Can anyone recommend a memory stick that is compatible with the V1U? All the cards I seem to find have the MAGICGATE coding which if I understand right will not work. Also is it any better quality than the stills I get off the video, which seem good. Thanks Garry

I purchased a 4 gig Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo MagicGate Mk 2 for my V1 and it seemed to work fine. I never wound up taking any pictures with it so I can't speak to the comparative quality. I used it to store camera settings. I no longer have the V1 so I can't check photo quality for you.

I have an FX7, and your post prompted me to have a look at the quality of the still images, which I had not done before.

Here is an image unloaded directly from the memorystick (1440x810): http://wildlifehealth.tennessee.edu/video/fx7_memorycard.jpg

Comparing with the equivalent shot extracted from the video clip is somewhat apples and oranges, as the FX7 records 1440x1080 non-square pixels and interlaced (whereas the V1 could be set to progressive). So the image that follows was obtained by loading the raw video into Virtualdub, applying a smart deinterlace filter, and resizing to 1920 x 1080: http://wildlifehealth.tennessee.edu/video/fx7_tape.jpg

My conclusion - the version from tape has better resolution and also much lower noise! (I attribute the low noise to the smoothing effect of combining two fields during the deinterlace.)

Edit: I suppose a fairer comparison would use a moving subject, as taped footage of that would not deinterlace as cleanly. But with the V1 in progressive mode, you should be sweet!

Thanks Graham! Well, It looks like a memory stick photo does not give any advantage over capturing a still from video. Thanks alot for the comparison!
Garry