quality and resolution

[Daniel Hollister]

hi -
i've been filming with my gl-2, and although i am very impressed with it, the resolution really seems lower when shown on a large HDTV. (or any large screen i imagine.) but specifically, i have been filming videos and showing them at my school on a 52" hdtv. now, on anything relatively small, the gl2's resolution appears great. but when blown up this much, it doesn't look very good anymore, especially on full or wide shots. the only great-looking shots were close-ups.

now i suppose blowing up the image would do this to any camera, but i see a lot about the gl2 vx. the ag-dvx100, and a friend of mine shows his films on the same tv and the image quality is truly stunning. there appears to be no stair-stepping or pixellation of any kind, which is just not so with the gl-2.

so i am wondering of ways to maximize the resolution. i usually shot in frame mode, but i found that if i shoot in normal mode but at a 1/30 shutter speed, it delivers the filmish look without resolution loss. but what about things like color gain, sharpness, color phase, setup, etc? do they decrease resolutoin when raised above the default? how bout when you lower them below the default, does this degrade at all? i know that using gaiin is bad, i always have it at 0db, but i was wondering about the rest. any other tips to get the best resolution out of the gl2?

i know i may sound like a bit of a resolution freak, but i have high hopes. my friend with the ag-dvx not only showed his films on the 52"hdtv, but also on twelve-foot screen projected a few weeks ago, and the quality still looked incredible. i intend to be showing my films in this method soon as well, and would, of course, love for the image quality to look incredible as well.

thanks,
daniel

[Jeff Donald]

I think the GL2 uses an auto gain feature in all modes except full manual exposure. This might be altering your shots without you even knowing it.

[Don Palomaki]

The MiniDV image is limited to 720x480 pixels. This will look pixelated on a large screen, especially if on a HiDef system. To make it appear better, stand back so the visual angle subtended by the image remains the same. That is, view the 52" image from about 2x the distance you would view a 26" image.

Close ups (especially of people) look better because ther is less tiny detail needed to complete the image in the brain.

[Daniel Hollister]

then why, may i ask, does it seem like my friend's ag-dvx has stunning quality on the same set from the same distance?

oh yeah, and i have the camera set to full manual so the gain is always down.

[Don Donatello]

most HD TV's can do PROGRESSIVE (480P/720p) and thats where the DVX 100 will shine 480p and if the HD is up rezzing to 720p another PLUS ... ... remember canon frame mode is approx 360max lines resolution ... where as dvx progressive approx 500+ ...

if you switch both camera's to interlace then the difference will be difficult to see ... but then you will get to see interlace artifacts on the up-rezzing ...

[Brian Kaz]

I have a 48" HDTV and I've been doing tons of tests with my new GL2. One of my main test subjects has been a McFarlane Evil Ash Figure because of the high detail and my video looks great in 480p on a burned DVD.

And now it's even better since I got Magic Bullet. I shoot interlaced and let MB convert my video to 30p and I have some shots that look VERY filmlike with NO interlace artifacts.

Like some, I wondered if I should have went with the DVX100, but with the right software, a little tweaking and good source material (of course), I am truly impressed with my GL2.

That said, I can't wait to get my 16:9 attachment!

[Kevin King]

I've noticed the same thing. I have a 38" widescreen HDTV. The only thing that really looks good on this tv is actual HDTV programming, and DVD's from my progressive scan DVD player. Regular TV from my cable box looked better on my old analog 4:3 36" TV.

I did much testing with different modes, and I've stopped using frame mode because of this - shooting the same subject, "normal" mode looks very sharp, and "frame" mode looks significantly more fuzzy.

As for custom settings & setup - I played with this by outputting the live image via s-video to my TV and playing with the camera settings while I could see the actual results live on the big screen. I personally found that dropping the sharpness by 1 or 2 setps really helped with the noise without dropping much detail.

I've found the auto focus on the GL2 to be somewhat slow and sometimes hard to predict. I have several shots saved where a subject filled the frame, but the camera somehow sharply focused on a post behind and to the side of the intended subject - it's not very noticable, but just slightly dropped the sharpness due to being slightly out of focus. I now force myself to use manual focus as much as possible.

And finally, if you shoot in manaul, try to keep your f/stop mid range. This maximizes depth of field, but when you get it very small (higher number, just short of being totally closed) it seems to lower the image quality a bit.

Good luck and keep us posted on your results.

[Barry Goyette]

Daniel

Unfortunately, what every one has said so far here is right...The Gl2 is an SD camera, so its really not designed for presentation on a large HD monitor, so it will typically look like crap (as does most every SD source). The DVX, being a 480p camera does look surprisingly good on my 34 inch HD sony wega, whereas the gl2 image is pretty aliased(I own both cameras). You might try lowering the sharpness a couple of notches...this will take away some of the aliasing, which to me is the main objectionable artifact in the gl2 image.

Barry

[Michael A. Davis]

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : I think the GL2 uses an auto gain feature in all modes except full manual exposure. This might be altering your shots without you even knowing it. -->>>

SPOTLIGHT mode keeps the gain at 0 at all times. Aperture and speed continue to be automatically adjusted.
Took me forever to notice this feature.
When I am not shooting in manual, it stays on SPOTLIGHT.