Soft focus in Standard Definition

W

watermark

New member
My employer has purchased several HPX300s for use in a standard definition 480i NTSC workflow.

The images produced by the 300s in SD are very soft when compared to the old DVCPro25 cameras.

We have adjusted the back-focus but the images are still soft. (Please don't lecture me about shooting in SD--it's out of my hands!)

Are there any menu settings we should be addressing for sharpness in SD?

thanks.
 
This may be a "duh" statement, but if you're converting 16x9 SD to 4x3, you'll get a softer picture due to the 1.2x width factor. I haven't seen mine look soft in SD as long as I shoot in the "side crop" mode for 4x3 stuff. I think my SD stuff looks just as sharp as my Sony DSR-450 did.
 
Same here. I just shot several hours worth of a town hall meeting in standard def (DV) with side crop (4:3) selected. Looks great to me - not soft at all - for standard def. ;)
 
Soft focus also

Soft focus also

Did my first shoot in SD Squeeze (16:9) setting. The picture is a bit on the soft side. Can someone post a few more ideas to help me sharpen the picture? I'll try shooting some SD in the side crop mode, seems like it should be the same though.
 
lswing said:
Did my first shoot in SD Squeeze (16:9) setting. The picture is a bit on the soft side. Can someone post a few more ideas to help me sharpen the picture? I'll try shooting some SD in the side crop mode, seems like it should be the same though.
Click to expand...

It's not the same.
16x9 widens (softens) the pixels by a factor of 1.2, and 4x3 actually shrinks (sharpens) the pixels by 0.9
 
So are you're saying the HPX300 shoots a "soft" (or lower quality) 16:9 image? Not that this format is used much, just surprised that I have to shoot in 4:3 to get a crisp picture in SD. We are coming from a BETA cam where the SD 4:3 picture is very crisp. Any pointers on how to shoot 16:9 SD crisp?
 
lswing said:
I just shot some 4:3 SD and it's looking pretty crisp. Any info on improving the 16:9 SD picture?
Click to expand...
I just discovered the DVCPro-50 widescreen codec, and combined with the Spark (F3) scene file, the footage is amazing. I'm so used to DV quality with SD that the 4:2:2 of DVC-Pro50 blows me away. It looks practically HD on an upconverting DVD player.
 
That sounds promising. I know the DVCPRO50 codec setting, and just used that to shoot my 4:3 SD, but where is the option that applies it to wide screen? Or is this an additional codec that I can load on the camera? Thanks for the idea of adding the Spark scene file. I would really like to hear some other user comments regarding acheiving greater clarity for the 16:9 SD. I do agree that it's a quickly disappearing format, but it's great when you are limited on card space and still need to shoot 16:9 in the field. Thanks!
 
lswing said:
That sounds promising. I know the DVCPRO50 codec setting, and just used that to shoot my 4:3 SD, but where is the option that applies it to wide screen?
Click to expand...

System Setup (2nd menu) - Aspect Conversion - switch to "Squeeze". With DV, 16x9 is obtained by squeezing the pixels, and playing back at a width factor of 1.2X
 
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