Scott Billups has demonstrated some impressive results shooting his charts using an XL-1 with both auto and manual lenses and recording to tape vs. direct to disk.

I've included the link below for anyone who's interested in viewing/commenting. To my eyes, the direct to disk shots are crisper, and the chart shot using a "broadcast" lens is amazing.

Would love to hear some opinions on Billups' test.

Thanks.

http://pixelmonger.com/graphicref194

Thanks for the images.

But I don't get it. Why does the image change using the same lens but using tape vs. disk?

Thanks,
Ron

It doesn't. DV is DV. To suggest a distinction based on recording medium would be directly analogous to suggest that the contents of a computer file depends on whether it's stored on your hard disk or a CD.

As a stand-alone exhibit the images are not useful for many reasons. Scott's a very savvy fellow and he certainly knows this. Since I've not seen the context in which he presents the images (i.e. an article?) I certainly would not comment further on such an out-of-context exhibit.

The image titled "Canon-Broadcast Lens-SDI" does indeed look significantly better, and that is because it is not DV. It was shot with Billups homemade Digibeta Direct-to-disc camera.

That isn't made completely clear on his site, but I emailed him a while back about that and he clarified it for me.

The first 4 images are from an XL-1. From what I understand, the final image is taking an RGB signal off the chips of an old Beta camera he modified. The signal is sent through a (Miranda, I think) A/D converter, and sent through SDI into his Mac for capture at 4:2:2 uncompressed.

There is a picture of his camera at the bottom of his camera page, next to Dan's VanceCam.

-Luis

Some more thoughts on this by me in this thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26644).

Those pictures are useless without an explanation on how they
where "captured". As Ken also pointed out. miniDV tape and
direct-to-disk record the exact same signal.

Thanks all for the considered investigation.

Michael