OT:SVHS remember it ?

winrockpost wrote on 9/26/2005, 12:01 PM
Friend of mine gave me an old 3 chip svhs cam, . Anyway on sets we always set up a little minidv high on a tripod and let it roll for lighting, behind the scenes stuff etc,, for the hell of it we hooked up the svhs and ran it to a minidv deck and used it instead,, hmmm, not bad stuff , dont know what it looked like new and on svhs tape, but not too bad cabled to dv, and yes I used too give grief or at least funny looks to anyone i saw shooting that stuff, guess ignorance is bliss.

Comments

filmy wrote on 9/26/2005, 12:18 PM
A studio shot S-VHS master transfered to DV comes out very well. I was just doing this a week ago for remastering some interview material for DVD. Lots of smaller studios used S-VHS cameras all the time...shot it a lot myself when I worked for a small station. I tell you htough I got far more funny looks when I started shooting my own stuff and would show up with the mini-dv camera - I got far less looks when I was shooting S-VHS stuff.
lynn1102 wrote on 9/26/2005, 1:33 PM
SVHS was the format of choice before DV, but that was after
VHS and BETA CAM. We all had to start somewhere. I still have a SVHS camera and it still works well. Every now and then I find I need an extra camera and out come old faithful. I also have 4 pro version SVHS decks that get use a lot.
I didn't think it was that long ago. : ))

Lynn
Emerich Video Service
B.Verlik wrote on 9/26/2005, 1:40 PM
A 3 chip camera should look pretty good. I had a friend who bought an RCA SVHS camcorder in 1990 and shelled out about $1000. at Sears. In daylight it looked pretty good, but indoors looked HORRIBLE. Low light made video look super grainy and almost Black and White.
A good Camera and SVHS recorder would yield 420 lines of H resolution. Not bad when you consider most DV camcorders will give you 500. But a good 3 chip, SVHS camera into a DV recorder should give you a very nice picture. Maybe better than you think, because of the CCD size.
GaryKleiner wrote on 9/26/2005, 7:11 PM
As Steve begins to point out, chip size as well as electronics, and especially the lens, all have a lot to do with image quality.

I used to shoot SVHS with JVC KY-27s which were 2/3" chips coupled with a $2500 broadcast lens. It put out image quality way beyond what SVHS could record. When the DV back came out for it, I was first in line.

Gary