Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: hd, camcorder | Themes: Digital Cameras, Digital Entertainment
- 1. Four HD Camcorders Tested
- 2. Camcorders: Handling
- 3. Canon: Full Options
- 4. Panasonic HDC SD5: First Impressions
- 5. Hitachi Blu-ray: Warning! Keep Back
- 6. Sony: Simple but Effective
- 7. Color Rendering
- 8. A Day in the Street for Contrast
- 9. Focusing
- 10. Night Shooting: Things Get Complicated
- 11. By Candlelight
- 12. Test Assessment
- 13. Saving and Editing Your Video
- 14. HD Doesn't Always Mean High Quality
14. HD Doesn't Always Mean High Quality
As you’ve gathered, the term “HD camcorder” is not always synonymous with high quality. These four models all deliver images in 1920x1980-pixel resolution - a size that’s perfectly tailored to a Full HD display - yet there’s a real difference in quality between the Canon and the Hitachi.
The bottom line is that, as with traditional camcorders, the sensor and optics of an HD device are decisive factors. Add to that the fact that the AVCHD format, on its way to becoming the compression standard for HD images, is still very difficult to process.
The Canon HR10 came out on top of this roundup, both for image quality and for its numerous features and functions. Our only regret is the choice of DVD as medium, since it’s less convenient and costs more over the long term. The Sony and Panasonic both have strong points, both for convenience of use and image quality, even if their overall performance was less even than the Canon’s.
The Hitachi, however, is a different story. This debut Blu-ray camcorder didn’t convince us. Let’s hope that its maker can correct the problems in an upcoming version.
- Previous page Saving and Editing Your Video
Be aware that there are some poorly-advertised issues with at least some of these cameras.
It is common practice for cameras with full 1920x1080 sensors to scale the images to 1440x1080 before compression.
Also, camcorders that record progressive frames at 24pf tend to store their data as if it were 60i (60 fields/sec, interlaced) by duplicating and reordering parts of the video data. Most applications (Ulead Video Studio, Sony Vegas, etc.) believe the video files when they say they're 60i, so they try to interpolate between shifted and reordered fields in a process called deinterlacing. This results in smoother images that are not as sharp as they could be and ghosting of fast-moving objects. Camcorders that record to 30pf or 30p should not have this problem.
Also, as mentioned in the article, it currently takes some special applications (like Video Studio or Vegas) and/or a bit of technical know-how to even be able to read the M2TS files many of these camcorders produce.
HD Camcorders are in their infancy at the consumer level. Expect lots of changes quickly right now. Even Pro HD cameras are changing quickly right now.
The Tomshardware image with the Bug:
http://media.bestofmicro.com/0/P/9 [...] nglish.jpg
More about Chroma Sampling Bug:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/vol [...] -2001.html