DVX 24P vs Other

[Guest]

What kind of difference is there, aesthetically speaking, between shooting 24p on the DVX or shooting with a prosumer Sony (PD170) in interlaced and then rendering to 24p in Vegas 4?

I'm buying a prosumer cam in the next few months, and while I hear raves about the DVX, I most likely will not be able to control lighting (at least for awhile) and some of the time will be shooting low light footage. However, almost all shooting will be of the narrative persuasion, and I'd like to avoid the video look as much as possible.

Competition is good, but makes for difficult decisions.

 

[Mike_Donis]

Re: DVX 24P vs Other

If you're shooting interlaced and then converting to 24P in post, you'll be throwing away basically half of your resolution in the process.

You can always use gain with a DVX100A, and still get your 24P motion. It might come close if you're doing the 24p in post, but it won't be the same. You need to originate in 24P.

That said, any video camera will still look like video, regardless of the frame rate, if you don't light it like a movie, or have control over your lighting. Video has a much lower exposure latitude, and intense blowouts are one of the main visual cues that something was shot on video.

But shooting 60i can't help your situation either! Go with the DVX!

 

[Barry_Green]

Re: DVX 24P vs Other

The PD170 and the DVX are within spitting distance of each other in low light anyway. There is really no substantial difference. If you're in a situation with no lighting at all (to speak of), your video's going to look bad no matter what camera you use. The PD170 may have a tiny advantage, but it would be tiny, not noticeable, and certainly not enough to cross the line between "this is acceptable" and "this is not". So don't fret the low-light thing -- there's no substantial difference between the cameras. The quality difference between real progressive 24P and fake interpolated 60i will be much more substantial than the minor low-light differences.

 

[magicdavek]

Re: DVX 24P vs Other

Hypnochronic,
I posed a similar question elsewhere on this site (I think under Final Cut). In addition to the objections mentioned above, the time to render after the fact is very problematic, even with the current crop of fast computers. A two minute clip - okay. You can set it to render and go to bed and hope everything went fine and you have a good final product next morning. A half hour wedding - start your rendering as you are leaving for an out of town trip and hope everything goes okay when you get back in a few days.