Are all HD cameras created equal?

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gingerweasel

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Hi guys,
I'm not really familiar with video principles so forgive me if this is a silly question but aren't all HD DSLR cameras the same in terms of video quality?

From my limited knowledge full HD is 1280 x 1080 resolution. I assume that DSLR camera basically film using only a limited area of the overall sensor (equivalent to that resolution). If this is the case then there should be no difference in the quality of the recording from a Canon 550d, 7d or 5d mkii?

I understand that the ISO will still play a part in low light etc..
 
1920x1080*
 
Well it all depends what you mean by "HD".

The great thing about standards, is everyone can have one...


  • HD comes in two main resolutions : 720 and 1080 lines
  • Each of these come in Progressive (p) and Interlaced forms (i) which means do they change every line every frame or half of them alternately.
  • Then you have how many frames per second - 24 or 25 or 30 or 50 or 60, plus various variations on those themes.
  • And lets not even get into Codecs (compression), Sound formats, Colour Matrixies, blaa blaa bla...
  • All this doesn't just apply to DSLR's of course, it causes no end of confusion in Broadcast Television as well... atm mostly by Americans who don't understand how to get their sound in sync, but that's another story...

When it comes to DSLR's, the big differences between models are resolution and frame rate (as above) - which the manufacturers are open about - and sensitivity of sensor, rolling-shutter issues, etc etc, which they aren't. There's also whether or not the DSLR's can Autofocus in video mode - which is desirable for "home movies" (just get a DV cam...), but unwanted for anything semi-pro where you want to manually follow-focus anyway.

If you start with the principle that a DSLR is always going to be a compromise somewhere along the line, and that HD is a goal rather than a standard, you'll be fine. Unless you hit a specific brick wall with a particular model in a particular function, it really doesn't matter what the DSLR is as long as its got the length & f-stop of lenses you want to use! Consider what you are going to do with the end product - watch it on a domestic TV or upload to youtube? you'll be fine with any format of HD... if you really want to shoot 1080p for maximum e-peen, fine, but you'll be editing for days with terrabytes of space taken up, and nobody will know once its compressed and uploaded and streamed...
 
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I cant provide any comparison info but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with teh video I have captured on my 550D. Far better than anything I got from my old camcorder (non-HD) and certainly good enough to put me off buying a seperate HD camcorder (which was my original intention).

I've only viewed the results on laptop screens and lcd monitors but do intend to try it on a TV inthe near future just to see what its like.
 
gingerweasel said:
I assume that DSLR camera basically film using only a limited area of the overall sensor (equivalent to that resolution). If this is the case then there should be no difference in the quality of the recording from a Canon 550d, 7d or 5d mkii?
Click to expand...

That bit isn't quite right.

At least with canons they film using the whole area of the sensor, just bin a lot of lines in between. This means that filming with a 5D2 versus 7D you still have the same crop factor and dof change that you see when taking photos, as well as noise at high iso.

One of the main reasons the 5D2 caught the attention of many high end film makers (besides the sensor size/price/lenses) was the data rate. It was actually rather high and compared favourably with higher end cameras. Its not quite raw video, but it was certainly better than consumer cams. This meant that, although there are limitations with it, you could actually push it around in post quite well.

Think about saving a jpeg image, you can save it at 100% Thats pretty good but big files.
You could save it at 50%… well, that'll let you have more of them for your megabytes but it'll look crap.

Then apply that to video, its awesome that a £30 camera from ebay records 10 hours on a 4GB card, but if you want video quality then i'll take the Canon dslr which only gets 12 mins on that same card.
 
Hi,
I have canon 550d and Panasonic SD700 and the 1 one is an excellent camera but SD700 is much better camcorder I actually can't believe how good it is. I used to have also Sanyo xacti 1010 and canon HF100 camcorders and iq of Panasonic sd700 is much better.
 
Some people say Canon 7d and 550d are better camcorders than sd700 but it far from true.
 
flossie said:
  • All this doesn't just apply to DSLR's of course, it causes no end of confusion in Broadcast Television as well... atm mostly by Americans who don't understand how to get their sound in sync, but that's another story...
Click to expand...

Baby Snakes, Yeah
They live in a ho-ho-ho-ho-hole
(Tiny hole)
That is usually empty
(Usually empty; tiny too)
They live by a co-co-a-co-a-co-co-a-code
That is usually SMPTE
Which stands for
Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers
But maybe I think
That is what keeps them in sync

With thanks to Frank Zappa :)

As you were...
 
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