Resolution of Mini-dv vs. HD vs. Super16 vs. 35mm?

[RogerandOut]

So how does the resolution of mini-dv compare to that of the HD coming out of the HVX?

If mini-dv is 720 x 480 what are the resolutions from the HVX-200?

Is the HD footage roughly 2x the resolution of mini-dv, or more?

[Haakon]

Here's a good article you might be interested in:

http://www.cintel.co.uk/docs/evolutionofresolution.pdf

Some of their opinions are a bit biased, but the math is pretty accurate.

[Shaw]

Interesting read. I'm not sure it makes complete sense though. Personally, I couldn't tell much of a difference in REAL detail between the 2K and 4K scans. The compression obviously is more obvious in the 2K example and aliasing is increased but this is nothing that could not be eleminated by upressing to 4K before compression (the only real limitation being that 2K will have more chance of moire than native 4K).

I have a hard time believing that 35mm film has that much real resolution. For one, if focus is even slightly off you gain absolutely nothing and if the lenses you use are anything but top of the line... same thing. This also assumes that you shoot in the optimal zones of these lenses and do not open up or stop down more than necessary.

Am I missing something?

[Barry_Green]

The HVX stores 4x as many pixels as DV does. And, those pixels are anamorphically stretched on playback, so the final display format uses six times as many pixels as DV. Furthermore, the color resolution is twice as high (per pixel) in the HD of the HVX, so not only do you have 4x the luminance resolution, but you have 8 times as much color resolution.

[yevlar]

To answer the question according to the subject heading (just for giggles) - the following are the various pixel resolutions for each format (in NTSC) in order of resolution (and don't get into the HD square vs. non-square pixels stuff. These are effectively their resolutions in 16:9. Film Resolutions courtesy of Cinesite):

MiniDV - 720x480
16mm (2k) - 856 x 620
Super16 (2k) - 1024 x 620
HD (720 flavor) - 1280x720
HD (1080 flavor) - 1920x1080
16mm (4k) - 1712 x 1240
Super16 (4k) - 2048 x 1240
35mm Full Aperture (1.33:1 @ 2k) - 2048 x 1556
35mm VistaVision (35/8-perf horizontal, 1.50:1 @ 2k) - 2048 x 3072
35mm Full Aperture (1.33:1 @ 4k) - 4096 x 3112
35mm VistaVision (35/8-perf horizontal, 1.50:1 @ 4k) - 4096 x 6144

[RogerandOut]

The HVX stores 4x as many pixels as DV does. And, those pixels are anamorphically stretched on playback, so the final display format uses six times as many pixels as DV. Furthermore, the color resolution is twice as high (per pixel) in the HD of the HVX, so not only do you have 4x the luminance resolution, but you have 8 times as much color resolution.

Thanks a lot. I was wondering how to quantify the differences.
What I saw at Resfest was impressive.

I hope when the camera is finished it performs as well in all areas as the DVX100 has.

[tomtv]

i have an application where each week we use and hd camera and via hd/sdi capture dvcpro hd direct to a simple firewire drive. this is captured via the kona 2 card in a dual 2.5 mac with 3 gig or ram. we play back on a like system across town the next morning for our church. we tested video recorded with the same set up except to a D5 deck. now you could get up close and see some obvious detail difference, but when standing 20 ft away - good luck really finding it. depth of image is fantastic and i have zero in repeating expenses. dvcpro hd is just solid. by the way we tried hdv played back on a FCP timeline like with dvcpro hd - not even close. a much bigger difference than the D5/dvcpro hd comparison too.

[CineCell]

Barry, any thoughts on how this will all affect the SD side of recording with the HVX?


Sorry if this post similarly exists already.


Quote:
The HVX stores 4x as many pixels as DV does. And, those pixels are anamorphically stretched on playback, so the final display format uses six times as many pixels as DV. Furthermore, the color resolution is twice as high (per pixel) in the HD of the HVX, so not only do you have 4x the luminance resolution, but you have 8 times as much color resolution.

[Barry_Green]

No idea whatsoever. Frankly I was surprised at how much latitude they were showing in HD mode. I didn't expect that much -- they measured over 7 stops! 7 stops! So while I was expecting that SD mode might not be quite as good as on the DVX, I now would expect that it will be very competitive indeed. It remains to be seen, but I'm more optimistic, now that I've seen what it does in 1080/60i. (and they're still working on improving it!)