In article
>In article <01bc2dbf$d8e549c0$3607afc7@tf4>, Peter McLennan
>
>>I posted a couple of weeks ago on the Sony DCR PC7. Here's an update.
>
>>Super Steadyshot is a gift from Sony to camera operators everywhere.
>>It may present problems for broadcast, though.
>>I think they've extended the horizontal blanking interval to
>>accommodate motion stabilization.
>
>Have you noticed if this "Super Steadyshot" degrades the picture or not?
Yes, it does, slightly - I found that with the zoom at the short end,
viewing directly on a good 27" TV, that image sharpness was a tad
below a Canon UCS-3 Hi-8 when the stabilizer was on, but a bit better
than the Canon with it off (image quality was better with the PC-7
zoomed longer, and was then good enough with the stabilizer on).
>As I understand it Sony's "Super Steadyshot" has been an optical vari-
>angle prism until now, which from my experience doesn't degrade, but
>this version of "Super Steadyshot" uses a DVE-like trick where an image
>smaller than the normal CCD imager size is moved about digitally and
>this (like the Panasonic EZ-1 and the JVC GR-DV1) certainly can degrade.
I think Sony made a real mistake here - when the stabilizer is off,
image size remains the same and image quality remains roughly the
same (unlike with the Panasonic EZ-1), but it appears that it
therefore never makes use of the entire 680,000-pixel CCD area for
really improved image quality (with stabilizer off) - The EZ-1
image quality does improve a LOT with the stabilizer off, and is
then very "clearly" sharper than the PC-7 or UCS-3...
>Do you get sharper/cleaner pictures when the steadyshot is off?
If I had kept the PC-7, I would have used it at the short end of
the zoom range with the stabilizer off - and at the long end
with it on (keeping the best of both worlds). But DIS is just
not the way to go... BTW, I detected no other deficiencies in
the PC-7's stabilizer - though I regard sharpness loss as a major
shortcoming (and think what using all 680,000 pixels could have
looked like...! ;-). (I am looking for a good [and good-priced ;-]
used VX-1000...)
Hope This Helps