3 1/6 CCD Cameras....are they any good?

I'm on a limited budget and I'm looking for a good (but not expensive) mini-DV camera (I have a Sony Digital-8 camera right now).

Panasonic has a new line of 3 CCD consumer cameras that are not expensive, like PV-GS 200. The problem is that they have 3 1/6 CCD's. My question is does the size of the CCD's affect the quality of the image a great deal? For example, is it better to have a camera with ONE 1/4 CCD or a camera with THREE 1/6 CCD's? Which is better? More CCD's or a larger CCD?

 

Well, your color sampling will be a bit improved with three CCDs, but when they're THAT small, you're going to have less pixels per CCD. I guess overall, with three of them you would have a combined total of more pixels than the single 1/4 CCD. The other thing with having small CCDs like that is your depth of field will basically be infinite. EVERYTHING will be in focus, no matter what. It's really gonna look like...video. If you want to be more cinematic, go for bigger chips.

 

The 3 chiped cameras are better. Hope they are better for sound too. I'm thinking about investing in a better camera. I'm looking forward to a pro-sumer quality, hopefully in the very close future.

 

Thanks for the answers. Anyone else would mind explaining the more technical stuff better?

 

Really, braxtan put it pretty well.

1/6 will have slightly less quality, and everything will be in focus.

The cinematic effect is lessened slightly.

Should be helpful to study a few of braxtans terms online, perhaps through *looks around* google?

Anyway, really braxtan explained it.

 

I was a little disapointed with my PV-DV953 when I first turned it on. You always hear how 3ccd is like magic and looks wonderful on the TV - I didn't get that in my experience. It didn't look much different than a Hi8 camera. The reason for this was because the lightining in the room was horrible, and I was projecting it on a large screen, thus bringing out distortions.

At a Videomaker convention recently, the speaker was demonstration using a GL-1 (which I know produces beautiful video). The lighting in that room was absolutley horrible, and the video he was projecting looked comparable to a home video.

If I take my DV-953 outside on a nice sunny day, the colors are much better. I've gotten a lot of compliments - "your video looks great!". It's not as great as the GL series, for example, but it is better than the 1ccd camera that I had before. I'd think of it as a half-step between 1ccd and 3- 1/4in ccd. It will work for professional video (if you put a TV logo in the bottom corner most people wouldn't even notice your camera isn't top-of-the-line).

Let me know if you'd like some sample footage. I have a bit of video that I shot outside this summer.

 

Thanks, Oreckel, for sharing your experience.

I don't know if anyone cares, but I tested Panasonic's PV GS200 today and, well, I decided not to buy it. For one, the image quality didn't seem to be that good (for a 3 CCD camera). Colors were okay and the contrast was nice. But the camera is soooo small to the point of being a nuisance. Controls are almost all automatic or dificult to reach while you are recording. Even the vendor couldn't find where the iris manual control was. It's probably good for the people who just want to take it with them during vacations and weekends.

 

But the camera is soooo small to the point of being a nuisance.

I like the bigger video cameras too. They feel more durable for some reason. I'll probably be getting an HD or some 3CCD pro-summer camera sometime next year!

 

HDV...

**** Yeah!!!

All I know is that I like the DOF on my new cam with it's 1/3" widescreen CCDs.

-Spiff

 

Hey guys, my friend just bought a Canon Optura Xi, and hes waiting for it to be delivered, and I was wondering if you had heard anything about it. As far as I can tell, it is pretty good, with plenty of manual features, and the digic chip, but it doesn't record in 24p, not even in 30p, its 30 interlaced, so I dont know if he should have spent that much on it.

Thoughts?

 

Wow, Jedi_Spiff, that's nice dof. My 953 has pretty deep dof, so it's hard to get a blurred bg, even if you zoom in.

 

I have never held an Optura Xi, but I was looking at it pretty carefully before I got scammed and then decided to go for (and succeed at being) broke.

The camera is supposed to have a good feature set, GL2-level picture quality, and decent manual controls. There's really no way to get true 24p without going to the Panasonic DVX or the Canon XL2 - which are roughly 3 to 5 times as expensive as an Optura Xi... So that shouldn't be an issue.

Not only that, but there are good tools out their for doing adaptive deinterlace to bring 60i video down to 24p - so if the "film look" is your desired output you'll be able to do quite well. Keep in mind that EVERY fanfilm you've seen on TFN save Grayson, Dead End, World's Finest and Contract of Evil were not shot on 24p cameras.

So long as he's not paying more than the MSRP he should do fine.

For more info on the Optura Xi check out:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=71

-Spiff