Sony VX2100, 4:3 or 16:9?

[Darryn Carroll]

Hello all, been shooting weddings with a pair of VX2100's about 4 years, all in 4:3 mode. Anything I should consider before shooting in 16:9? Everyone has a widescreen TV these days, so about time I make the changeover but naturally a bit nervous before shooting one. Thanks all.

[Jeff Harper]

You might want to practice framing your shots in 16:9, as it is completely weird when you change over. Other than that there is nothing else I can think of to concern yourself with.

[Joel Peregrine]

Originally Posted by Darryn Carroll

Hello all, been shooting weddings with a pair of VX2100's about 4 years, all in 4:3 mode. Anything I should consider before shooting in 16:9? Everyone has a widescreen TV these days, so about time I make the changeover but naturally a bit nervous before shooting one. Thanks all.

Take a look at the picture quality in 16:9 mode with that camera. From what I remember the quality is very much degraded with artifacts and reduced resolution.

[Dave Blackhurst]

yeah - all those widescreen TV's are also HD... depending on how that particular camera processes "widescreen" (some just crop the top and bottom off IIRC...) you may not like the results.

[Don Bloom]

The VX/PD series of cameras suck in the 16:9 format. I've been using PD since 2000 or 2001 and still do. As great an image as they produce they really miss the mark in widescreen.

[Chris Harding]

The Master has spoken ..Don is pretty clued up on Sony SD cameras!! My first shoulder-mount Panasonics had the same setup with a 4:3 sensor and the camera actually crops the image to 16:9 for you...and as Don says, it ain't pretty.

Put once of your normal 4:3 clips in your NLE timeline and crop it there and see the huge difference...to make the image 16:9 the camera (or NLE) needs to slice a bit off the top and bottom of the image and then zoom the image 40% to fill the 16:9 frame....In your NLE, also try zooming a clip 40% and you will see how much IQ you actually lose!!

Might be time to by an HD camera otherwise say with 4:3 and just have pillars on the side...It's normally quite accepted by clients.

Chris

[Darryn Carroll]

Thanks all, I will keep todays wedding at 4:3, I am ready for an HD upgrade, been stalling due to expense but it is time :)

[Adam Gold]

This has been discussed to death in the VX/PD subforum. Never, ever shoot widescreen with these cams.

[Chris Barcellos]

One way around was the Century wide adapter. You shot 4;3, but the adapter gives a distorted picture which has to be "stretch fit" in post. It was considered one of the best resolution to going 16:9. When HD 16:9 came in, Century sold the lenses out for $ 99.00, when original sale price was $ 999.00. I bought one then form VX2000 and use occasionally.

The other thing we did to give a 16:9 film look was to shoot in 4:3, but add a letter box frame through the chip on board. The VX and PD allowed use of overlays of the chip, and you could frame a letter box in as part of the 4:3 image. That actually worked better than the electronic 16:9 provided by the camera.

[J. Stephen McDonald]

I was never pleased by the image quaity of my VX2100 and removing 25% of the pixels for 16:9, made it even worse. Its progressive-scan mode at 15 FPS was a joke. I had analog-recording SD camcorders 23 years ago that produced sharper videos with better color. After shooting only 10 hours of video with it, I sold it last year after 6 years of sitting on a shelf. It was better than my Canon L-1, made in 1992, but those two were over-rated to an amazing degree, by so many people. Do yourself a favor and dump the VX2100 while it's still worth a few dollars. Any of the new sub-$500. Sony video-shooting photo cameras in the HX-Series will give you better video and it's HD 60p. If you want, they will also produce very good 640 X 480 at a bit-rate that is a fraction of what the DV CoDec uses. Such a camera will gain you no status among the participants here------all you get from it will be good results at a small price. The audio is passable from the built-in mikes, but limited in its versatility. Some might use a separate digital audio recorder with external mikes and match it up in editing. The audio recorded on the camera would always be there as a backup.