Hi All,

I just purchased a Sony HDR-HC3 and took it out for some sample shots on the road trip I was just on. I'm a little underwhelmed with the results - I was expecting significantly more resolution.

Here's a sample clip (22MB): http://www.mysharefile.com/v/1374857/rockwall.ts.html

I'm wondering if any or all of these factors contributed to the sample image quality, or whether or not this is simply just the state of the art with respect to consumer HD camcorders:

- The fact that it was somewhat overcast? (even though the auto exposure was set to about 1/3rd of max)
- The fact I was shooting through a windshield? (even though focal length was set to infinity)
- the road/hand jitter contributing to blurriness, possibly due to the camcorder low pass filtering in order to get better compression results?
- the amount of movement in the clip causing blurriness for the same reasons?
- the lens in this camera is not good at picking up detail from long distances?

Thanks!

Andy K.

That doesn't look like HC3 footage to me... Are you sure you have it set on 1080i and NOT dv?

When you downloaded, did you make sure ilink converter was OFF... in otherwords did you download as 1080i as opposed to dv Do you have color and sharpness properly set?

Something else bothers me... your sample is a .TS file at omly 22M.. and it is 7seconds. Did you compress the sample?? (The HC3 records hi def at 25mps)

25 mbps = 3.125 MB / sec
7 sec X 3.125 MB = 21.875 Megabytes, so 22 MB for the download makes sense.

It says HDV1080i in the upper-left corner of the viewfinder, REC FORMAT is 1080i, and i.LINK CONV is set to off. Sharpness is set to the middle (default) position.

That is the raw captured .m2t file from i.Link (I just renamed it to .ts, thats all)

Thanks,

Andy K.

It looks to me the 1080i footage indeed from HC3. The problem is there was so much movement of the camera and HC3 was having the Electronic Image Stabalizer on. EIS compares the images frame to frame and then only keeps the common portion to minimize the shake. When there is so much movement of the camcorder this portion at the center becomes rather small (compared to the original size). In order not to have black bars on four sides EIS blows up the image to fill the whole frame. The effect is a digital zoom. So your video under that situation won't be something close to true 1440x1080.

To see the HC3 in full res in good light you need put it on a tripod and have EIS disengaged.

Thanks, that makes a great deal of sense! Would you say its preferable to have EIS disengaged even in cases where there is some mild shaking (for example, just from holding it and standing still)? I suppose the optical system Canon uses would have the edge here...

I'll do some more experimentation.

Thanks again!

Andy K.

How can this file be viewed? Is this an MPEG-2 file? I recently purchased the HC3 and I'm curious to see the footage you've posted.

Thanks!

Rick

Hi All,

I just purchased a Sony HDR-HC3 and took it out for some sample shots on the road trip I was just on. I'm a little underwhelmed with the results - I was expecting significantly more resolution.

Here's a sample clip (22MB): http://www.mysharefile.com/v/1374857/rockwall.ts.html

I'm wondering if any or all of these factors contributed to the sample image quality, or whether or not this is simply just the state of the art with respect to consumer HD camcorders:

- The fact that it was somewhat overcast? (even though the auto exposure was set to about 1/3rd of max)
- The fact I was shooting through a windshield? (even though focal length was set to infinity)
- the road/hand jitter contributing to blurriness, possibly due to the camcorder low pass filtering in order to get better compression results?
- the amount of movement in the clip causing blurriness for the same reasons?
- the lens in this camera is not good at picking up detail from long distances?

Thanks!

Andy K.


How do I view this file?

Hi All,

I just purchased a Sony HDR-HC3 and took it out for some sample shots on the road trip I was just on. I'm a little underwhelmed with the results - I was expecting significantly more resolution.

Here's a sample clip (22MB): http://www.mysharefile.com/v/1374857/rockwall.ts.html

I'm wondering if any or all of these factors contributed to the sample image quality, or whether or not this is simply just the state of the art with respect to consumer HD camcorders:

- The fact that it was somewhat overcast? (even though the auto exposure was set to about 1/3rd of max)
- The fact I was shooting through a windshield? (even though focal length was set to infinity)
- the road/hand jitter contributing to blurriness, possibly due to the camcorder low pass filtering in order to get better compression results?
- the amount of movement in the clip causing blurriness for the same reasons?
- the lens in this camera is not good at picking up detail from long distances?

Thanks!

Andy K.

*****DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK - IT IS LOADED WITH VIRUS & TROJANS******

Hi All,

I just purchased a Sony HDR-HC3 and took it out for some sample shots on the road trip I was just on. I'm a little underwhelmed with the results - I was expecting significantly more resolution.

Here's a sample clip (22MB): http://www.mysharefile.com/v/1374857/rockwall.ts.html

I'm wondering if any or all of these factors contributed to the sample image quality, or whether or not this is simply just the state of the art with respect to consumer HD camcorders:

- The fact that it was somewhat overcast? (even though the auto exposure was set to about 1/3rd of max)
- The fact I was shooting through a windshield? (even though focal length was set to infinity)
- the road/hand jitter contributing to blurriness, possibly due to the camcorder low pass filtering in order to get better compression results?
- the amount of movement in the clip causing blurriness for the same reasons?
- the lens in this camera is not good at picking up detail from long distances?

Thanks!

Andy K.


*****DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK - IT IS LOADED WITH VIRUS & TROJANS******

*****DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK - IT IS LOADED WITH VIRUS & TROJANS******no, it isn't, your software must be too sensitive and picking up some other crap that it thinks is

and there's no need to double post