On Mon, 26 Mar 2001 19:53:08 GMT, "Paul Tauger" wrote:

>I've been using a Sony TRV-20 since last December and, on the whole, have
>been quite happy with it. One thing that I'm decidedly unhappy about is
>stair-step digital artifacts, i.e. if there are strong vertical lines in the
>image (buildings, fences, etc.) these lines appear to "crawl" when the
>camera moves.
>
>Some posters have indicated that this is just part and parcel of the
>digitizing process for miniDV. Is this true? I've been experimenting with
>soft focus filters to minimize the effect and, though they work, the ones I
>have access to are too "soft." Does the amount of this particular artifact
>vary from camera to camera? Is it possible mine is defective?

Not defective, most likely, but typical of the
TRV-20/PC100/PC110 (I gather), resulting (I suspect)
from trying to maximize the image resolution (usually
a good thing, but here...;-). Moving near horizontal
line stair-stepping is typical for Mini-DV camcorders,
but they vary a lot in how much they stairstep on
verticals. See the frame-grabs in the reviews at:
www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/camcorder-comparison.htm
for some indication of the differences (with the
comments on motion-video appearance...). High-res.
one-chippers (and one Canon 3-chipper...;-) were
the worst in this respect, with the VX-1000 having
the least vertical-line problems. BTW, the
stairstepping in the PC100 I was thinking of buying
led me to decide on buying (again...) the TRV-900
instead.