If I record with an HDV camera and convert to SD, will the video look better (cleaner, more detail) than just recording with an SD camera?

any downside?

since there aren't many avenues for distibuting HDV yet, I thought this might be a way to get started with HDV and still get a good, usable product.

Thanks.

Depends, a $330,000 SD camera will shoot better SD material than material downconverted from a $3,000 HDV camera, or maybe even a $6,000 HDV camera.

Great point................ :0

What I'm asking is - comparing similarly priced SD and HDV cameras - let's say under $10k. Does the downrezed HDV look "better" than the SD? or is it a wash?

Is there a picture quality advantage in buying an HDV cam and down rezzing to SD, or just shooting SD?

Great point................ :0

What I'm asking is - comparing similarly priced SD and HDV cameras - let's say under $10k. Does the downrezed HDV look "better" than the SD? or is it a wash?

Is there a picture quality advantage in buying an HDV cam and down rezzing to SD, or just shooting SD?

It depends on just where you do the downrezzing. Shooting and recording DV in an HDV capable camera or downrezzing in the camera itself usually is no better than a comparable level SD camera. But shooting HDV and downrezzing when you render the final production in post gives images that to my eyes are noticably better than than SD from the get-go.

The VASST site has some comparison footage of a Sony Z1 downrezzed in the camera versus downrezzed in post and there's a marked difference.

Thanks for the helpful response.

So with HDV being native 16:9, down rezzing to SD will yield a widescreen image, yes?

When down rezzing from HDV to SD, is there a quality difference between starting with 720p as opposed to 1080i?

Or again is it based on whether the footage has a lot of motion rather than static scenes?