Pan footage - Help please
 

My camera’s is GY HD 100 E
I have tried to record pan-footage in 720 HDV mode – the result is bad. The picture is jagged.

What shall the settings be in the camera operation menu? - Shall “motion smooth” be “on” or “off”

Are there others settings that I shall pay attention to?

I don’t have a lot of knowledge with this cam – before I had Sony’s PDX 10 and did not have this kind of trouble.

If the footage contain fast moving object like cars – which technology is best progressive 720p or Sony’s Interlace 1080i?

(Hope you can understand my poor English)
Best wishes

Flemming Loevenhardt, Copenhagen, Denmark

Hi Flemming.
If you're shooting in progressive mode then the picture cannot be jagged. Jaggies are the result of splitting a fast moving image between the two fields of *interlaced* video. If you have excessive motion blur you might need to redesign your shot to slow down the panning speed.

It depends. I keep it off because what that does is to compare two frames and then create a "merged" frame that should act as an intermediate. When looking at these intermediate frames you can see the "ghosting" effect. Basically a blurred image with double edged. I don't want artificial modifications to my images so I turn it off.

Interlace will give you jaggies with fast moving objects. Progressive will give you motion blur. Interlaced should be abandoned, IMHO. If you have a fast moving object or the camera is mounted on a fast moving vehicle, use a faster shutter speed. For example, if shooting at 30fps, turn the shutter to 120.

Hi Paolo Ciccone

Thanks for a very informative answer.

Kind regards

Flemming Loevenhardt

A few more tips...
 

Yeah, keep the motion smoothing off.

Some of what you describe sound like the effects of panning to slowly while shooting 24p at a normal shutter speed - it happens w/ film the exact same way.

The basic way to 'fix' the problem is to pan at a speed that produces an effect more pleasing to your eye, which generally speaking is a very fast pan, or a very slow one.

As for 1080i vs 24p, it all depends on what look you're going for - reality show/sports (1080i) or film/narrative (24p).

The JVC's a neat camera because it is so much like a film camera - but, like it's older brothers, is (sometimes) just difficult to work with. The great thing about video is that you don't have to pay and wait for the film to develope and then transfer to see your mistakes. Good luck -

john
evilgeniusentertainment.com