There’s an official press release here that confirms that it’s only one ccd. It’s some sorta of super ccd though, not sure if the colour quality will be better though:
http://pro.jvc.com/prof/Attributes/press_res.jsp?model_id=MDL101394&feature_id=08
There is a rumour of a pro version of this cam getting announced at NAB. The JVC forum at Creative Cow has lots of rumours milling about.
Originally posted by CDS
Another factor(which hasnt been mentioned in the press release at all) is its component color sampling. If its still just 4:1:1, then its really no better than your highend DV component sampling. Now if its 4:2:2 then its right up there with Sony’s digital beta, and digital-S(JVC). I have a camera capable of 4:2:2 and it cost me over 20K, so if this can reproduce that quality(which I doubt), then this is one hell of a bargin.
exactly, for us in CG the 4:1:1 will make it fairly useless for keying, and some CC and compositing
Originally posted by CDS
Another factor(which hasnt been mentioned in the press release at all) is its component color sampling. If its still just 4:1:1, then its really no better than your highend DV component sampling. Now if its 4:2:2 then its right up there with Sony’s digital beta, and digital-S(JVC). I have a camera capable of 4:2:2 and it cost me over 20K, so if this can reproduce that quality(which I doubt), then this is one hell of a bargin.
Sorry for the noob question, but what exactly is meant when talking about 4:1:1 vs 4:2:2. And how does this relate keying?
Component sampling 101
taking into account that computers work on a RGB color system, most video is captured and processed in a YUV color. Y is the luma component, U and V are the color differences. The ratio between Y, U and V sampling rates is used as a shorthand to indicate video recording quality.
Example:
4:4:4 means that luma and both color components are samples once per pixel.
4:2:2 means that Y has been sampled for every pixel, but U and V were each sampled for every other pixel.
Now there is also 4:4:4:4 sampling but that is including an alpha, but we wont go there.
This type of information is very important if you plan to composite/key video footage.
Hope this helps you out.
Here’s a good explanation, Savage:
http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/411samp.htm
Basically 4:1:1 has less color information than 4:2:2, making it worse when you’re keying.
Originally posted by ggg
exactly, for us in CG the 4:1:1 will make it fairly useless for keying, and some CC and compositing
Ultimatte Advantedge does a great job on green screen footage shot on miniDV, so I’m guessing it’ll do a great job on stuff shot on this camera too.
It shocked he to see only 1CCD…but it’s a marketing strategy, JVC can still say they have the 1st consumer HD DV cam out there. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Canon come out with a 3CCD HD within a year…probably the same with Sony. 
Cheers!
Sony’s will own! It will probably be the succesor to the awesome VX2000 (of which I am a proud owner). Though I have to say the new Panasonic DVX100 (of which I just shot my thesis film with) is very very impressive in terms of options and picture quality. But the camera itself is quite flimsy and poorly designed.
I would never buy anything from Sony again. My Sony Digicam is dying and has really odd behaviour.
I would love to see something like this:
HD resolution / 4:2:2 / only slightly compressed to a HARDDISK (DV is really not the apropriate format for HD)
and… yeah all this in a Canon XL1s case… :drool:
probably another few years to go… :hmm:
but after all… it’s a start.
My VX2K has stuck with me through thick and thin… extreme weather, lots of shock, travelling, irresponsible operators, etc… and has always worked flawlessly. i know a few collegues and friends who’ve had Canon and Pana cams die on them for much less. Especially the crapper known as the GL1 
I agree… the Canon body is pretty nice… but way too much plastic… which leads to problems. It’s also much more invasive than the Vx2K and PD150… which can be both a good, and bad thing.
hehe…we own an XL1 and we wouldn’t get anything else. I just saw an Arriflex 35mm Lens Adaptor for the XL1 on ebay! :buttrock:
Yup I agree about 4:2:2 with HD res…so far the JVC will output to HD but since it has only 1 CCD and slightly the same total pixels it might lose some details no? :shrug:
Cheers!
if you guys want some more info on the camera check out these links. with pics of footage shot with the camera.
http://home.earthlink.net/~dvcnyc/HD1_HD10.htm
http://www.sonyshop.c-tec.co.jp/main/vcam/gr-hd1_info1.htm
Those screenshots are photographs of television screens… so you can’t actually judge the quality.
Originally posted by Maroonie
[B]I heard it was just recording to mini DVD’s?-M [/B]
“In all modes, the signal is recorded to MiniDV tape”
Cheers!
This looks pretty cool, but it’s still a bit hobbled for professional use. The MPEG-2 compression won’t be too bad - 1080i broadcast signals are around 19 megabits, the camera is 18.6 megabits (but at 720p), so compression-wise it’s just as good as, if not better than, most HDTV broadcasts. (of course it won’t have the sharpness of true 1080i captured with a really good lens or transferred from film). MPEG-2 is pretty nasty for editing (you have to break apart and re-encode a few frames surrounding each cut), not to mention FX work (I wouldn’t even try it)… It’s good as a final-delivery format (like JPEG), but not for source material.
MPEG-2 uses 4:2:0 sampling. This means if the total image resolution is say 720x480, the luminance channel is stored at 720x480 but the color channels are stored at 360x240. Or at 1080i the luminance is at 1920x1080 and the color is at 960x540.
4:2:2 (Digital Betacam/HD D5) means that if the total resolution is 720x480, luminance is 720x480 but color is 360x480. (it’s sub-sampled horizontally but not vertically).
4:1:1 (NTSC DV) luminance 720x480, color 180x480 (yes DV has only 180 color samples horziontally!). PAL DV uses 4:2:0 like MPEG.
HDCAM uses a weird scheme where it stores 1080i luminance at 1440x1080 and color at 960x1080. People call this “3:1:1” but by the numbers it’s more like 3:2:2.
Hey dmaas,
Nice to see someone who really knows their stuff.
Have you seen the Viper HDcam in action? It’s 4:4:4 and records completely uncompressed. 9.6 megapixels for each of the 3 ccd’s. You need a harddrive array entitled “The Director’s Friend” to record 
It’s about 3x the resolution of the F900.
Thanks for the info…
I’d like to buy a dvcam soon…but I don’t know shite about them. I love to get the inside scoop of products from people who do more than videotape thier kid playing with their dog…or opening birthday presents…