XTR-91
Member
I have a JVC MG-155U camcorder with a menu function ("DIS") that stabalizes the picture. I also know that digital stabalization (which many editors have) involves loss in resolution.
I would like to know if my camera does this digitally with a quality loss, or does it use some type of mechanical stabalizer?
robgrauert
Member
No, I don't think you're losing image quality. So use the image sabilizer.
EarlC
Moderator
Actually, there IS a tradeoff on image on most cameras with digital stabilization. The exceptions are rare, depending on the particular brand. You would need to check at JVC, or read the specs that came with your camera, to determine if your model uses ONLY digital stabilization/zoom, etc. or if it incorporates stablization of which Canon and certain models of Sony are famous for.
Digital usually enlarges and compensates for some movement by digitally shifting or expanding the frame, and this technology does ill-effect the image quality, sometimes by an inperceptible degree, sometimes very noticeable. Stabilization that does not compensate digitally, but rather actually shifts the sensors or lens to compensate for slight handshake or camera movement, usually does not cause ANY change in the image quality recorded.
In some Panasonic models, Cannon, Sony and others, the system incorporates "Optical" stabilization whereby the lens itself moves to compensate for hand shake and manufacturers claim there is NO image quality degradation. Each calls it something different, with Panasonic it is O.I.S., with Sony it is Supersteadyshot.
But, yes, there IS a difference in the resulting image quality.
XTR-91
Member
I'm prettry sure my camera stabalizer is mechanical rather than digital, but my manual does not mention or indicate it either way. On the other hand, the manual said to turn it off while recording on a tripod.
I am still not quite sure if I'll actually lose anything by turning this feature on.
EarlC
Moderator
Check out http://support.jvc.com/consumer/product.jsp?modelId=MODL027855&pathId=119&page=3&archive=true
Link to info panel at JVC. The model you own apparently has a 30GB internal HDD and the ability to record onto SDHC cards. The Everio GZ MG 155U has an optical/digital zoom, and 1/6" CCD (1.07) megapixel CCD. Via the docking system it offers a multitude of i/o operations.
Sad to say, however, the camera's stabilization is digital NOT optical, or "mechanical" as you thought. Sorry, but use of this will further challenge the image quality of an already tiny CCD signal.
When you click on the link, drag down the specs where it says video image stabilization and click to see the type of stabilization your model uses.
CincoTalentos
Member
One reason for turning off the stabilizer when on a tripod is that if you try to pan the camera, it will first interpret this movement as shake and will try to correct for it. This causes an initial delay in the pan followed by a catch-up jump in the video. So, with the stabilizer on while doing a pan from a tripod will actually cause a jerk in the video! The stabilizer is designed to make up for the lack of a tripod.
XTR-91
Member
Earl said:
The Everio GZ MG 155U has an optical/digital zoom, and 1/6" CCD (1.07) megapixel CCD... Sorry, but use of this will further challenge the image quality of an already tiny CCD signal.
I understand that larger CCDs promote higher resolutions, but I doubt the SD picture quality is limited because of its size. If I got a camcorder that was exactly the same (720x480) only it was a 3ccd, would there be a difference? Maybe they would create more stabal videos because of their broad capture range.
CraftersOfLight
Member
There are 2 types of "larger" CCDs.
One type is the physical size of each pixel within the CCD. The smaller the pixel, the more light it needs to present an image. Larger pixels can see "better" in low light conditions. So the bigger the overall CCD (1/5, 1/3, 1/2, 3/4) the less light they need to see the same scene.
The other type is more pixels. This provide better resolution and improves picture quality. 720X480 (345600 pixels) is about 1/6 the size of a 1920X1080 (2073600). 2 basic type of digital stability are; 1) move each frame so that the scene appears the same and crop the edges giving you a smaller image. 2) similar to 1 but the frame is enlarged so that the image will retain the pixel count after processing so you get a minor digital zoom on your scene which could pixelate/degrade the image. Keep in ming this loss of resolution might be acceptable over a very shakey and otherwise unusable image.
Optical Stabilization moves the optics or CCD or both to keep the image stable and does not impact image resolution.
3 CCD. people think that 3CCD cameras have better resolution because they have 3 times the pixel count. What is overlooked is that during processing the 3 images are added/overlayed on each other. This can provide a small improvement to resolution because of the averaging that goes on but because of the individual colors being recorded, the biggest impact they have is in the color reproduction of the scene.
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