: does anyone know the horizontal resolution of the vx1000. I just noticed that my camera records at closer to 700 pixels wide rather than 720 (where as my pc-7e seems to record at 720wide). I understand that some cameras do record at less than 720. Is this correct for the vx1000?

As I understand it, there are various ways to look at it. The Mini-DV format (NTSC) is 720x240 pixels for one field every 1/60th of a second (one complete 720x480 2-field frame every 1/30th of a second), and that is the maximum resolution of the medium, true for all Mini-DV/DVCam/etc. cameras. Some cameras do not use all the available pixels (black bars appear at the frame edges). This is not a problem (since the TV will crop out considerable image area on the sides and top and bottom leaving much reduced viewable pixel count) unless a transition is used that reveals the picture edges. Within the given 720x480 pixels, though, the on-screen image resolution is determined by the type and quality of the sensor system, and by the quality of the lens at the FL, stop, and distance focused at when making the image. In other words, don't worry about the loss of usually-invisible pixels, and don't assume that any Mini-DV camera under all conditions will show a 500 line resolution... (you can see the differences in sharpness of several Mini-DV camcorders in the frame grabs [particularly the street scene] from each reviewed [in the camcorder review article on my web page at www.David-Ruether-Photography.com, listed under the "I babble" index]). I think you may have noticed already that your VX-1000 footage is sharper than your PC-7...