4:3 dumb-down in the Z1: noticeable loss of quality
 

Hello All...

I've recently shot some stuff where I didn't know what type of TV/projector would be used to play the video. As such, I turned the DV Wide mode off and shot in DV SP at 4:3. The resultant image wasn't very good. In fact, my old XL1 (with a native 4:3 chip?), produced a better image. Has anyone else experienced this? What is happening when the DV wide mode is turned off? I thought it simply cropped the sides...but there's such a noticeable difference between the native 16:9 and "4:3", that the 4:3 appears almost useless.

Should I even bother with 4:3 and just not worry about the what TV the video might be played?

Thanks again!

Andrew Stone

We know that in 4x3 we are actually using less resolution than other 4x3 native cameras but the loss in quality should not be that obvious. Do you think the problem was the projector?

Images shot with the XL1 looked better on the same TV...mmmmmm, probably not the monitor.

There must be something not adjusted properly. I have shot with the PD170 and the Z1 in DV mode and matched the cameras pretty well. And this is recorgnizing the fact that the image of a pd170 in general is better than a Canon XL1.

I shot 4x3 DV on the FX1, and didn't notice it being excessively soft... seemed, sharpness-wise, on par with other DV cameras.

I think that if you set the sharpness in the FX1 on par with other Sony cams, you WILL notice a softness. A standard setting of 8-9 is really equal to 11-12 on the Z1, I can only assume the FX1 would be the same. Not having very much shooting experience with the FX1, I can't say for certain.