Am I stuck in a 720p rut?

[Scott Davis]

When purchasing our cameras (we have 2000s, 500s, 370s, & 170s) I researched and was told by a rep that those cameras’ chips are optimized for 720P, not 1080. The HPX 3000 and 3100, from what I know, are 1080P cameras and don’t even shoot 720. For the most part, we shoot 720P DVCPRO HD unless we’re asked to shoot differently for an outside agency. Rut? I don’t think so. For us, it’s an optimizational thing and the workflow is all ironed out.

Scott
OSX 10.5.5
Quad 2.5Ghz
8.5 GB RAM
Final Cut Studio 6.0.4
HPX 2000

[Fernando Mol]

Here I took some tests with an HPX170. The stills were exported directly from Premiere. Then, I compared in Photoshop and this is what I found:

When expanded, 720 footage looks softer than 1080 footage.

Is for the extra resolution?

To answer that I added an Unsharp Mask filter to the 720 expanded footage and it looks exactly the same as the 1080 footage.

My conclusion is that for the HPX170 there’s no real benefit for the quality of the image when shooting at 1080. You only end with bigger files.

I hope this helps

—————–Real 720———————

—————–Expanded 720—————–

—————–1080 footage—————–

—————–720 with Unsharp Mask——–

PS. I have just realized how personal this footage is.

[Bonnie Ernst]

What’s the reason to pick 60p over 30p? I’m struggling with what to chose?

Bonnie Ernst
Videographer/Editor
Located on the central coast of California.
http://www.pacificcoastpro.com