HD formats

24p Cameras:

Currently there are 2 cameras which does 24p in prosumer marker:

Canon XL2

Panasonic DVX100A.

Why is 24p important ?

Before we get into that. Have u noticed any difference between your 6’o clock news in TV and a DVD movie ? 6’o clock news is crisp bright and screams video video – but DVD movie is soft and dramatic. The main reason being TV afternoon dramas, News are all shot at 60i, that is 60 interlaced video. That is 60 fields per second. But a movie is shot at 24 frames per second. Also, movie is shot in a progressive mode, while 60i is shot in interlace mode. Progressive captures the entire scene in one instant. But interlace captures 30 fields in one second, and captures the next 30 fields in the next second. Mixes them both to produce a 60 field per second.

Let take an example of a car moving, and examine how the scene will look different when shot in both formats. Progressive will capture each scene as one frame, while interlace captures half frame in one second, then the car would have moved a bit in the next second where it captures the next frame. Of course, it will not to explicitly visible to an ordinary eye – but if you PAUSE the interlaced footage you will see all the edges jagged.

So where does 24p come in here ?
Quite simply put – 24p motion closely emulates the ‘feel’ of film. So you can fool your audience into thinking that you used a 35mm film camera to shoot. Smooth pleasing motion with the correct amount of motion blur. This will take the digital (read artificial) feel out of the camera.

HDV Cameras: Note, this is one of the variants of High Def format. There are many. Sony, Canon and JVC support HDV format, Panasonic has its own HD format called DVCPROHD. HDV is high definition DV. Digital Video is 720×480 pixels (4:3 ratio like TV), HDV is 1440×1080 pixels (16:9 ratio like Movies). Another major point is, HDV doesn’t not shoot 24p.

Sony is the first one to shake up the broadcast industry to produce a camera for a measly $3,500 with Sony HDR-FX1. Again, Sony followed it up with Sony HVR-Z1U for $4,999. The main difference between these two cameras are not image quality, but more pro features. Z1u has XLR inputs (external mic) and is NTSC/PAL switchable (60i/50i)

HDV currently is awkward to edit. But as with anything in the computer world things change very fast. Also these are not 24p cameras.

HDV vs DVCPROHD

HDV is a consumer format, based on interframe compression. It takes a bunch of pictures (15) and compresses them together. Technically it is prone to drop-outs on Tape, where 15 frames just disappear leading to a frozen .5 seconds or jerk. But solid state storage could potentially solve this.

DVCPROHD is based on intraframe compression. So it compresses each frame, and is independent of the frame before and after the current frame.

HDV is 4:2:0 and DVCPROHD is 4:2:2 which leades to better color sampling.

HDV is 25mps data while DVCPROHD can be as high as 100mps.

HDV can be recorded into orinary MiniDV tapes, while DVCPROHD needs special tapes or P2 solid state cards.

Upcoming 24p cameras:
Panasonic HDX-100 about $6,999 – $9,999 will shoot in many flavors. Standard DV (DVCPRO25), Digi-beta (DVCPRO50) and DVCPROHD (High Def). This will also sport a solid state storage device (like compact flash in dSLR)

JVC GY-HD100 about $6,999 – $9,999 will have interchangeable lenses and shoot a variant of HDV called ProHD. ProHD is a hacked HDV format which does a 24p. So you get best of both worlds. HDV and 24p. Unique