So you want a video production to shoot Hi Def film or Video?
More and more productions are switching to HI Definition Video but just who really understands it? - Not your average production company.
The principle difference is in the resolution or number of scanning lines given over to making the picture - in The Uk we're used to the traditional PAL format of 576 scanning lines, but HD tops that with two exciting new resolutions:
720 and 1080 scanning lines.
"Hooray" I hear you say - "more resolution - more clarity more.. everything?"..... well, not quite.
There's certainly more resolution in any HD format, and even in HDV.. but HDV is still just that.. .. a high octane DV - so more resolution but still the same amount of picture information in terms of colour and luminance. What there is though will be at a high resolution so details will be greater.
Panasonic are doing well with 4:2:2 picture information - that's equivalent to the 'old' Digibeta format - and that's good. Trouble is the compression used in P2 really soaks up storage and as we all know - P2 cards are not cheap. (Despite the promises of price reductions Panasonic are still intent on taxing it's existing users with high prices and no real discount for buying bulk - in the shape of the 32Gb card).
Ho hum - that leaves us with Sony - who's ability to dump a format is legendary (you buy the gear and four years down the line Sony can have moved on to something else - simply it seems to stay one step ahead of the opposition).
Presently it would seems that Sony are blasting the way forward in the inexpensive range of HD with the PMW3 - interchangeable lenses (wahey!) and card storage that more than matches P2. Great camera - no tape options at all though and that can make soem users nervous.
The results are not 4:2:2 - although this is never entirely clear from Sony leaflets etc...... there is a direct 'out' which purports to give 4:2:2 but if it's not gathered at 4:2;2 how can it 'be' 4:2:2?
In any event it's a nice lens and the camera handles intuitively well - a special boon is that it outperforms the HVX200 series in low-light (and if you have a Panasonic HVX200 - you'll know what i mean) .
Oh for the day when Panasonic and Sony get together - pick on a format that we can all confidently invest in and get working on cameras rather than formats.
In the meantime there'a always the Red camera.........