What does the Professional have to say?

I was thinking that people would probably want to hear from more people than just me on my blog so I decided to ask a professional a few questions. Timothy Mielke has had several years of experience in making movies and working as a professor at two colleges.

The first question I asked him was what is the most important spec to look for when buying a camera. His response was the light sensor. He said that the size and quality of the sensor is the most important spec when looking for a camera because the larger the sensor the better quality the picture will record.

The second question I asked was which is better, CMOS or CCD. Mr. Mielke came to basically the same conclusion as I did in my first post. He added that the CCDs have been predominately used in the past, but CMOS have made major improvements. He also mentioned the CMOS sensors are used more in cheaper cameras because of their cheaper production cost.

Thirdly, I asked him whether he thought HD was a top priority on a low cost budget. The answer was yes. Decent HD cameras can be found for around $600. Since most programs are compatible with HD, the advantages of HD can be used on almost any budget. HD is the wave of the future so it is a wise choice to buy the better equipment.

Finally I asked what is the best camera brand for the dollar. His answer was Cannon since he has used this brand for several years and is partial to it. He thought that they have better quality lenses. He mentioned the new Canon 5D Mark II which is a 22 megapixel still camera that can shoot HD video. His reasoning for this camera is its capability to shoot with a similar look to film and has the same depth of field.

Many thanks to Timothy Mielke for his contribution.

My Canon XH-A1

What is HD (High Definition) and how is it different from SD (Standard Definition)? HD has many times more pixels, which are the tiny dots or lights in a screen. True HD is 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels. Many non-professional cameras have a slightly different format, but that can be saved for later. SD has only a fraction of the pixels of HD at only 640 by 480. This is a significant difference when you multiply it out. HD has 2,037,600 pixels in every frame and SD has a mere 307,200 pixels so SD contains around 15% as many pixels as HD. Compare these two photos of the U.S. flag to see the difference. Photos taken by Timothy Mielke of Milky Way Productions.

Now what is the difference between CMOS and CCD. COMS chips scan a picture across the sensor in contrast to CCD chips which snap the entire frame in one shot. The CMOS gives a picture a slightly liquidly look when scanning cause the bottom of the frame is captured after the top. The primary advantage to CMOS is the energy usage. Since it doesn’t take the whole picture at once, it can save on battery power immensely.

CCD has a different approach to capturing a frame. CCD generally comes with three chips, one for each of the primary colors of the light spectrum, which work in sync. The down side to CCDs is they take more energy to operate. Even with this down side their advantages are great enough to be the dominate video camera chip. There biggest advantage is they don’t have the watery liquid effect when recording. Another advantage is the three individual chips. Since each color has its own chip dedicated just to it, the colors are crisper and cleaner.