The Difference of HD
For Christmas this year, I asked for only one thing… money to go towards an HD video camera. When purchasing a camcorder last spring, I knew that HD was just introduced for consumer camcorders and promised better resolution but I was unimpressed with the Sony HD model at Best Buy. I just couldn’t see the difference when reviewing the image quality. I thought I would save some money and just invest in a better Mini-DV camcorder that offered wide screen. I figured if the footage is eventually all translated down into dvd format anyway, there really wasn’t justification for spending the additional $600 for HD. I purchased a non-HD Wide Screen Mini-DV Sony camcorder and was fairly happy with my choice.
In November, a collegue of mine, Kelly White, was asking me about camcorder choices. He was expecting a new child in December and was considering purchasing a camcorder. My advice has always been to buy a relatively cheap digital camcorder (one with few features) then purchase a Mac. He is a Windows nut (programs in .NET) and so the Mac advice fell on deaf ears, but he also questioned my advice on the cheap camcorder. He mentioned Canon’s new HD camcorder and asked me if that would be a better choice. He mentioned a website where Canon published actual footage from this new camcorder, the HV10. I checked it out that night and I could not believe what I was looking at. It was stunning. I must have watched the test video for an hour or two.
The next evening, I ran down to the local Best Buy and checked out this HV10. It was small, solid, and had a very impressive picture. I came home speechless. Alisha, my better half, asked me what I was grinning about. I let her know that for Christmas this year, all I want is one thing - money to go towards the purchase of a Canon HD HV10 camcorder. I told her to divert any money, funds, gifts intended for me from her or anyone in either of our families to this item. My wish was granted and for Christmas I did receive a shiny new HV10.
Below are some sample pictures (simulated and reconstructed from the hv10 to demonstrate apples to apples shot comparison) from my original Digital 8 Sony Camcorder purchased in 2002, the Widescreen Mini-DV Sony Camcorder purchased in spring of 2006, and the new Canon HD HV10 camcorder received this Christmas.
Comparison of details between the three camcorders
Sony DCR TRV-230 - standard picture
Sony DCR HC-46 - standard wide picture*
On Christmas morning, I plugged the camcorder into Alisha’s parents huge 61″ 1080p HD television and the footage looked gorgeous. The funny thing is, Alisha and I don’t even own an HD television. We still have an old 27″ conventional television (non flat or widescreen). I figure when we upgrade to an HD television in a few years, we’ll have plenty of great HD footage to enjoy of our two young boys. The biggest challenge right now is trying to figure out how to manage the 45gb of space each hour of hd footage takes up on the hard drive!
* What has always bothered me with this camcorder is that it isn’t true wide screen resolution. I noticed that the camera actually just crops the standard picture to artificially create a wide screen format. Whenever I was shooting with this camcorder, I would have to stand further back from the subject just to fit them into the shot. This is much different with the Canon where I can stand at a normal distance from the subject and fit them and the background into the shot.