On 17 Aug 2000 13:05:35 GMT, panavista@aol.com (Panavista) wrote:

>I have a Canon XL-1, and I have captured some great looking images with it.
>However, in outdoor sunny conditions, and high contrast shots ( lady with
>a black dress against a bright overcast sky and white objects against
>a darker background such as trees , and small thin objects such as branches
>of a tree against the sky. ) there is a very noticable line or halo
>around the object, not enough so to ruin the shot, but enough to reduce
>the overall quality of the shot.
>Is this an XL-1 problem, a DV problem, or just a problem with my camera.
>Sometime I use a tiffen soft contract filter which helps somewhat.
>
>What would be the next level up of camera/format to upgrade to for a better
>image?

It is an XL-1/GL-1 problem - there is excessive edge
sharpening built-in. See my camcorder review article
(on my web page, under the "I babble" index) for comparison
reviews and frame-grabs. The Sony VX-1000 and VX-2000 are
relatively free of this effect (unless sharpness is raised
excessively with the CP controls - but even maxed-out, the
effect is less than in the Canons). There are other
negative picture characteristics that are built into
Mini-DV, but edge-halo is not one of them...