During the high-definition wars, your feelings about new higher-capacity storage discs may have ranged from ambivalence to dread to simple disinterest. (Well, that’s how I felt, anyway.) But with Blu-ray triumphant comes this realization: "hey, brain, we’ve suddenly got increasingly-affordable ways of burning high-capacity media!" Drive upgrades on the PC side cost what DVD burners once did, and if you’re hooked up to a TV, the writer can be your player, too. (There’s already a Lite-On internal drive for around US$350, and I expect these prices will plummet as production ramps up.)

That’s burning, anyway — authoring is obviously essential.

After my last slow motion tests with my Sony HVR-V1P, CDMo reader FANF gave me some quick tips on how to run a resolution test.

Now here is a little protocol for definition testing: Get his first: http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/misc/ISO_12233-reschart.pdf
Print it 350 dpi min, 600 recommended.

Place it in a well lit spot, in the sun for example, fixed to the wall. Use a spirit level. Place your camera with the optical axis perpendicular to the plane of the testchart (measure hight, use spirit level).
You should not see the white triangles on the underscanned image. No white triangle pointing into the image, the black triangles should ideally be pointing to the perfect edge of the screen.

To test the resolution/definition on the full breadth of the lens, do a test at wide angle, mid, and full tele, placing camera/testchart at the right distance for the scale to be right.
It would be equally important to test each focal at iris values 1.6, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 to have a good idea of how definition rises and falls when you stop down.
To do this, use the “aperture prioriy” or “Av” program mode on your camera for correct exposure.

The definition of your camera, horizontal & vertical being distinct, is read by following the lines along the higher numbers ; the number where you cannot distinguish them from one another is your definition, in n x 100 lines. (Make sure you zoom into digitalised footage to measure the image, and not your screen !)

Now I have to admit that I didn’t quite go through with all of the different angles and apertures, and I’m not entirely certain that the resolution chart was printed to the correct size, but it doesn’t matter, as the difference between different shooting modes is obvious, even without meticulous shooting and calibration.

The images created by this process are reasonably large (1920×1080 to be precise), so I’m going to offer some small crops to discuss, and then offer up the full size images for download and examination at the end of the piece, if the mood takes you.

First up, a couple of 1:1 crops taken from the uncompressed HDMI output of the camera. This is with no HDV compression, so apart from JPG compression for the web these are the pixels as seen by the sensor. Obviously the lighting is a little low, but you can see that the resolution goes down to around 800 lines before it starts getting difficult to distinguish. All of the numbers and markings are easy to distinguish, and there aren’t any hugely obvious compression artifacts.

Quite a few of you raised an eyebrow when we topped our gift guide with the Canon HV20, an affordable (as little as us$700) HDV camcorder. Like the New England Patriots (that’s American football for the rest of the world), the Canon HV20 appears to be largely unbeaten as the best-available visualist-friendly camera. It’s small, it’s light, it’s cheap, it does HDV, ’nuff said. It’s also eminently upgrade-friendly, with indie producers adding 35mm lenses and nifty accessories. And even those of you with larger, more powerful cameras occasionally want something you can toss in a backpack or use as a backup.

But that got me wondering — is the HV20 really One Camera to Rule Them All?

I have a couple of candidates I think could be interesting.

The big rival as far as HDV appears to be Sony. The HDR-HC7, for instance, has more sophisticated manual controls than the HV20, and I like Sony’s night-shot mode for extreme infrared applications. It’s also a little heftier than the Canon, in a good way — it’s a camera I find comfortable to hold. cnet even likes the Sony better than the HV20. (camcorderinfo.com begs to differ; see their link below) Like many things in life, it looks even cooler in Japanese.

Unfortunately, "manual control" on a consumer-level Sony means navigating the horrible touch screen interface, and worse yet the HDR-HC7 introduces a bizarre new manual focus multi-function control. (Translation: some strange add-on bit of plastic that’s utterly useless for controlling anything.) All that said, I do like Sony’s cameras, despite their quirks.

Here’s the problem: the HDR-HC7 is running a street of over $1100, while the HV20 is well below $800. Is the Sony $300 better than the Canon? (Heck, is the Sony better than the Canon, period?) Tough to justify, I think.

Peter’s post on projector orientation myths prodded my memory on an issue I encountered while picking up my shiny new camera. While finalizing the lease paperwork the sales guy went out of his way to bring my attention to a slice of A4 treeware contained within the box. The text printed on it prophesized a dire future for anyone plugging a firewire cable into their camera while the computer is switched on.

Dan’s recent letter on the subject prompted me to post this to get some feedback from the visualist community. Has this happened to anyone? Has a manufacturer denied you warranty service because they say you plugged in your firewire cable backwards? Here’s the full text of the warning which came with my camera:

Sony Corporation of Hong Kong Limited
Broadcast and Professional Pacific Asia Company

Date: September 1, 2006

Precaution: i.LINK Cable Connection

- Before connecting the i.LINK cable to a computer or Sony unit, please check the direction of the jack. The i.LINK connector on the computer may be damaged or cause the unit to malfunction of you forcefully insert the jack. Please align [up arrow] mark of the i.LINK cable with [down arrow] mark on the Sony unit before insert the i.LINK cable.

- Please connect the i.LINK cable to a computer before connect it to the Sony unit. If you connect the i.LINK cable to the Sony unit first, it may cause the unit to malfunction caused by static electricity.

- When you connecting the Sony unit to any equipment with a 6-pin type i.LINK jack, always connect the cable to the 6-pin i.LINK jack first.

- When you connect the Sony unit to any equipment with a 6-pin type i.LINK jack, always power off the equipment and remove the power cord from the AC outlet while inserting the i.LINK cable. Fail to do above action may result in high current flow between the cable and the equipment, which may cause damage.

… Huh? I thought that hotplugging was part of what makes Firewire so great? Do other manufacturers have issues with this, or have Sony just done something daft in their design and not fixed it? The helpful guy I bought my camera from told me that you can buy a special surge-isolating firewire cable to prevent this, at a price of several hundred dollars.

Hello Internets! I’ve returned from gallivanting around the country and have a couple of weeks while we refuel and plan the next leg of the tour. One of the first tasks I’ve set myself is to get a better video camera, and was all set to pick up a Canon XH-A1 when I found out that it doesn’t have S-Video in or out. That cuts down my options a little for live visuals, as I wouldn’t be able to mix in this camera’s output without an expensive scan converter or going via Firewire, which introduces latency and creates cabling issues.

So now I’m in a quandry, and with that seed of doubt sewn, I’ve opened up to many possibilities: Sony’s HDR-FX1, Panasonic’s HVX series, or perhaps something compact and tapeless, like JVC’s Everio series.

I had a chat to Peter, who suggested that I ask you, dear reader. What are you using for your video capturing needs? Have you gone HD? Compact? Cheap? Expensive? Tapeless? What are you liking and disliking in today’s video cameras?

CamcorderInfo have posted a review on the new Sony HRD-SR1 tapeless HD camcorder. It records AVCHD (MPEG-4/H.264 based) format to an internal 30GB drive, which will apparently give you 4 hours of recording.

Sounds great! I’m completely sick of buying, labelling and especially rewinding tapes - it feels so ridiculous - and while the computer based capture options are impressive, the ability to just grab your camera and run will mean you get more video over time.

The HDD Downside: Support for AVCHD is currently weaktastic. Sony have a little link on their Vegas 7 Workflow page, which takes you to a little page which admits:

Note Regarding AVCHD camcorder support in Sony Vegas 7 software
Sony Vegas 7 does not currently support the AVCHD camcorder format.

In Spring 2007, AVCHD camcorder support will be included in a free update for all registered Vegas 7 users.

That’s slightly annoying, but it will change quickly enough as users start clamouring for support, and down the bottom of the review they have hidden something rather exciting for visualists:

Smooth Slow Record - Smooth Slow Record is one of the cooler features included on consumer camcorders this year. It’s a Sony technology made possible by the data transfer rate of CMOS sensors, and records footage in slow-motion that can be viewed nearly instantaneously – after 12 seconds of processing time – in the case of the HDR-SR1. This feat is accomplished by increasing the rate at which fields are recorded from 60fps to 240fps in three-second bursts, and then recording those frames at normal speed. Video shot in Smooth Slow Record mode is dark, because the amount of light recorded is reduced. Smooth Slow Record is a neat party trick, and perhaps even a useful tool for “analysing golf swings,” as Sony advertises.

3 seconds isn’t very much recording, as this video shows, and naturally it’s at decreased resolution. I can’t find any solid numbers on this, but it seems that it also undergoes in-camera uprezzing, which is a little daft. Quirks aside though, this is a huge step forward for slow motion in consumer cameras. It will be interesting to see the footage which makes it to the web in the coming months.

Street price seems to be around US$1300 on Amazon, or AU$2200.

Updated 2007-07-24: Jaymis has purchased a camera which features smooth slow record.

Previously leaked mentioned Sony Vegas 7 is now available.

Official information is on the Sony site, they say $149.95 for upgrade, $499.95 new. It’s showing up on Amazon for $450ish. Tasty.

Something I hadn’t previously heard about is the Envelope Brush tool.

Envelope brush “paint” tool New!
The new envelope brush tool in Vegas 7 software makes it possible to “paint” an envelope curve over time by holding down the shift key. This is a quick way to outline the general shape of an envelope without placing and modifying many distinct points. Once you rough in your envelope, the auto thinning feature approximates the drawn curve with as few points as possible. These points can then be further adjusted.

Vegas greatest strength is its lightweight, realtime editing abilities, so this tool will put it even further ahead if you want to edit and publish fast. Podcasters, Citizen Journalists, VJs, this one’s for you.

Sony have released an update to their Movie Studio line. Doting grandparents, soccer mums, beginner vidcasters, and mobile visualists rejoice! Notable updates from the previous Vegas Movie Studio include:

• HDV support/Capture
• 77 new effects
• 50+ more transitions
• Primary colour correction (anyone know what that means?)
• 5.1 surround sound mixing
• Limited edition Sony Pictures Sound Effects CD
• Import directly from Sony DVD Camcorder
• Export to PSP and iPod compatible formats
• Vegas Movie Studio training DVD

If like me you’re already well-cemented in your NLE of choice then this may not be of interest, but at US$120 it’s definitely worth a look for a light mobile edit system, and the included training DVD could make it perfect for the video editing beginner in your life. I’m not sure I’m dedicated enough to check out the trial, but if Vegas Big Kids Edition is anything to go by this should be friendly to use and fast as anything.