Video camera question
Submitted: Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 at 15:25
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Keith J (QLD) bushcamper
G'day guys, I've just bought a JVC GZ MG505.
Link to review
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news...tory_7842.html
We are about to head off on a 5 week motor home trip around New Zealand and am not sure which settings to use. Any advice would be most appreciated.
I've got five questions but I think I'll try one at a time.
1---which video mode, the choices are:
Ultra fine….720 x 576 pixels, 8.5 Mbps (VBR) 430 minutes
Fine……….720 x 576 pixels, 5.5 Mbps (VBR) 640 minutes
Normal……720 x 576 pixels, 4.2 Mbps (VBR) 850 minutes
Economy….352 x 288 pixels, 1.5 Mbps (VBR) 2250 minutes
I would have used one of the first two, but which one?
Thanks
Keith
Reply By: Mark Taylor - Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 at 15:32
Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 at 15:32
I have a similar model and took it to Europe in August.. I used Fine and it gave great results.
Cheers
mark T
AnswerID:
264197
Follow Up By: Keith J (QLD) bushcamper - Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 at 15:40
Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 at 15:40
Thanks Mark, I recorded the same scene in the top three modes and couldn't see any difference on the old TV or the computer, so Fine would have been my first choice as
well unless advised otherwise.
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Reply By: Keith J (QLD) bushcamper - Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 at 15:53
Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 at 15:53
OK, I think I'll put the other four questions up before it drifts off the page.
2---do I record in 16:9 or 4:3?
At the moment we have a 4:3 TV but I imagine that we will end up with a WS.
Extract from a review
Each CCD is capable of 1,230,000 effective pixels when using in the default 4:3 setting, but surprisingly, this drops by some 40 percent to 774,1880 when used in 16:9 widescreen. Even with that reduction, there is still 2.3 megapixels available in total for video imaging.
Is this worth worrying about?
3--- if I record in 16:9 can I play it back on a 4:3 TV without distorting the picture and vice versa?
4---I have ordered a circular polarizing filter (I have used a linier filter with my 35mm SLRs over the last 40 years and like the results). Are they useful on digital video cameras?
5---in still mode the image size and quality choices are:
Fine or Standard with image sizes of (2560 x 1920), (2048 x 1536), (1600 x 1200), (1280 x 960) and (640 x 480).
I probably would have used 2048 x 1536 unless adviced otherwise.
Like I said, any tips, advice or opinions will be gratefully accepted.
AnswerID:
264198
Follow Up By: Member - Karl - Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 at 16:51
Thursday, Sep 27, 2007 at 16:51
Keith,
I am new to this but this is what I have learnt / or do, so to try and answer your questions:
1. I record in 16:9 WS format but it is okay on my 4:3 TV (but looks great on my WS). You will notice the quality difference in the bigger screen if you use lower settings.
2. The filter will work in the same way as your for still camera and are very useful - as you may be aware that there are different filters for different things and they give the same effects on video.
3. With the images sizes, 640 x 480 is good for email, postings on web pages etc - if you want to print your pictures it would probably better to go a higher quality image size.
4. If you are going to doing any video editing on your computer you may find Windows Movie Maker 2 a bit limiting so you may need to look at getting a better editing software.
Hope this helps.
Karl
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Follow Up By: Keith J (QLD) bushcamper - Monday, Oct 01, 2007 at 17:47
Monday, Oct 01, 2007 at 17:47
Karl,
I think I'll go with 16:9.
Even though I'll loose some pixels the will be more than enough for most TVs (so I'm told)
Looking forward to playing with polarizing filter, if it's half as good as the one I'm used to it will be worth having.
The second highest still image size produces a file of about 1.8mg. Should be all I need.
The camera came with editing software which I'm also told is not bad for starting on. Seems easy enough to use, so I'll give it a go.
Thanks again,
Keith
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