Hi Chaps,
On the Sony PD150 there is an option called Progressive Scan.
Now I’ve heard and would like confirmation please, that this is used if you are filming still images, and will evidently give much better results.
So if this is the case would you suggest taking establishing shots etc in this mode?
Also would you have to change shutter speed. And lastly, how do they play back on the timeline when shot in this mode?
Thanks very much, appreciate your help.
If you're shooting PAL then your display screen is projecting an interlaced picture, where all the even lines are shown and then all the odd.
So if your camera is set to the default 1/50th mode, then you're capturing
everything that happens in front of it, and you're doing that by shooting 50
half resolution fields per second, or 25 full resolution frames.
If you film a stationery object with a locked down camera then the PD150 will
look exactly the same in progressive scan mode as it does in normal shooting
mode, even though it's slipped into 12.5 fps mode rather than 25.
The 'problem' with interlaced mode is that every time there's movement (of
camera or subject) you're watching a half resolution picture, and the 'comb'
effect of fields rather than frames is evident. Sony's PS mode overcomes
this, but at a hefty price in loss of smoothness. Canon step somewhere in
the middle, opting for the smoothness but with loss of resolution, which
Sony won't tolerate.
So for all intents and purposes PS and interlaced filming is indistinguishable for your 'establishing' shots. They'll play back fine on the timeline.
So if you use your 150 as a motordrive stills camera set PS, forget the NDs and up the shutter speed to soak the light. It works very well indeed in this mode, and I have photo books of prints to prove it.
tom.
Thanks Tom,
I meant more about using PS mode for establishing shots such as the church, the cake, and some group photos where people do actually stand still for a shot, the wedding rings, and things like this.
And I don’t want to use them primarily as stills but in the mail project.
Just wondered will they look better recorded in this made than the normal mode 50fps.
Hope this makes sense.
Cheers.
Don't do it - record everything 50i mode. If there's the slightest movement (camera or subject) when you're in PS mode it looks quite unacceptably jerky. It is a bit better quality, but who will notice if it's jerky?
Each field in interlaced mode is in fact scanned progressively -- that is, no
pixel rows are skipped -- and the rows are paired together to create the
field's scan lines. Successive fields alternate how the lines are paired. This is done to avoid having a bright bit of detail that appears only in every other field and hence produces a noticeable flicker ("line twitter")
As a result, interlace-captured video has about 25% less vertical resolution than true progressively scanned video, even when shooting a completely static image.
The same is true of interlaced output of progressive video, which is why
most DVD players and higher-end televisions support progressive scan
output. The difference is small, but it's there.
tom.