> If your shooting for
 > commercial quality you need Beta-Cam SP or better.  You can try with
 > Hi-8 but that would be "Semi-Pro" level, great for weddings and
 > instructional videos but look like heck on Commercial TV. 
 MC> If you are dealing with Non-Linear editing with no loss in quality,
 MC> wouldn't a hi end SVHS camera that shoots at over 700 lines of
 MC> resolution look about the same as something shot on a betacam camera? 
 MC> Afterall, it's gonna get stepped back down in resolution when they
 MC> broadcast it on commercial television.   This was my understanding of
 MC> it.  Correct me if Im wrong.
The high resolution of S-VHS would look comperable to broadcast cameras
if TV were still black and white -- it's the "luminance" or black and
white part of the picture that S-VHS and Hi-8 enhance.  The color is
another matter.  S-VHS and Hi-8 handle color the same way regular VHF and
8mm do -- it's fairly noisy, and tends to bleed.  If shooting conditions 
are good, the picture does look pretty good -- until you compare it to
the picture from a broadcast camera and Betacam recording.  The fuzzy
color of the S-VHS will make the picture look less sharp than the
Betacam.
The professional system also has a much higher "signal-to-noise" ratio.
That noise is a moving, grainy pattern on the screen, kind of like a
weak TV station.  Again, the S-VHS looks good by itself, but side-by-
side with Betacam, the differences show up.
Gary Pearce
Franklin Video
Raleigh NC
 
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