I'm looking at the XL1, the DVX100A, and the PD170 - I do a lot of compositing and bluescreen. Anybody have any raves or complaints on color quality?

Adam Wilt documents some odd color behavior on the panasonic at adamwilt.com...anybody know of comparable info for Canon and Sony?

Thanks!

None of the DV25 cameras will key as well as something that saves more color information.

That said, I don't have much of a problem keying from my Sony PD150 using a 'good' keyer. That is, one that up-converts the DV data to 4:2:2 on the way in.

I don't think the 150 is any worse than my DSR-300 for capturing video for chromakey work.

Mike are you saying than 4:1:1 can be converted into 4:2:2 somehow? Sorry if the questions dumb, i'm new.

I was thinking the same thing, Eric. I was going to ask Mike what a "good" keyer was!

I can give you an example.

The Canopus DV software, StormEdit, RexEdit, Edius all convert the incoming video to 4:2:2 for editing. They keep it in 4:2:2 form until it is output again as DV or DVCam. If you use the analog outputs, they send 4:2:2 out those ports.

Because of that, there is more precision (not image resolution because the original data was 4:1:1 (in NTSC)) but for computational purposes, it has more precise data.

I am certain there are other editing packages available that do this, but I don't know which ones.

Understand it isn't the same as keying a 'real' 4:2:2 signal but it is superior to standard DV.