I am currently in the market for my first DV camera. It is specifically for narrative filmmaking. The DVX-100a and the XL1-S are my top choices. After conducting some research on this board, I am leaning towards the 100a.

However, I am concerned with barrel distortion. I read a post saying it won't be noticable on a TV screen, but wouldn't the distortion be noticable on a big screen? I plan on sending my movies to festivals.

Is there a way to correct the distortion?

Thanks

Barrel distortion? TV screen verses big screen? What do you mean? Many cams have some sort of barrel distortion somewhere in the zoom range. I haven't heard this being a problem with the DVX100A.

That's good. At least I know I'm just being paranoid. However, if I were to find any barrel distortion, is there a way to correct it, or would I just have to deal it?

The wider the angle of view of the lens the greater the barrel distortion in most cases. the DVX100 has about the widest stock WA lens of any prosumer camera on the market. The barrel distortion on the DVX100 is objectionable to some users. There are plugins for most NLE's to correct barrel distortion. Correcting the distortion will narrow the angle of view (crop the image) in most cases.

Jeff

I have a few more questions. The 100a would be my first 3 CCD camera and I really want it, but the idea of barrel distortion on wide angles is making me think twice--especially since I'm using it to shoot a feature.

1)Is there any way I could use an adapter to fix the distortion, or at least hide it better?

2)When the NLE crops the image, will it strech it out and cause it lose some quality?

3)Which plugins would work the best with Final Cut Pro 4?

I'm have a limited amount of knowledge about these things since I've yet to actually try them out and learn them first hand.

Thanks

If you find the barrel distortion objectionable (and many people don't) then just don't zoom the lens to it's widest settings. The widest setting is about the equivalent to a 32mm in 35mm film terms. Just don't don't use the last 5mm of range or so.

No the scene is not stretched it is cropped to remove the distortion. There are no adapters to fit on a lens to correct the distortion. If there were I'm sure Panasonic would have put one on.

Since the dvx100 has wider lenses than the XL1, you can always avoid to zoom out at 100%. If you go up to 95% you will not notice anybarrel distorsion and still you will get wider images than with the standard lenses of the XL1, since it is not very wide.

I hope i explained well. :-D

I finally made it over to B & H this morning to check out the 100a. After playing around with it I didn't notice any barrel distortion at all.

Generally, on moderately wide angle lenses (like the DVX100A's) you won't see any distortion in most shots. You may notice some curvature in vertical lines at the left and right edges if the subjects were very close to the lens.

The 100A's lens is designed to stretch to about the widest angle possible without excessive distortion. It's very optically similar to the XL1s' 3x lens and Canon's WD58H wide angle accessory lens in this regard.