Black side lines?
 

I'm shooting with a VX1000. All my footage (when viewed on computer) has thin black lines on both sides. First of all, why is this?

Secondly, when exporting to web, can't I save alot of file size by cropping off these bars?

Thirdly, does this happen with all cameras, or only the VX1000 model?

An example :

http://wiki.theskatepress.com/media/Test.mov (600KB)

Thanks in advance,

Laurence

This is probably normal. What you see on the computer is the full-frame, or 100%. The action-safe area of an image is approximately 80% of that, and is what you can reliably see on a television. You won't save much by cropping. Since the black lines never change, the compression will be optimum.