Canon HV30 vs JVC

[Ian Sharpe]

Hello,

After about 3 years or more of using my Canon HV30 I decided to lash out & buy an AVCHD camera, I opted for a JVC HM330 with a 30x optical zoom & 8gb memory. Got it for a good price.

I was eager to try AVCH editing with my new core i5 laptop.

Its doable but no as quick as HDV.

But my question is about video quality.

The JVC is supposed to record at 24mbps which should put it up there with the Canon I would have thought.

However I fell that the Canon has the better picture, it seems a bit crisper but only just there is not much in it.
Why would this be? Is it becuase the Canon is just a better camera even though its getting long in the tooth now?? or is AVCHD still to catch up with HDV??

cheers

[Ken Berry]

Hi Ian -- long time, no speak (and I have now moved from Canberra to New Zealand!!)

But I suspect the dilemma you now find yourself if has been shared before by others, and highlights the debate over which format is notionally better. There are a lot of people who say that HDV is on its way out as a format. While many ordinary HDV users might dispute that or hope it is not so, there is little doubt that AVCHD is currently the flavour of the month... But equally, there is a significant number of professional videographers who much prefer HDV, and not simply because it is easier to edit and far less demanding of computer resources. They, at least, I suspect, will ensure that there will always be a niche for HDV... at least for the short to medium term.

Your view that the Canon HDV is just a tad crisper is shared by not a few others -- though there would be an equal number of AVCHD users who would no doubt say the same about their format. And at the end of the day, beauty for the video editor is inevitably in the eye of the beholder.

While HDV, by international standard, has a frame format of 1440 x 1080, in fact the way it is broadcast, it is identical to AVCHD's full 1920 x 1080. Moreover, it uses a constant bitrate of 25 Mbps, whereas AVCHD -- even using the latest maximum of the international standard of 24 mbps -- is variable bitrate. While that is more economical in space usage, and should render at the same level of quality while using less space for video footage which does not require high bitrate, some would say that CBR will inevitably give better overall quality than VBR. But we are talking about very small differences here, and that is what I think you have already found. I also suspect that as you take more and more video with your JVC, and get more used to it, and see and do less with the Canon, you will largely forget your impression that the latter produced marginally better quality. Or hopefully, for your own peace of mind, you will!!

Personally, though, I am happy to stick with my old Canon HDV...!!!

Incidentally, now that you have a new camcorder and computer, it might be time to gives us details in your Profile... I seem to recall that under the old Board software, you had those details. But when we shifted over to the current software, the profiles of existing users was not automatically carried over... It has to be manually set up again.

[skier-hughes]

don't forget it is not just the format that counts, quality of lens, digital processing in cam, one ccd or three or nowadays is it cmos and a whole load of other small bits, did you shoot exactly the same item from the same spot at the same time with the same settings

[Ian Sharpe]

don't forget it is not just the format that counts, quality of lens, digital processing in cam, one ccd or three or nowadays is it cmos and a whole load of other small bits, did you shoot exactly the same item from the same spot at the same time with the same settings

Graham,

yes the scenes were identical, you have a good point about quality of lenses etc. The Canon was more expensive than the JVC,


Ken,

Greetings, yes I did notice that your moniker changed to NZ. What gives ?? work?? Will you return to Cbr one day.??

I suspect that you are correct about using the JVC, its certainly less mucking around getting your footage to the computer.

The JVC I bought was what I would call entry level, I am kicking myself now that I didnt go up a bit in price & get a 'better camera"

I also forgot to say that my new laptop doesnt have firewire input, so that was another tick for the JVC.

Good to talk again.