IBC: Sony announces HVR-V1e

[Heath McKnight]

I don't know if the FX7 will offer 24p, Steve, but I feel like the US version of the V1 will. Call it an educated gut feeling.

heath

[Wayne Morellini]

Pixel shift could easily give you 1920*1080. It might be just using better pixel shift calculations, and down scaling to 1440 calculations, than the Z1.


What a fuss about this clearvid stuff. Does it anywhere say that these cameras use rotated/bent pixels, clearvid, clearly, is more than those.

This bent/rotated pixel scheme almost reminds me of one of my one chip pixel shift designs.

I can see that it can pick up extra resolution in x and y direction by halving pixels on the adjacent rows/line shifted in between which can be used by processing to figure out more accurate resolution. But this takes away from the diagonals on a normal sensor. Please not, I am talking about a different form of processing than normal processing (which would produce stair casing). How many straight vertical or horizontal, features do you see in nature. But why bother, pixel shifting would give you the results anyway, and better.

What is the real reason. Well, going on what I just said. On a resolution chart you might get higher results, marketing. In nature scenes, it is so complex people will not notice diagonal problems as much. Straight lines are sued in houses and cities, where people will notice the benefits. Lastly, this reduces the quality of output in the chroma domain (not that it particularly matters at 4:2:0) the luma pixel values can be restored with smart processing. If you want to do special pixel processing of an uncompressed feed from the camera to produce better results, the bent/rotated pixels are likely to stuff up your results (my opinion). So, the real reason could be just to throw a spanner in the works to keep people going to higher end models. Again, I would be surprised if this had the rotated pixels, and if it did I imagine a 1/3rd inch model would not.

[Wayne Morellini]

There we go, that thread that was posted earlier, quotes, that it uses a new interpolation method to improve "quality".

We have a Sony insider on the board, perhaps he could enlighten us to where ever this has rotated pixels or not, if he is reading?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Wayne Morellini

There we go, that thread that was posted earlier, quotes, that it uses a new interpolation method to improve "quality".

We have a Sony insider on the board, perhaps he could enlighten us to where ever this has rotated pixels or not, if he is reading?

I'm prevented from commenting beyond saying that I've been putting the new camcorders through their paces. What folks keep saying/reading don't match up to the cam...and... What you'll see is what you'll hear about. Due to the magic fairy dust marketing and hype that seems to have accompanied some camera releases in the past year or so, Sony has been very assertive in telling me to release my own findings exactly as I find them regardless of where the chips fall, and that they'll be completely open about what is doing what on the camcorders. they've even provided me some testing mechanisms that I'd never considered because of the nature of old technology vs new.

[Heath McKnight]

Spot,

You've summed up our philosophy here perfectly: wait until you actually see it for yourself, or read about it from a trusted source, such as www.dvinfo.net/conf and our other sites (the main www.dvinfo.net, www.hdvinfo.net and www.p2info.net).

heath

[Bob Zimmerman]

Spot I knew you were on the job. Just please hurry!!

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Bob Zimmerman

Spot I knew you were on the job. Just please hurry!!

Bob, my stuff is ready to go. Sony has to pull the trigger.

[Bob Zimmerman]

That's great. Look forward to seeing it.

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

When I was in IBC a SONY rep show me a paper with the following comparison between Z1 and V1.

V1 Z1

vertical resolution 800 lines 650 lines
min illumination 4 lux 3 lux
focal length 37.04-748 32.5-390
progressive scan 25p(1080 lines) cineframe(540 lines)
LCD 16:9 211K 16:9 250k
60/50 switchable No Yes
camera profile Yes No
smooth slow rec Yes No
color correction No Yes
still pic 1.2Mpixels No
rec time NP-F970 8 hours 6.5 hours
weight 1.5Kg 2Kg
Price 4600 Euros 5500 Euros

I hope this will help clarify the differences and also the resolution issue.

In my opinion V1 is aimed towards journalists and certainly there will be a Z2 alternative with the same CMOS technology at 1/3 inch, hopefully towards NAB.

Please note that prices in Europe are higher than prices in USA.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Emmanuel,
Which Sony rep? In other words, who was he/she, and their position with Sony?

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

Actually it was a Sony technician who couldn't speak English, so he showed me a page from his flipbook and let me photograph it with my mobile. I just copied what I read from the page.

One other thing that strike me is that although in their single CMOS chip HC-3 camcorder they use a 2mp clearVid sensor in their more expensive camcorder they use a 1.2mp (again clearVid) although progessive and of course triple. Is that because the CMOS are still quite expensive or that the data from the 2mp will be difficult to proccess? (Lets not forget that Panasonic in their true progressive HVX 200 uses an almost SD resolution sensor).

Any comments



PS Since I'm a new member if someone can tell how to upload a jpeg file I can post the pic of the specs from my mobile

[Bob Zimmerman]

why do you think this is aimed at journalist?

[Heath McKnight]

I think it's aimed at everyone, with an eye on indie filmmakers if my theory of 24p in the USA version pans out.

heath

[Bob Zimmerman]

I don't see alot of TV crews with this size of camera in the US. I bet they wish they did sometimes.

[Heath McKnight]

I've seen TV stations with XL1/2 cameras, DVX100a's, etc., in addition to their BetaCAMs, DVCPro cameras, etc.

heath