One of the benefits of my camera is its format flexibility. I assumed that it could shoot pretty amazing standard definition video as well, seeing as how it's 3-CCD and can record in DVCPRO and DVCPRO50. So again, I decided to shoot with mostly default settings using just the Vidled and natural light. Here are the results at two resolutions, compressed using H.264

http://www.popw.com/video/dv25cats320.mov
http://www.popw.com/video/dv25cats640.mov

These were shot in 480/30p, which is "regular" TV, only instead of interlacing each frame, the lines are scanned progressively. This results in a somewhat sharper image when you plan to deliver via the Web or display on nice LCD's. This is really beautiful SD without even trying hard. Imagine if I actually set up lights and such.

I'm getting frustrated with Avid. It apparently doesn't handle 1080/30p, which is extremely annoying. Xpress Pro apparently won't import 1080/24p either according to the specs, indicating you have to capture it in the higher Avid products. I don't get that since I'm not capturing anything, just copying the files from the camera. I've got it to do 720/24p, but I intend to shoot film at 1080/24p. The thing still bombs frequently, and I'm not sure if my hardware is up to the task either.

The alternative of course is to get a Mac and Final Cut Pro. They haven't released the binaries yet for the Intel Macs, but they should be out this month. If I could get away with buying a new Mini, that'd be great, but otherwise I'd need the more expensive Macbook or iMac. My little video project is getting very expensive, very quickly!

Still, I am SO excited at what I've captured so far, even though none of it has been anything that cool. Tonight I was thinking about shooting my CoasterDynamix coaster, overcranked, to see what it looked like at one-third normal speed.