Video-8 was analog akin to VHS quality. Hi-8 was also analog but with provision for digital sound, and had higher resolution akin to S-VHS and Laser Disk. Digital-8 used the same tapes as Hi-8 but was totally digital, recording directly to the DV codec. Most, but not all, Digital-8 players can play Hi-8 tapes.
Depending on what is recorded will dictate how to best digitize it. The cameras with a Firewire out will be easier to capture, especially directly on a Mac, but that signal is DV 4:1:1, so you're losing a bit of color info. Fine if you're not going to do anything with the video other than archive it. If you're going to do some corrections on it afterward, you'd want to use something with s-video out and capture that with an analog capture device to preserve 4:2:2.
I'm doing that right now with some VHS tapes, using a Windows bootcamp installation for capture initial processing and then finishing on the Mac.
Erich
Edit TOPP: From the Wayback Machine, Sun-n-Fun 2010, and I can't remember who they are.
David, those are great! If you hadn't said they were models I would have been hard-pressed. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that some of them are huge. Love the pilot peering out from behind the guns, and the moon shots.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Does anyone have a "Hi-8" camcorder sitting around that they don't use? I have a dozen Hi-8 tapes that I need to digitize and am trying to figure out how to do it efficiently.
TOPP:
Jim, still looking for a Hi-8 camcorder to borrow?
msalvetti wrote:
David, those are great! If you hadn't said they were models I would have been hard-pressed. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that some of them are huge. Love the pilot peering out from behind the guns, and the moon shots.
Two years in development, my aerial cinematography system did very well on it's shakedown flight. Sony technicians were a big help in the process as well as several other technology geniuses. Quickly adaptable to Robinson, Bell and MD Helicopters. Completely controlled by me from the cockpit. I sent the test flight footage to four key clients this past Tuesday and already have a dozen assignment booked. Not too bad considering the winter color and mediocre light. Wait until the landscape is Spring green and the light is Texas pure.
So far our winter has been typically UK south coast mild. We had a light dusting of the white stuff. So off we went to a favourite place - Hinton Ampner – to get some sun and air and exercise.
Something made me go inside …... and this is what I found.....
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Two years in development, my aerial cinematography system did very well on it's shakedown flight. Sony technicians were a big help in the process as well as several other technology geniuses. Quickly adaptable to Robinson, Bell and MD Helicopters. Completely controlled by me from the cockpit. I sent the test flight footage to four key clients this past Tuesday and already have a dozen assignment booked. Not too bad considering the winter color and mediocre light. Wait until the landscape is Spring green and the light is Texas pure.
Power to your elbow JW. I find it an amusing paradox that however hard we try and however much time effort and cash we invest, we are ever more dependent upon good light and other things that defy our efforts to control. I think that may be a good thing, given we humans ability to screw up!
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Two years in development, my aerial cinematography system did very well on it's shakedown flight. Sony technicians were a big help in the process as well as several other technology geniuses. Quickly adaptable to Robinson, Bell and MD Helicopters. Completely controlled by me from the cockpit. I sent the test flight footage to four key clients this past Tuesday and already have a dozen assignment booked. Not too bad considering the winter color and mediocre light. Wait until the landscape is Spring green and the light is Texas pure.
Jim, I'm seeing a stutter in that footage. Every 10th frame is repeated. Is that the original frame rate?
Beautiful imagery Nick! The light in the interior is wonderful! Yes, I often think about the difference time of day, season and just the quality of the light on a particular day, and how much the recognition of that variable affects our work. We live in a fast paced, get it done, environment and it takes time and patience to wait, or come back to a project when the light is optimum, but the difference is, literally "night and day". I believe it is a gift to be able to discern the quality of light and the texture shadow introduces, most people do not possess that gift, or don't want to take the necessary time to exercise it.
My Granddaughter Gracie just graduated from Arkansas and while she is interviewing, she's working with me. We shot a project in Austin this week. Aside from the joy of spending time with any of our Grandchildren, having Gracie assist me is a pleasure. She possesses an innate ability to compose and style that far exceeds her experience level. What Chandler has for aviation work, Gracie has for architecture, people and landscape. We left Dallas at 6am and that first day was 16 hours of non-stop, she not only hung in there, she pushed me toward the end when I was slipping into a bit of "give up". She could see that I had had just about enough and was thinking about settling for a particular perspective, and she looked at me and quoted me to me, "Papa, what happened to 'Shoot to a level that satisfies you, strive for that level of perfection, and you will always exceed the expectations of your most discerning client'. Apparently I said that at some point in a previous assignment we did together and it stuck. Kind of a modified version of a quip my Buddy Reno Air Racer Stewart Dawson said to me as I was finishing up my biplane project and had had just about enough..........."Wilson, now is not the time to show weakness!" Anyway, held to my own standard, I sucked it up and we found a better angle
That is not in the original footage, it's something Vimeo introduces on occasion. The first time I saw it was my Pacific Prowler footage over Ft. Worth. I shot my test runs at 23.97 because I wanted a little more "filmic" feel.
Odd, I just looked at my original file, and reloaded it to Vimeo. There is no jitter in the original file, it's smooth as glass, but it's clearly there in Vimeo.
I find it an amusing paradox that however hard we try and however much time effort and cash we invest, we are ever more dependent upon good light and other things that defy our efforts to control. I think that may be a good thing, given we humans ability to screw up!