A lot of you already have seen these but I sorted out the information along and posted it in my blog.

If you want to let other people know about it, go ahead and use this link.
Please do not give the direct links to the files, so it looses the explanations.

Also, please feel free to leave some comments at the bottom of the blog posting. If you don't, I feel like just doing it for myself and make me look kinda lonley(lol). The blog has some Japanese posts, but most of the posts are in English, so don't be shy even if you see the Japanese articles.

http://homepage.mac.com/kakuito/blogwavestudio/LH20040611105919/LHA20040726115115/index.html

Now I used GS400 and GS100 to compare psuedo-progressive and interlaced footage. The result was very interesting.

If you have objection the way I treated these footage, please give me your suggestion.

30p & 60i comparison footage
http://homepage.mac.com/kakuito/blogwavestudio/LH20040611105919/LHA20040726232350/index.html

I am curious as to everyone's opinion on the video comparisons. I played the files in VLC, and honestly thought the GS100 looked better. It seemed to be brighter? Is there any reason for this? Am i not viewing these correctly?

In the comparison, with the GS100 footage and the GS400 footage side by side, the GS100 seemed brighter, and colors seemed more vivid. Any thoughts?

On my computer, I found the gs100 footage very, very close to that of the gs400. But I think Kaku is recommending burning a dvd and then playing back the footage on your television. For most people that's where the footage will ultimately be viewed, and that's the real test. Haven't done it yet, but I will eventually, even though I am not really in the market for a new cam and would actually be most interested in footage shot inside in normally lit, evening conditions.

I find the DVC30 to have the brightest image.
If you look at the tree leafs in the background you will notice the overexposure, an intense lime.
On the computer I am having a hard time to discern between the 3 except for the brightness and the camera position.

If someone could point out the details to recognize the better one, please do it :)
(BTW, I never said I am pro)

I saw little difference in these clips when watching on mpeg2 viewer on the computer.

But then I burned to DVD and I saw the light.

What I mean, is that the GS400 looks amazing - better than the rest.

People, you have to burn the DVD to appreciate the differences.

I just viewed the interlaced and deinterlaced side by side 400/100. I used PowerDVD to view the image full screen.

The 100's image is overexposed compared to the 400 so it is brighter, but colors are oversaturated. The sky is white on the 100. The 400 shows some blue and some extra detail in the sky. Overall the 400's color looks more realistic to me.

The 400's shaprness is really surprising considering it was shot in 30P and it is not true progressive and yet it looks as sharp as the 100 which was shot in 60i.

The deinterlaced image from the 100 showed lots of stairstepping on the top of the fence, the railings, and the stripe.

As far as the 30/400 matchup, I couldn't see the difference in 4:3, but the 400 was superior in 16:9.

Thanks for your work Kaku.

<<<-- Originally posted by Mark Hilton : I am curious as to everyone's opinion on the video comparisons. I played the files in VLC, and honestly thought the GS100 looked better. It seemed to be brighter? Is there any reason for this? Am i not viewing these correctly?

In the comparison, with the GS100 footage and the GS400 footage side by side, the GS100 seemed brighter, and colors seemed more vivid. Any thoughts? -->>>

Yes, it is hard to recognize the resolution difference when they are playing. And you are right, GS400 set it self darker when you put it in the procinema mode. I will adjust the brightness manually next time. I guess panasonic sets the procinema mode darker than regular video mode, because if you see over exposure on procinema, it makes less film like(?). But the result is that you seem to get more gradation on middle light range. In this side by side comparison, you will see GS100 having a lot more contrust and with interlace, moving object moving smoother.

My conclusion about shooting mode so far is that, I will shoot fast moving object with interlace mode when I will edit the footage with the original speed for the smoothness and more action to be captured and played back. Then if I know I will make the footage edited to be slow motion, I will shoot in the procinema mode since each frame would have finer resolution and it looks more pleasant.

Another fact is that when you are shooting in frame mode, if your camera work is not steady, it will look very shaky. May be it is because "OIS" does not work as good as Sony's stabilization, but frame mode makes it less stable, so if I'm on a vehicle shooting something, I would put it on interlace.
If GS400 had slower shutter speed, you might be able to get around with slower shutter speed, but you will get not as clear image (more bluring is introduce because of the slower shutter speed), but sometimes it is a nice effect espacially for gliding by kind of image.

Can't stay away from this site even during my vacation, and even through remote access :-)

Great job Kaku! SUGOI DESU NE!!!

I think another interesting comparison would be between the GS400 and the GS100 shooting under exactly the same mode. (procinema x procinema, widescreen interlaced x widescreen interlaced, normal interlaced x normal interlaced).

Because for those who haven't used the GS100, it's procinema exhibits a similar "darker" footage with jerky movement compared to interlaced, that's why personally, I prefer interlaced shooting (widescreen) for my home videos. Of course, brightness can be manually adjusted to one's preference. But I would certainly be very curious to know if there is any recognizable difference between the GS100 and GS400 under the same shooting mode. Another Jap mag reviewer commented that the GS400 gave the impression of a "cleaner" look compared to the GS100, that is, less edge enhancement artifacts due to its tweaked Crystal Engine. Samples frames grabs of the same scene taken using the GS400 and the GS100 seem to prove his claim.


Many thanks!!!

Thanks, Allan.

Did you see the first link? The first link has the shot comparison at the same mode. Check'em out.

I do actually have the interlaced comparison. So I will post them later.
Only mistake I made when I did the test shooting is that when I shot 4:3 comparison of the three cams, I mistakenly left the DVC30 at 4:3 and movie-like (I intended to do interlaced with no special gamma). So, I did the other shooting in front of my house. I upgraded my dotMac disk space to 500MB, so I can put several other clips.

I was looking at the access analisys on my page and surprised to find that most of you are windows users. What are your impressions about Mac?

O yeah Kaku, sorry I went straight to the second link. When you're not using your own PC, you tend to rush things. :-) I'll check out the first link later, hopefully after dinner.

Allan,

no problem. I though I should post a different thread for the second one and now I know I should have. I will organaize better for the next time.

Now I'm sending the comparison file of 400@30p/pdx10@60i/100@60i and 400@30p/pdx10@60iDI/100@60iDI (DI stands for deinterlaced). Do you think I should post a seperate thread, so everybody stricktly respond for that particular subject?

Kaku, you should post a new thread that says something like 7/26/04 (or is it 27 where you are?) Update on 100/400/dvc30 Comparison Footage. Start by telling everyone what the rules are for viewing, what the files contain, that they may have to unzip files, and then post the link. Makes it easier for you and for all who want to view. Esp. important if you want everyone to understand that they need to respect your rights to the footage.

oops. I already posted the new thread and I was thinking exactly like what you said. Thought about the rights and stuff but now it is too much for me to sort out my rights and stuff, so I just superimposed the url. as long as someone doesn't use it to do anything wrong or modify it.

It's hard for me to put the rights and disclaimer in second language. Do you have anyting that I can copy (public domain) from?

<<<-- Originally posted by Patricia Kim : Kaku, you should post a new thread that says something like 7/26/04 (or is it 27 where you are?) Update on 100/400/dvc30 Comparison Footage. Start by telling everyone what the rules are for viewing, what the files contain, that they may have to unzip files, and then post the link. Makes it easier for you and for all who want to view. Esp. important if you want everyone to understand that they need to respect your rights to the footage. -->>>

Sorry, Kaku, I don't have any language. What about posting a general notice on your web site itself that all rights are reserved? Also, in the business forum of dvinfo there are probably folks who can help direct you to what the general language is that is used.

err.. the top ones are in hqx format while the widescreen ones are in mpg..

any ideas on seeing the hqx??

hmm.. the DVC30 footage looks horrible.. by the mush of colours to the resolution it seems that some setting or WB config has set it to a warm ugly bright overexposed orange.. detail is non existant and theres something seriously wrong here..

as for the GS400, it looks stunning, nice dark contrasts a lil under exposed, great detail.. but.. something about it just doesnt cut it.. i dunno...

thx for puttin them up;)

<<<-- Originally posted by Peter Jefferson : hmm.. the DVC30 footage looks horrible.. by the mush of colours to the resolution it seems that some setting or WB config has set it to a warm ugly bright overexposed orange.. detail is non existant and theres something seriously wrong here..

as for the GS400, it looks stunning, nice dark contrasts a lil under exposed, great detail.. but.. something about it just doesnt cut it.. i dunno...

thx for puttin them up;) -->>>

As far as the brightness, I had to set it to be able to see what's happening in the woods, not set to the bright part. I kept it that way since I was not going to do any adjusting in the software. For real world usage, I would shoot little darker, and adjust the brightness in the software.
Something about GS400, what I notice is that it looks little green. That is what I think wrong with default GS400.

Looks good Kaku. Thanks!

I noticed some blue fringes on the GS400 esecially between the leaves and the sky on the right. There was less of that with the DVC30, but then it just looked a little washed out. Overall, the GS400 looks very impressive. Is there any reason to get a DVC30? Is it possible to get the DVC30 to look better by adjusting the setting on the camera and maybe the levels in post.

I am asking because i need to get a camera very soon and i was thinking about the DVC30, but now i am uncertain.

<<<-- Originally posted by Erik J. Sturcke : Looks good Kaku. Thanks!

I noticed some blue fringes on the GS400 esecially between the leaves and the sky on the right. There was less of that with the DVC30, but then it just looked a little washed out. Overall, the GS400 looks very impressive. Is there any reason to get a DVC30? Is it possible to get the DVC30 to look better by adjusting the setting on the camera and maybe the levels in post.

I am asking because i need to get a camera very soon and i was thinking about the DVC30, but now i am uncertain. -->>>

Erik,
If you don't do anamorphic shooting, DVC30 is better to shoot, because of more control over the parameters. Each one has its own forte, GS100 is the smallest and lightest but still offers hi-res anamorphic, DVC30 has very useful multi-function ring with simultenous control over parameters (not as much as other pro-cams, though) and GS400 has the mixture of good points of both, but lacking few features. If you describe how you want your cam to work and myabe I can suggest.

Thanks for your time Kaku,

We are looking for a camera that has good manual controls that we can grow into. The stuff we have been doing up to now is mainly documentary/interview style stuff and some motion graphics stuff with video componets. But we would also like something that can have a more dramatic feel, so we am interested in frame mode.

Size of the camera does not matter much. 16x9 sounds attractive, but i think it is not needed for what we will do.

We will work with the footage in Premiere and After Effects and the output will be to DVD and then presented on an LCD projector.

The price we were looking at is around $2000, so the DVC30 fits nicely. We were also looking at the VX2100.

We need to get it very soon, so we might not be able to wait for the gs400, i just want to make sure we are not sorry with what we got right after getting it.

Erik,

You should see the actual product for you to decide but, if you don't care to do 16:9, then DVC30 might be suitable for you.

Since you do interview, DVC30's line-ins will be handy for you to connect condensor microphones or lines from a mixer or other line lever sources. PDX-10 has this feature, too. DVC30's frame mode would give you a lot finer frames than interlaced video, so if you want to slow the speed in the edit, eash frame would be higer resolution and this is important when you use projector to show which is always a challenge for DV cam format (I found that setting a little bit of unsharp mask would help for projector use).

Nice feel and dynamic zoom work you can get out of DVC30's multi-function ring would give you good control for your documentary shooting. This is refered from my experience in using Canon XL1, which has too slow manual zoom ring (i tried the original lenz only), VX1000 which has rather heavy feel, DSR-PDX10 which has no manual zoom ring and NV-GS400 which the multi-function ring with heavy feel. Among all of them, I like the feel and effect of DVC30's multi-function ring. Some pros might say, the response is not as direct, but this gives you the same kind of behavior like the panning on Vinten tripod. Smooth start with no wubbling, and automatic smooth stop, so the video gets very nice and usable.

Haven't tried much of VX2100, so I can't compare with it, but since I found that shooting with frame mode is finner than deinterlacing later with the software, to shoot with frame mode is very valuable so, to me, DVC30 would be my choice over any sony cam.

But make sure you make your dicision by actually feeling and seeing.

Hope you make a good decision.

Thanks again. The DVC30 seems like a good fit. I would like to try them out, but the authorized dealers i called around here don't have any to try out, they have to order them.

Hi, been out of the DV scene for awhile. But then this cursed GS400 pops up. So, is there any verdict yet on how much better (if at all) it is compared to the GS100? Is it worth upgrading? Can someone please give me a quick rundown on the main advantages of over the GS100 (aside from the 4 mega pixels ;))?

By the way, it looks like Panasonic are being nice to everyone this time. They've released the GS400 globally at the same time, right? At least I saw it on display already last week in Singapore.

<<<-- Originally posted by Aylwin Cal :Is it worth upgrading? Can someone please give me a quick rundown on the main advantages of over the GS100 (aside from the 4 mega pixels ;))? -->>>

If you want to manually control zooming or iris with the ring, it is the new feature on GS400 and not on GS100. It is called multi-function ring. Video quality wise, you can see some improvement on wide mode for sure. But if you like the smallness and the lightness of the GS100, GS400 is bit larger (I would say thicker) and heavier.

Oh, the new mode dial, I don't know this is good or not. When I was shooting on my bike (kinda like on-board) by grabbing in my palm, my wrist hits the dial and it was changing the mode. It happened few times.

Thanks for the reply! I find that practical info is always more helpful than simply a specs comparison. I only shoot in wide mode so that might be a consideration for me.

I've only seen the GS400 twice (again yesterday at Eiden) so I didn't immediately notice that it's bigger since the shape is the more or less the same. Now that I have my GS100 in my hand, yeah, I notice now that the GS400 was bigger and heavier. That's not necessarily a disadvantage though. I guess I'll have to make many trips to the store to play with it some more. :)

I also noticed the mode dial. There were at least 4 modes compared to 3 on the GS100. But I guess only the first 2 are important for me. Once thing I immediately noticed with the GS400 in my hand is that I prefer the grip of the GS100. The GS100 has the nice rubber on top for your fingers. If I remember correctly, it was all plastic on the GS400.

Good work on the comparison! I'll need to take a closer look at the shots when I have more time. By the way, have you noticed any improvement in low light shooting? This is also an important one for me.

Thanks,
Aylwin

Kaku,

Some people on Camcorderinfo are saying the GS400 has some barrel distortion in the viewfinder when zoomed all the way out. Do you notice any?

Aylwin, the grip part you talking about IS ruber but with different engraving, so GS400's might feel a little stiffer. I have some footage at shot at night, so please wait. I will post them in a while.

Rokta, it might look like the center is coming up toward you a little. But it could look like it because the eges are little darker? When I zoom out all the way, by shooting 120 inch white screen, the edges of the screen seem to be correct, not really warped.