HD For Indies

UPDATED SUNDAY NIGHT AD THEN AGAIN MONDAY MORNING- SEE BOTTOM


Camcorderinfo.com Message Board - Latest Info on the HVX200, although DVInfo.net had it about two days before here, or really even here on the 15th, I just didn't find it that way first (thanks to sharp readers for pointing out the timeline for who should get the original credit).

The above text chart was snaggged from the Panasonic Japan page on HVX200, and is not of my own creation - it is theirs. Credit where credit due, etc.

Worth noting is that it will definitely do regular 3:2 pulldown as well as Advanced Pulldown mode for a variety of formats.

According to the Panasonic Japan website on the HVX200:

-1080 line, progressive CCDs - this is different from what I assumed by a longshot, I've been assuming they'd use 720p imager and uprez so as not to numerically upstage their much more expensive Varicam $65,000 720p camera (even though Varicam has beeter glass, pro outputs, etc.).

-720 and 480 res footage will be downsampled from this larger imager - Graeme, thoughts on contrast and detail in that context?

-Analog to Digital signal processor (A/D DSP) is 14 bits with an internal precision of 19 bit

-variable frame rates (for fast/slow motion through over/under cranking) is only available in 720p (but could you use built in downconversion to copy over FireWire as DV downconvert or somesuch?) adjustable in 11 steps from 12 to 60 fps (drat, hoping for slower, but can do that in post I suppose)

-Variable frame rate has to be recorded to P2 or external disk

-Yeah, HD can be downsampled from P2 to internal DV cassette (nice!)

-variable slow shutter down to 1/12th second

-Cinegamma - 8 gamma modes (choice is good), including news

-link to Babelfish translated version of Japanese page

Bear in mind this is all someone's interpretation of the Japanese site's translation, so could be wrong. I'm just reporting what Camcorderinfo.com reported with some commentary thrown in.

I'll believe it when it is clearly stated, in English (not badly mistranslated Engrish) what the true native resolution of the CCDs is.

Thanks to Matthwe Jeppsen from FresHDV for sending me the link!

-mike

I emailed Graeme Nattress of Nattress Plugins, and he responded:


Hi Mike,

Ah, but Jan on the cow (CreativeCow.net - mike)said it uses both horizontal and vertical pixel shift. This would make it a not 1080p imager. I'm guessing:

960x720 chips, approx with h and v pixelshift

pixelshift gives about a 1.4 factor rez so...

that gives you your 1280x1080 progressive.

Now that is now sampled down to 720p which is 960x720, or to 1080i or etc....

-Graeme


the saga continues,
-mike

UPDATE
From this forum on Creative Cow from Jan, The Woman Herself from Panasonic:

The camera starts with a progressive chip, a 1080/60P chip. In its 24P or 30P modes, or its variable frame modes, it will change to that time base for capture, but it starts as a progressive chip capture and then makes the conversion, cross conversion or down conversion from there. It is a true progressive chip set and will make progressive pictures, not marketing, but rather, engineering.

Hope this helps,

Jan

Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

...however, this still doesn't answer the "true resolution" question.

But she previously said:


But then you do nothave to be disappointed because it does use horizontal and vertical spatial offset.
here, so to me that reinforces the circa 960x720ish resolution, and the pixelshift/spatial offset will generate the 1280x1080 for 1080 res DVCPRO HD.

A big THANK YOU to readers for pointing out links to all these tidbits in the comments section, I wouldn't have found'em without you. Working together, we can get some good answers, so I VERY much appreciate your time and contribution.

Somebody in one of the forums claims the native res will be 1280x720 which is DVCPRO HD so therefore I am wrong...but the PLAYBACK res is 1280x720, internally it is only 960x720, literally just twice DV res.

Bottom line - I'm still thinking 960x720 "true" native, with pixel shift it'll give a nice 4:2:2 1080p res. Larger pixels on the sensor are actually a good thing, since it gives better contrast and better signal/noise to my understanding. The Z1U uses 960x1080 as a 1080i camera, Jan has stated that there will be both horizontal and vertical spatial offset, so that might support 960x720.

But of course, this is all my own speculation, and IANAE (I Am Not An Engineer).

The REAL issue is how good does the footage look when the camera is in YOUR hands (or your DoP's) on your set shooting your movie/project.

Graeme posted this in the comments, I thought it worthy of inclusion:

Pixelshift is not upsampling. It's real rez you get, and you get lower noise / better dynamic range benefits too. Indeed, you'll end up with a better, contrastier picture this way.

Other affordable HD cameras might have "resolution" but they don't have "definition", and certainly not "high definition" in the way that say, a varicam or HDCAM image just pops off the screen (and that's before post production).

Panasonic really seem to be doing the engineering right on this one, from all we've heard. But the proof is in the pudding, and that's just about baked.

-mike