<jamacht@pobox.com> wrote in message news:5rv4gv01e89g910udk2nigvv87d4cocepv@4ax.com...

> Looking at the specs for the TRV-70 (and 80), it says a 1/3.6" sensor

> is used, but only 1080K pixels are used.

>

> Two questions:

>

> Does this mean only the center 1200*900 pixels are used, or is a 1080K

> image constructed from the full sensor array (2 MPixel) prior to image

> stabilization?

>

> If only the center pixels are used, is this not almost the same as

> using a 1/4.7" CCD for video, since the area used is 3/4 of the size

> of the actual CCD size?

>

> I'm just wondering what's going on there. Thanks for any more info

> you can impart. If anyone has any hard knowledge of what goes on with

> respect to mismatched sensor/video usage pixel counts, that would be

> great.

(This has been covered often before - google does wonders!;-)

The Sony 1-CCD cameras use part of the sensor area (and

pixel count) for stabilization in all their cameras (so the used area

for the video image of a 1/4.7" 1-megapixel CCD would be smaller

yet, with sub-megapixel count for the viewed image (though in

most cases the stills would use most of the area and pixels, and

show a wider angle of view). If all else were equal, this would make

the low-light range less than for a similar-spec camera that used

optical stabilization, but Sony's "HAD" CCDs are more sensitive

than those used by most others, compensating for the sensitivity

loss due to the smaller pixels - and DIS works very well, though,

so this also is not a disadvantage. Increasing the pixel count for the

video sensor does not result in a higher pixel count in the final

image, but can result in improved sharpness and color quality...

--

David Ruether

d_ruether@hotmail.com

http://www.David-Ruether-Photography.com

Hey, take a gander at www.visitithaca.com, too...!