Digital Video - August 2008 - (Page 14)

IN REVIEW CANON HV30 CAMCORDER The chip is, but the recording once again does some finagling to get onto MiniDV tape. The 60i recording format is used to reduce bandwidth in order for material to fit onto that narrow tape. For the HV30’s new 30p format, 30p is really laid down as 30psf, or 30 progressive segmented frames. A progressive frame is split into two data-reduced frames to be recorded as interlace. The two frames are put back together upon output to form one progressive frame. Now these are frames, not typical interlace-originated fields, so the image quality is much better than field interlace but not entirely immune to interlace artifacts. In the case of 24p, or 24psf, to get to 30 frames — or rather 60i — for recording, six additional fake frames are created via an added pulldown. I captured an hour’s worth of HDV 30psf footage in Adobe Premiere CS3 at 1080i 60 and 1080p 30. Interestingly, the footage played back in its entirety and could be edited just fine in both formats. That’s how the HV30 functions, but how does it perform? Outdoors and in bright, daylight interiors, the HV30’s images were solid. For darker scenes even with opening the lens up wider, the image started to noise up quickly. The HV30 could be used as a B camera to some larger-chipped brethren, but due to its lower sensitivity, you could have trouble getting the “grain” to match in certain lighting situations. The built-in microphone suffers from the placement choice — directly above the zoom lens. It picked up zoom motor noise and every finger touch on the HV30’s unibody. I opted for an attached external mike, and you should, too. The HV30 is a consumer camera, not a professional one. Looking at it from a consumer perspective, the HV30 is quite good for $999. It’s HD — well, HDV — and in old-fashioned MPEG-2, which means your footage can be edited with any application these days without fancy codecs, patches or updates. DV You’ll find an extended version of this review on our site. Visit DV online. BACK IN BLACK THE CANON HV30 IS WELL-PRICED PERFORMER. BY DOUGLAS BANKSTON T his past January, our very own Chuck Gloman reviewed the Canon HV20 HDV camcorder, lauding it with 3.5 out of 5 diamonds. Soon after, Canon followed up its widely praised HV20 with the HV30. I haven’t shot with the HV20, so the HV30 is my first experience with this line. Comparing the HV20 to the HV30, really not much has changed, except that the HV30 is in a better-looking black and a 30p shooting mode has been added. Though 1920x1080 HD is claimed, HDV is stamped clearly on the side of the camera. HDV is a stunted 1440x1080 format so that recorded material can fit onto MiniDV tape. And the HV30 features 24- and 30frame progressive shooting modes, but the HV30’s recording is based on interlaced (60i) architecture. So what’s the deal? Let’s start with the 1920 vs. 1440 SCORE CANON HV30 PROS: Compact, attractive price-to-performance ratio, universal digital editing format. CONS: Lower sensitivity, built-in microphone placement, autofocus can be fooled at times. BOTTOM LINE: From a consumer perspective, the HV30 is quite good for the price. MSRP: $999 CONTACT: www.usa.canon.com 14 dv august 2008 issue. The HV30 has the same 1920x1080 progressive CMOS sensor as the HV20. The pixels are square. In order to put 1920 square pixels of a frame onto a MiniDV tape with limited bandwidth, those pixels are converted to 1440 rectangle pixels, which are actually bigger. That seems counterintuitive — putting bigger pixels onto a tiny tape. Upon output, the 1440 rectangle pixels are resized back to 1920 square pixels. Getting a square pixel out of a rectangle one will yield leftover pieces. These extra pieces are what form the additional pixels that flesh out 1440 to full 1920. Essentially, HDV is a wedging of 1920 material into 1440-pixel space. If you were to view this 1440 material at 1440x1080, it would look squeezed. The FireWire output of the camera is 1440 HDV, but the HV30 does boast an HDMI jack. I connected the HV30 to my TV with an HDMI cable. Live viewing is full 1920 resolution, however, anything played back from tape goes through the 1920 to 1440 to 1920 HDV compromise. If there is a capture card that accepts HDMI (I don’t know of any offhand) and record to disk or laptop, then theoretically you could bypass the HDV conversion and get native 1920 HD images. The HV30 is based on 60i recording to MiniDV tape, but features progressive recording modes. Is it true progressive? www.dv.com http://www.dv.com http://www.usa.canon.com http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - August 2008

Digital Video - August 2008 Contents DV Update My Studio Close-Up Wristshot HV30 Camcorder Tiffen DFX Bench Test PCM-D50 & R-09HR Recorders Camera Cradle Instant Expert My Passport Elite High School Confidential The Ultimate DIY Raid DV101 Click to Play Production Diary

Digital Video - August 2008

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