Now obviously there are far to many variables in the camera evaluation process to ever create a quantifiable method for comparison. Price, resolution, size, color, feel, the number of variables could literaly go forever.

The one aspect that I can offer some constructive advice towards is the comparitive image quality of the recorded image. No big lists of features or marketing hype, I'll leave that to the manufacturers and the magazines. What you will find here is a simple comparison of the various image qualities that you'll be dealing with. You can download an actual frame (click on test chart next to camera) from each of the cameras that I've tested and then add that to your own decision making process.

Now keep in mind that this method of comparison is far from ideal. For one thing, all the images you download into your computer will be 8 bit RGB because unless you're working on a super-computer, that's just about all it can handle. 10 bit DigiBeta or HD will all appear to have the same bit depth as miniDV. What this little test will illustrate is the inherent resolved image with respect to the piece of glass in front of the chip and the amount of data (spatial resolution) that the recording format is capable of reproducing.

The charts represent only the factory preset, and not the timed signal that I actually ended up using. There is a vast amount of resolution to be gained above and beyond the factory preset. Be sure to catch my article on timing digital video in the August 2001 issue of DV Magazine.

The first and most important step in timing is to get yourself a good chart and establish a point of reference for your look. My preference, in fact the preference of most professionals are the charts from DSC Labs. Shown here are my own ColorBar/GrayScale/Hyperbolics (CBGSH) chart and the Multiburst (MB) chart.


These two charts are my personal favorites and will form the basis of the following comparisons.

All field conversions are still handled by the appropriate AJA Video digital converters when appropriate. AJA is a well respected company in the professional production community.

One of the most often ask questions I get is with regard to storage. FireWire is ok for miniDV but that's about it. If you want to deal with higher resolutions, effect transitions in editing or even something hairball like dual streams of uncompressed HD, well then buppie, you need to deal with SCSI. After trying everything made since the very first days of the digital desktop, the one I plunked my own money down for was the 1TB HugeMediaVault.

Gamma not only adjusts quite professionally but there are a number of presets including PAL, NTSC, DVD and FILM which are switchable from a physical switch.

The focus ring is currently of the consumer "spinner" design which religates this camera to the consumer pile. Although one of the best of the consumer camera's, Panasonic could have taken over the market with this thing if they had only put a real lens on it. The other problem is that they used 4:3 CCD block and actually crop into the image to create 16:9. Two very cheap shots for something that could have been so very cool.

If you want to know more about this nice little machine, I recommend Clayton Farr's page that has a very good account of his experience and some good frame grabs.

This is a very nice first shot for a 24P palmcorder, but if you want something that gets you out of the consumer market you're going to need to wait for the XL2 later this year.

Having done a bit of work / research / testing with the JVC-HD1 for some upcoming journalistic endeavors, I've found the following things to be true and repeatable.

1) The JVC-HD1 is not badly laid out with respect to the menus and controls. (personal opinion)

2) It has one of the better lenses for a consumer (focus by wire) camera. I shot side by side comparisons of a blond on blue and a ChromaDuMonde DSC chart, with two other consumer camcorders, a Canon XL1S w/manual lens and a 27V w/CanonHD lens.

3) A company called Heuris makes a very cool utility called the "Indy HD Toolkit." It takes data from the camera via 1394 to the OS-X desktop. It does this (on the fly) by converting the MPEG TS file into a MPEG-2 video (HD) elementary stream, and an uncompressed audio AIFF file. Both formats, once demultiplexed via the Heuris tool become 'native' to QuickTime and could then be used in any application that works with a QT compatible file (i.e., FCP).(www.videotexsystems.com)

4) In my opinion the JVC-HD1 generates the highest quality miniDV signal in the palmcorder category when image is taken out via onboard component connections. I took the signal out via their SDI-ish connector and the supplied component connector to CineWaveHD and Media100 and then pulled a chroma key to compare frames with other cameras.

A nice review by Kimberly Reed can be found at Cannon XL1S REVIEW.

I get ask to recommend cameras at least several times a day. My response is always the same. Get a camera that: 1) allows you to over-ride as many automatic functions as possible, 2) is easy to use, 3) can use a manual lens.

When captured into a personal computer, FireWire based DV video weighs in around .11Mb per frame while the much more professional SDI video (DigiBeta, DVCPRO-50) weighs in around .7Mb per frame. Given the huge disparity between the consumer DV formats and the professional SDI based formats, I rarely use miniDV in professional production but when I do, it is with this camera.

If you really want to see the difference between consumer based FireWire images and professional SDI images, check out this CHART that was captured off of my home-made SDI camera and compare it with the charts that I shot with the Canon XL1s MANUAL & AUTO LENS.

Have you ever wondered why the only small form factor, miniDV camcorder that allows the operator to generate a qualitative focus (XL1 w/manual lens) comes from a company that doesn't have a broadcast line of camcorders? To the untrained eye, the image quality of these little cameras is so close to professional formats like DigiBeta and DVCPRO-50 that many people are justifiably confused.

The rheostat focus ring is an intentional safety measure used by large corporations to keep consumer devices from gutting their broadcast product lines. Their assumption is that a professional cinematographer would never use a device that was incapable of generating a qualitative focus.

My object is not to pick on the XL1s but rather to show how over-rated this whole world of miniDV has become. MiniDV serves an important function by giving aspiring moviemakers an affordable method of acquisition and post production. To make the fullest use of your early ventures into the world of production, it makes sense to use tools that most closely conform to conventional production methodology. That is why this is the ONLY camera in the entire miniDV palmcorder catagory that I recomend.

Pound for pound the GY-DV700WU is a better system, but at a much higher price. .

After shooting several tests and then printing to 35mm film for projection, I came to the realization that 720P is enough. Yeah, I know ... there's a world full of people with opinions but then, have you ever notice how the people with the strongest opinions, have actually done the least?

The Sony F900 puts a lot more pixels up on the screen but I really don't see my little project being projected eighty feet across. In my corner of the universe, where I've got to put my name up there at the start, I'm more concerned with how the color space and resolution works with the tools I use every day. My CineWaveHD system pumps into a one TB HugeMediaVault (1 TB = 1,000 GB) disk array, and then gets composited and tweaked in AfterEffects, Commotion and Combustion.

This isn't rocket science. I want a camera that is easy to use, rugged, runs without complaint and doesn't require an instruction manual to operate. After days of almost continuous, around the clock operation, the only problem we had with the 27V was that the start switch is in an inconvenient position and we were so tired that we kept forgetting where it was.

One of the most notable things about the image from the 27V is how perfectly it pulls a chroma key in Primatte. Since nearly half of my movie is shot on Green, this is important to me and was one of the major factors in my decision. Again, the F900 has a spectacular image, and I'd print it to film and project on the biggest screen in the world without concern ... but, to my eye, the DVCPRO color space more closely resembles the three dimensional color space that the Primatte keyer uses, and that, quite simply makes Scotty a happy boy.

Since I've been shooting so much stuff with the F900, people have tended to assume that it was because I was such a big fan of SONY. While its true, they make really great gear, the main reason I use the F900 is to use the Panavision lens.

The complex menu matrix of the F900 is so far beyond common sense that it really takes up a lot of very valuable production time. I don't care how pretty the picture is, if it cuts into my time on the set, or the amount of time I spend with the actors, well then, we've just got to re-evaluate our priorities.

No matter how involved you get with the technology, ( and there are few out there who have a longer track record than me ) its all about telling a story. I'm really starting to get tired of all the fussy bits. Isn't the purpose of technology to make complex tasks easier?

There is a whole new kid on the block and he's kicking some very serious ass. This is the newest, hottest and most unbelievable camera that exists. PERIOD!

In addition to recording full 4:4:4 RGB directly off of its enormous chips, the Viper offers a wide assortment of frame rates and the choice of 16/9 or 2.37/1 aspect ratios.

With a camera that records this much data, there isn't any chance of finding a tape format that will record the data fast enough so the Viper relies on a direct-to-disk system that is called Director's friend. BELOW

This is not a theoretical concept or prototype. It works now!

I'll be shooting a feature on it shortly. A number of people have mentioned that the whole methodology reminded them of the show I shot in 1989 where I recorded RGB directly out of a SONY camera head and into a portable Mac system that my crew was pushing around behind me on a cart. There are pictures of that system in the first chapter of my book which can be downloaded free from the home page of this site.

I didn't mind having a cart trailing behind me then, and I'm certainly won't be complaining now. This is quite simply as good as it gets for quite a while.

THIS IS THE CAMERA THAT KILLED FILM AQUSITION

Since we still don't have a digital projector that surpasses film for projection, print stock will still enjoy its usefulness for a bit longer.

1/2/3 update: I've posted two frames from this camera. Raw Image & Color Timed Image