sd vs hd

S

smjx824

Member
im saving up to buy a dvx100b and everyone tells me that im wasting my money on it
they say oh move to hd, sd's going to die soon
this is the biggest reason why i still have doubts in getting the dvx
how long do you guys think that sd's are going to last before hd takes over
or if you even believe that it will...?
post ur comments and thoughts
 
Define last.

Some would say HD has already 'taken over'. HD shots are going to be better than SD on a similar level camera. That's just how it is. The market for videographers has moved to HD. If you submit a project to a festival, most of them will be wary of things in SD. In the future HD will be more of a standard, and so higher resolution is necessary to 'future proof' your production. It's been around long enough to not be the new thing, but the somewhat new thing that's obviously better than the old thing.

How will your work, whatever it is, be delivered? Most televisions are still SD, but new televisions are all HD. Computer monitors almost all display a higher resolution than SD. DVD players outnumber Blu-ray by a large margin. What exactly is your work? Advertising on the low end is often SD, corporate videos can survive as well. Are you just doing it for fun? If so, why does it matter? Get whatever you want.

Really, it's simple. Use what you need. You can tell the difference as well as anyone, decide what's best for you and your budget. And remember that a properly lit, framed and microphoned scene shot on an SD handycam is always going to look better than bad lighting and shooting in 4K. What you record outweighs what you record it on.
 
Casalen said:
If you submit a project to a festival, most of them will be wary of things in SD.
Click to expand...

Not really true, most festivals don't even have HD projectors nor do they care what format it's shot on, only the format that it will be projected (i.e digibeta or 35mm).
 
If you only have 1200 bucks for a used one, then the dvx100b may be a great option because it has XLR connectors, and it is great in low light.
Problem is that the stuff I've seen projected at film festivals that were shot on the dvx100a or b looked really washed out and you really see the limits of that camera's max resolution. If you're seriously expecting to show your work at film festivals and their large screens, I would consider a 720p or 1080p/1080i HD option. Many festivals do screen HDCAM and even "downconverted" to Digibeta, the projected image is going to look better.

For web video it's just fine.

I still hold onto a few film cameras, and the one nice thing about film through the decades is that it can be telecined into practically any format.
 
it really depends what your goals are and what you plan on shooting.

i would also take a good look at the panasonic gh1.
 
Would it make any sense to buy, say, an old professional SD camera for 1000 bucks? You can get the 3 CCDs, XLR inputs, etc on the old PD/DSR models and beta cams.
 
The one thing I wouldn't do at this point is buy a camera that doesn't shoot 24p. That would be a deal breaker.
 
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