BEST greenscreening cam?

Rick Meyer

Rick Meyer

Veteran
Hey gang. Quick question. For chroma keying, would it be easier and would the results be better if the source footage was from a 3CCD SD camera (like the Panasonic PV-GS320) or from a single chip HD cam, as in Canon's HV10 or HV20? This is not for me and cost is of concern here (hence why I didn't even throw the DVX into the ring)...

Thanks...

Rick
 
HV10 or HV20. An HDV camera can give you better greenscreen results in SD if you know how to downconvert it to a higher color resolution SD codec. Use MPEG Streamclip to export m2t's as 854 x 480 Widescreen SD material in a good QT codec like animation, photojpeg @100% or even DVCPRO 50. You will have much more SD chroma res to work with.
 
Thank you kindly. I wasn't too sure because I thought the extra CCD chips in the SD cam might give the color reproductions a boost...
 
Extra CCD's are one thing, but recording format is another. DV's colorspace is extremely limited.
 
Sure, but this guy's looking for the cheapest possible route to good SD greenscreen results. That's why I suggested the HV20 with smart downconversion.
 
Brandon Rice said:
HVX. DVCProHD and 4:2:2 colorspace.
Click to expand...

Actually, I thought of making this same post late last night. Then, I realized I don't have an HVX, so it would be like rubbing my own face in it. :cheesy: :)
 
But there was something about "recreating" 4:2:2 by downconverting from 1080i HDV, I just can´t remember exactly...
Anyone?
 
Thanks gang! So, if I gather this correctly, a single chip HD camera is going to yield better results?
 
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Downconverting an HD 4:2:0 1440x1080 image to standard-def 720x480 can result in approximately a 4:4:4 image. It all really depends on how the chroma is recorded -- if it's recorded as progressive chroma, then yes you could get great SD keying. If it's recorded as interlaced chroma, that's more of a problem as it really takes about four fields before you've gotten all the chroma info for one full sample.

The Canon 24F footage appears to use proper progressive chroma sampling, so you should be able to get nigh unto 4:4:4 from an SD downconvert. When rendering out to DVD or whatever, that would be decimated back to 4:2:0 (as all DVD must be) but for the actual keying process you would have more chroma to start with.
 
Brandon Rice said:
So Barry... shooting 4.2.2 colorspace HD on and HVX can be downconverted to 4.4.4 SD for keying?
Click to expand...
Certainly, if you use 1080 mode. It'll already be much better for HD keying. It won't be exactly 4:4:4, it'll be a tad short on the horizontal (640 horizontal samples instead of 720). But it's perfect on the vertical, because 4:2:2 records unique chroma samples on every line.
 
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