaps in between the frames when the light is not accumulated by sensor. With short exposure times you get less motion blur, but resist the temptation, the motion blur is not at all important in this test. The reason we want to capture light without any gaps is because the flash light burst lasts only for for 1/200 of second and if it flashes in between two frames you will not see it. Adjust your gain or aperture (whichever you cam lets you adjust) such, that the overall brightness of the video is low, in other words the frame is dark. The test itself: ================ Start capturing video without the object in frame, move the object through the frame at the distance you focused at, fire your flash pointing at the object when it is in the middle of the frame, stop the recording. Evaluation of results: ====================== Now I have to provide a little explanation for evaluation of results of test and what you would expect to see. I apologize for the next two or three paragraphs, I know many of you understand the "mechanics" of video recordings, but some don't and this is for their benefit. In interlaced movie, odd lines captured in the first half of 1/30 sec exposure, even lines captured in the second half of 1/30 sec exposure. The integration time (the time the sensor accumulates photons and generates electrons) is 1/60 sec. All moving object or stationary object while cam pans will show the "comb" on their edges, as there is 1/60 sec time difference between the odd and even lines captured. ################################### .......################################### ################################### .......################################### ################################### .......################################### ################################### .......################################### ################################### .......################################### ################################### .......################################### In progressive movie, full frame, both odd and even lines captured during the 1/30 sec exposure. The integration time for each row is 1/60 sec. The moving objects or stationary when camcorder pans, do not show comb effect. ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### Depending on the recording format, both progressive and interlaced movie can be stored in progressive or interlaced way. It is up to the player or editing software to properly recognize the recording format and reconstruct the original video information. And this is the most difficult part - how can you be sure you video editing suit renders you movie properly? You can not! But with my test you can now! So here is how you evaluate the test results and what you can expect to see: ============================================================================ Interlaced movie: ================= 1. dark frame 2. dark frame 3. flash 4. dark frame Here is the frame with the flash: ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### Every other line will be dark (does not matter if those are the odd or even lines) and the frame just before and just after it will be totally dark. This proves that the 1/200 burst of light was captured in one half of one frame - an indication of interlaced capture. However it is recorded it remains interlaced! Progressive frame recorded progressively: ========================================= 1. dark frame 2. dark frame 3. flash 4. dark frame Same as before? Not exactly! Here is how the frame with flash will look like: ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### ################################### Every single line will be lit by flash (the short burst of light also freezes the movement, so the motion blur would not be visible at all). Progressive frame captured, recorded interlaced as in case with HD7: ========================================================== 1. dark frame 2. flash 3. flash 4. dark frame Why? Because the progressive frame was divided into two half frames and recorded into two interlaced frames on whatever media it is. Here is what you see in the first flash-lit frame (note odd lines are lit): ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### and the second one (note even lines are lit): ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### ...........dark line................. ################################### And that is exactly what I have seen with HD7. Two consecutive frames lit by flash! So it is clearly a progressive imager recording progressively captured frames as interlaced video. Just as I hoped for. I went one step further to absolutely prove my point - I combined manually the flash-lit even and odd lines from the two frames into one and it gave me a perfect progressive frame without any comb effect on moving edges! Hurray! Here is a link to a series of 4 bitmaps that demonstrate what I just said, these are uncompressed captured frames. See how the lit lines in frame 2 and 3 stay in the same exact location on screen even though the dark lines move? That means that the odd lines are encoded into first interlaced frame and the even ones are encoded into the second frame. http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...b-a92f26a8c6fc Sorry for the long post, but I thought this could be useful for many of us who had no means of proving their suspicions... Have a nice day, Tibor Duliskovich |
Tibor
You sir are a genius. Thank you and patent that idea. |
More samples
I posted several additional sample clips for HD7 here:
http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...3-18badb5ecee2 Grasshoppers on a flower, these are real small ones, about 10mm long, the lens cap was touching the flower, tele-macro enabled, gain manually +2 (it is a little too much, but in strong sunlight I did not see the LCD and thought that the black grasshoppers are under exposed). Grasshopper, sun was behind the clouds, a little soft: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...3-9d42a09fae10 Owl, wind blowing the leaves, visible blocking and coding artifacts: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...9-393288bba3bd |
Editing Cyberlink and Vegas and TOD files
Here is my experience so far with editing SW. The bundled Cyberlink Producer was able to open TOD and TPD files. When you add them to a project Cyberlink also converts these files to regular MPG files. It does not recompress (I know because it happens too fast for my old Dell XPS 5), it simply puts the video into a new container. The file size will be almost exactly the same too.
Why is that important? Because Vegas 7d cannot directly open TOD files, says "unsupported file format", I tried renaming the TOD into MPG, Vegas could not open that either. The MPG from Cyberlinks cache folder Vegas opened without problems. Unfortunately Vegas and Cyberlink both open the file incorrectly, as an interlaced file. I tried creating progressive project and non-progressive, upper or lower field first, I tried in each of those projects mark the media properties, upper, lower or progressive and rendered as uncompressed AVI, but the result was always interlaced. So while these apps can open the TOD files, they do not interpret them correctly and there is no way manually to correct that. I spent about three hours doing all these tests, so I am confident. I do not have Premiere or any other editing SW so am curious if someone has any experience with them. |
I have never used this camcorder yet but I bet I can easily produce better footage than most people can with their HV20 or their HC7 but that’s if it’s on a tripod. Off a tripod, I don’t know. From all the first hand accounts I’ve read, something must be wrong with the stabilizer. Either that or the camcorder must be hard to hold for most people. I really think JVC needs to give an explanation for this.
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How does a Mac user view those TOD files?
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Ignore previous post- VLC player plays them!
I'm seeing blown out highlights as noted by others. Colors and resolution is nice as long as within camera exposure limits- otherwise blown out! Reminds me of an HD10U but in 1080i and to internal HD- not quite the quality I expected or was hoping for. Having said that- in the right lighting and studio setup I'm sure the camera will deliver excellent results. The HV10 & HV20 have this camera beat as well as the FX1 & FX7. Not a bad cam at sub $1600 prices but not really ready for the masses and semi-pros (prosumers)......we'll have to wait for Canon, Panasonic or Sony to really make a winner in the hi-def internal HD cam cataegory! If by early summer no one else has anything comparable I'll get one- but I'll sell it the second Canon releases their version of an internal HD cam. |
More observations and samples
Auto focus, bicycle approaching quite fast, zoom x10, tripod, focus is doing good job:
http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...c-3d6157f2bc05 Some quite low light footage, after sunset, heavy clouds, 10x zoom, tripod, river, boat: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...e-478893ab6d33 Same scene at 6x zoom: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...1-61bdf81ab55b Flower, macro, in a shade: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...0-7e0963d065dc I noticed that at wide open aperture the lens is not stellar: it becomes very-very soft in corners. Add to this poor performance of OIS and I can only say, that Fujinon "professional" lens is the weakest link in HD7. I would only use it at F5.6 and F8.0 (it does not go beyond that either...). Regarding digital zoom. The sensor has given number of pixels it can resolve, so technically speaking digital zoom cannot add anything to image content, it simply blows up pixels (interpolates them). But there is a catch and it is in recording format. There is a given bandwidth to record the content onto media - it is a 30 mbps VBR limit. Consider these two scenatious: 1. capturing all pixels (representing lots of detail in optical image), encoding full frame with lots of details into 30 mbps stream and then, after the fact, enlarging part of frame, 2. capturing part of pixels (representing less optical detail) and encoding them with full bandwidth. It is obvious that in second case those fewer pixel can be encoded with higher quality, then the larger number of pixels in first scenario. So that is why digital zoom makes sense to certain degree. I estimate based on my tests with HD7, that an additional 2x zoom, extending the originaly 10x optical zoom into 20x - that is the max that makes sense. For your own consideration: 10x optical zoom, owl: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...1-2ef3f4d6bfd6 20x time optical zoom, same owl, same distance: http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...c-039ebfea8071 Believe me, going beyond that did not improve the image at all. |
Tibor, your clips look good because the lighting was even and not too contrasty. It's the direct sunlight on flowers and objects as well as brightly lit objects that draw the comments.
Thanks for those clips- it does show potential for the JVC with subdued lighting. |
Contrasty clips. Playback of TOD files
Steve, did you have a chance to download the turtle clip or the grasshoppers? That was under direct sunlight and with high contrast.
I just want to make myself clear - I am evaluating the camera for myself, the way I am used to film. My conclusions may not apply to others. Just take them as one opinion amongst many. All I try to do is to figure the limitations of this cam. I already decided I will keep it. So need to know whether I need an external mike to compensate for built-in (I have a Sennheiser shotgun, a Samson wireless and Audio-Technica with big capsule, but all are XLRs and none is stereo). Or any special lighting and support stuff (like a stabilizer to compensate for impotent OIS). I am buying a Cantori HiDV head and will let you know how it works with this cam. Also someone asked me how to play back the TOD files. I have the Combined Community Codec Pack installed on both of my PCs, I assume it is CCCP that lets play back the TOD files. They play in any player fine, just associate the file extension with the player of your choice (as long as they support DirectShow part of Direct X). VLC and Media Player Classic play back without dropping frames, Windows Media Player and Cyberlink plays the videos jerky, dropping frames. QuickTime says "the file is not a movie file" and refuses to play TOD files. I your players do not play TOD files try installing CCCP, that might help and definitely does not hurt. The link is http://www.cccp-project.net/. More clips coming tomorrow. |
Tibor, is the main reason for keeping it the true progressive imager detailed in your interesting post on the previous page? You have mentioned several limitations, so I'm wondering what tipped the balance toward keeping it.
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Why I decided to keep it
Thanks Mike for your kind words! And you too Harrison Murchison, but that was a bit strong!
As you can tell I am pretty picky about image quality. I have L-lenses for my Canon 5D and they also have limitations. Anyway, all in all, after I confirmed that the imager is in fact progressive and knowing that sooner or later there will be editing software capable of decoding them properly, I looked at my test videos comparing them to what I can do with my other cams. HD7 is far better than my best SD progressive Canon Optura (yes, yse, Optura), my other three cams don't even come close to 7 year old Optura... If I would to return the HD7 I would loose about $200 in restocking fees. It produces great footage. I know its limitations and know how to work around them, so why not? I am sure a year down the road there will be a new Sony XDCAM EX with SxS cards, or a new JVC 1080/60p, but until then HD7 will do the trick for me. I actually like it. Yesterday I was shooting in my son's school and confirmed that with the factory battery it can run 85 minutes on full charge with LCD on all that time. A little short, but not bad after all. Built in mike picks up too much wind noise on windy days, so I probably end up ordering a stereo mike. |
More clips
Lizard, F8, 1/100, manual focus at F1.9 with focus assist, tripod:
http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...9-ce2a4aa99486 Owl chick again, a little better angle and light, still shows CA on tree branches, especially in the corner (as expected): http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Down...3-5506836d3101 |
Tibor, the lizard clip if shot at F 1.9 shows very shallow depth of field and the corners look blurry and washed out a bit...I'm sure the DOF was because of the F1.9 setting- I wonder how it would have looked at F8? It was sharp in the center but got progressively worse as you moved outwards- just looks a bit weird. I know the lizard was at a corner and that explains the out of focus look of the video- but it looks like it was shot through a teleconverter- a bit starnge looking.
The owl chick showed allot of chromatic abberation which is likely due to both the CCD imager and lens (usually more lens)....just looks a bit poor in quality- as if cheap glass were used..... ....I hope there is a "pro" version of this camera in the works that addresses the issues noticed thusfar. At $1499 it isn't bad- but I think everyone expected a bit better for the specifications JVC touted. |
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