CompuServe Thread

Hi Kathleen @ Bruno! >>3 chip camera vs 1 chip<< My opinion is 3 chips are not necessarily better – a cheap 3 chip may not produce imaging as good as a good single chip. At the high end, 3 chip cameras have better resolution and color. I may get flak for saying this, but I think the Canon L2 and the Sony VX3 are the only camcorders under $5000 worth looking at. This is a biased view since I think that Hi8 is a better acquisition medium than S-VHS (and I'm not really familiar with the S-VHS camcorders). My suggestion is that you figure out what features you must have, and what features you would like to have, and then rank the products. Both the L2 and the VX3 produce satisfactory images, although neither is up to the standards of a "pro" camcorder. If I were in the market right now, I would get a Sony EVW-300. Bob

> What's your opinion about a 3 chip camera versus a 1 chip…is the quality improvement worth the extra money? < This online editor thinks it is. Though, not in exchange for features such as easy control of iris and sound. The biggest problem with these camera's is the auto iris. It routinely let's highlights burn out. Some of them are so good resolution and signal-wise that I might be fooled on occasion… but the loss in highlight detail gives them away. I think they are still biased by an expectation that most consuner's will be shooting in terrible lighting (due to photographic ignorance). Thus they are designed to favor pulling up shadow detail. But get a scene with good range, or a bright exterior, and BLOOM! So my advice for picture and for audio is the same: ride a little lower than you would think. The vid for the above reason, and audio (presuming you are using PCM digital, or DAT) because you no longer after wory about fighting the noise floor. Rather the danger (in digital) is overmodulation – the brick wall your peaks can hit and shatter.