12 Comments

1. 

   anon on April 19, 2012 at 11:02 pm

   I give HD camera a 95.

   Reasons in honor of Dick Clark, it has a good beat. It’s easy do dance to. Also, I like the lyrics and the words.

2. 

   sdriva on April 19, 2012 at 11:05 pm

   Like the sharpness of the new camera.

3. 

   makarov on April 20, 2012 at 12:00 am

   I’m partial to the new camera, crisper image.

   Unrelated, I wonder, Jim, if you have any thoughts to share on the recent news regarding SKC Real Estate in Carlsbad. The owner and his mother are in jail awaiting sentencing in federal court after being guilty of $8M in mortgage fraud:

   http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/19/45752.htm

4. 

   Valentin Mandache on April 20, 2012 at 12:11 am

   The lines are straighter with the new camera and adds to the professionalism of the presentation, compared with highly noticeable barrel distortion of the old one. The new camera is an improvement, except, as you mentioned, the narrower lenses. I look forward to watching the new videos!

5. 

   ewhac on April 20, 2012 at 2:00 am

   YouTube is only offering the videos up in 480p, which is basically standard def. So unless you have some secret URL to higher-quality videos, that basically means that any additional detail in the original image is simply lost.

   It’s doubtful YouTube is throwing away the higher detail (they’ve been pretty good with the handful of videos I’ve uploaded), which makes me wonder what, if anything, you’re doing to the videos between the time you pull them off the camera’s memory card and the time you upload them. If you’re loading them into a video editing program to edit them and overlay title text, check your project/profile settings to see what final resolution you’re encoding to. (It sure seems like you’re rendering to 640×480.)

   As for overall image quality, both seemed roughly equal to each other, but you had a fair amount of sunlight. Try shooting in low light; that usually reveals the weaker digital cameras fairly quickly.

6. 

   Jakob on April 20, 2012 at 5:09 am

   Prefer new camera. Better white balance (colors more consistent and accurate).

7. 

   clearfund on April 20, 2012 at 8:28 am

   Did you say what make/model the new camera is? What are you editing the videos with?

   Seems the new camera is slightly less ‘top/bottom’ but slightly wider on the still shot comparisons. Sound seems a bit crisper on the new.

8. 

   sdduuuude on April 20, 2012 at 10:09 am

   I’m not much of a video conneseur, but the new one looks much better.

9. 

   Colin on April 20, 2012 at 12:36 pm

   I like the sound much better on the new camera. Much easier to understand.

10. 

    Just some guy on April 20, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    Big thumbs up on the new camera!

    The sound quality alone is worth the upgrade.

11. 

    Jp on April 21, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    I liked the old one much better.

12. 

    Kwaping on April 23, 2012 at 9:20 am

    I echo comment #5 about the final video quality. Jim, you gotta go bigger than 480p! That’s regardless of which camera you use, but it’s especially important with the new HD camera.

    I think the images look very similar, but I also think this was a bad test. Where the old camera failed miserably was in focusing. If the new camera can focus quickly and automatically on whatever you’re shooting, that’s an instant win.