Comments on: The movie-maker

by: Rasty

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Here there have been a lot of scandals about how TV changes content by just a few smart cuts here and there..

Anyway, I’m getting thrilled by the recent all-digital cameras that save on memory cards. The biggest issue with these is of course the amount of space, pretty limited (and expensive) for now even with the stock 2gb Samsung one.. but give it 1 or 2 years and memory will hopefully be cheap enough to afford some decent recording times!
woo!

by: Rasty

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Humm I’ve just done a little research and it looks like the SAMSUNG VP-M110 I was talking about has a host USB2.0 connection for moemory sticks or hard drives.. This way, one could very well bring along a 2″ HD with a USB case (I’ve got a 60gb one, they’re unexpensive now) and transfer the movies from the Camera to the HD without the need to bring along a laptop PC!
woowoo!

by: Davide Pasca

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Hold your horses !

Having to deal with tapes is a pain, but the quality makes it worth it.
I have a relatively old Sony DCR-PC101 with MiniDV tapes. I think that for one hour of filming it takes about 18GB of space.

Those 2GB solutions probably encode directly in MPEG2/4 format. The MiniDV encodes with some sort of MJPEG, no motion artifacts.

I suspect that having something encoded with MPEG2 can compromise the eventual post-processing.
Also keep in mind that motion compression is a very processor intensive work. The more time and power you have, the better the result.
I don't think that something so small that runs on battery really has enough power to do a great job at compressing MPEG2/4 at 30fps...

Of course, one just wants a compact camera to bring anywhere, to film this and that.
It's my experience however that, unless you want to bore spectators, you should bore yourself doing editing and all the postoprocessing necessary to improve quality.

Those small cameras are probably quite worse at shooting indoor. That means that you'll have to reprocess the whole thing boasting brightness, contrast and saturation (I already have to do it with my camcorder).

I've been thinking quite a bit on what I wanted next from a camcorder, and I decided that I'll go for another expensive MiniDV. One that is especially good at indoors. Basically with very good sensors, that naturally give good color and reduce noise.

by: rince

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

yo razdee, long time no see, you married yet?

by the way what do you think of the Gizmondo handheld? Are we going to get a review from you?

by: Rasty

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Hola Mr. Rincecream!
No way I’m married yet but if yours is a proposal I may consider it :)
I doubt the Gizmondo will be reviewable by me since it doesn’t happen to be available around here.. maybe I’d get a trip to the US!

Kaz I think you’re right about the compression stuff.. it has to be seen how good/bad is the MPEG4 quality these cameras produce, mostly after some postprocessing, and if one’s willing to compromise some quality for the increased manageability…!

The thing is I never really liked tape cameras and am really looking forward to a good alternative.. maybe the time has not come yet for the all-digital cameras but this sure is a step in the right direction! woo!