Canon Xh A1 HDV camera not 1920 x 1080?

AquariunGuru

AquariunGuru

Does anybody know the validity of this about the Canon Xh A1 HDV camera?:

"HDV is only a way to get near-HD recording for cheap. If cost is more important than image quality, then HDV is the way to go. This camera claims "True 1080" resolution. Unfortunately, that's a marketing term that is meaningless. No HDV camera can capture true HD 1080 resolution on tape which is defined as 1920x1080 pixels. The HDV format is limited to 1440x1080 and ultra-crummy 4:2:0 color sampling. Plus HDV's MPEG-2 codec is notoriously funky to edit with. You are missing about 25% of horizontal pixels with HDV compared to real HD.

I would not recommend HDV if you plan to do any chroma keying, visual effects (compositing) or extensive post effects (like Magic Bullet). If you need to do these things, I would only recommend an HDV camcorder that has uncompressed HDMI output paired with an Intensity Pro card for capture."

I am going to be pissed if my Canon Xh A1 does not do 1920 x 1080. How could Canon say that and then lie about it?
 
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Looks like the XH-A1 (I also own one) only does 1440x1080 for video :(, but does do 1920x1080 for still image captures.
http://www.usa.canon.com/app/html/HDV/XHA1/specifications.shtml
So I wonder what would be needed done to get the 1920x1080 more widescreen format look? I know the camera lets one choose the widescreen matted format when shooting, so though captured at 1440x1080 with the black matted bars at the top and bottom the video scene w:h ratio (but not pixel resolution) would be 1920:1080. Can software upconvert that to 1920x1080 pixel resolution, and if so would it be lossy?:huh:
 
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You can get a century optics 72mm thread anamorphic adaptor to squish the image from the 2.35:1 ratio to the 16:9 that the A1 shoots. I've played with Oakstreet's when he was in town...and it's really cool. Beautiful widescreen footage. My test was on a 4:3 camera, so the resulting image was 16:9...but full vertical resolution rather than matting it.

Once you get it into your editing system, there should be a checkbox somewhere for letting it know that it's anamorphic footage and it'll make it wider again. It'll still only technically be 1440, but you'll have the "real" widescreen aspect...it'll even have to letterbox on your big widescreen HD plasma tv :)

I wouldn't worry about it too much, the footage is phenomenal. I was really impressed with it. Heads and tails above my XL1s for image quality...and I know from personal experience that the XL1s projects on a 60' screen just fine.
 
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knightly said:
You can get a century optics 72mm thread anamorphic adaptor to squish the image from the 2.35:1 ratio to the 16:9 that the A1 shoots. I've played with Oakstreet's when he was in town...and it's really cool. Beautiful widescreen footage. My test was on a 4:3 camera, so the resulting image was 16:9...but full vertical resolution rather than matting it.

Once you get it into your editing system, there should be a checkbox somewhere for letting it know that it's anamorphic footage and it'll make it wider again. It'll still only technically be 1440, but you'll have the "real" widescreen aspect...it'll even have to letterbox on your big widescreen HD plasma tv :)

I wouldn't worry about it too much, the footage is phenomenal. I was really impressed with it. Heads and tails above my XL1s for image quality...and I know from personal experience that the XL1s projects on a 60' screen just fine.
Click to expand...

Ooooh. I need to look for that. I was losing sleep over the loss of resolution by cropping, and I prefer the 16x9 aspect for any narrative work I do.

Good stuff!

Hmmm... I can't seem to locate one that would fit on the 16x manual lens for XL1s. Oh, well. It also looks like they are priced to high heaven.

EDIT2: Found it. It's $1500.00. So much for that idea. I'll wait until it's time to upgrade the camera, and that's going to be awhile.
 
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I have the XHA1 and am also thinking lately that I will wait the Canon XH-A2 or whatever they will call the next in that line that will have the full HD resolution. I see all their recent consumer HD cameras have full HD resolution, so I have to think it is only a matter of a year or two or three until the XHA1 is vamped up to a full HD version, what it will be called remains to be seen, but it just seems a no-brainer for Canon to do. Otherwise I will just buy the equivalent from some other manufacturer in a couple of years if Canon is not smart enough to figure out what consumers want.

VPTurner said:
... Found it. It's $1500.00. So much for that idea. I'll wait until it's time to upgrade
the camera, and that's going to be awhile.
Click to expand...
 
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The A1, like ALL cameras anywhere near its price range has sensors that are 1400x1080 comprised of non-square pixels yielding an output resolution of 1920x1080. To get true 1920x1080 (+) sensors I believe you'll have to step up to a RED outfit for around $30K (including lenses, capture, etc). Further, the A1 has 3 sensors measuring RBG wavelengths separately which gives vastly superior results to the smaller "Handycam" style HD cams that use a single pixel-averaging "1920x1080" Bayer-Mask chip. All prosumer cams in the A1's price range use either a 1400x1080 3-chip system or the inferior 1920x1080 bayer-mask system. With the former system you "lose" some horizontal resolution, with the latter system you "lose" resolution everywhere as well as more color resolution too. As an owner of the A1 I must say that the quality of the image can be mind-blowing. The A1 strength lies in its multitude of settings allowing the user a great amount of control over the image before even going into post. HDV is a highly compressed format which usually doesn't lend itself to holding up under significant manipulation in post, however, the A1 gives you the control to capture the type of image you want in the field thus minimizing the amount of manipulation necessary in post.
 
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cal bickford said:
The A1, like ALL cameras anywhere near its price range has sensors that are 1400x1080 comprised of non-square pixels yielding an output resolution of 1920x1080.
Click to expand...

Not true.

The HV20 (which I own) has a 1920x1080 sensor. The image is squeezed to 1440x1080 before writing to tape to conform with the HDV standard, but if you were to run the HDMI from the camera into a Blackmagic Intensity card you can capture the full 1920x1080 image prior to that squeeze, assuming you are capturing live, rather than playing back the tape (in the case of the latter it would be upscaled back to 1920x1080)
 
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Do you guys do all your editing on HD monitors?

I've heard you can film in HD but downconvert to SD to edit but then keep as HD? I'm super confused about the whole mess. If you guys could direct me to somewhere that could explain the whole post production aspect of HDV it'd be a great help.
 
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If you want specific work flows, etc. Please specify your working environment. The work flow and specific capabilities may not be the same across platforms and NLEs.

I use Final Cut Pro on a Mac. I shoot in HDV, edit in HDV, I still use my NTSC (standard def) monitor for much of my editing, and I deliver in standard definition, although I like to create a high definition master to drool over and to archive in case anyone wants it after I've deleted the source clips. I had a HD monitor hooked up for a while, but it was considerably larger than my SD monitor and all I really need from the monitor is a color and luminance reference, so I went back to the trusty old SD CRT.
 
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