720p or 1080i?

by

Brian Pfeiffer

 

Is anyone thinking of buying a new Camcorder?  As my mini-dv camcorder is showing its age I’ve been thinking about replacing it with an HD device.  So I’ve been searching the ‘net and magazines for useful information and likely models.  Obviously there are many things to consider: I’d want a view finder; an external mike socket; good optical zoom; image stabilizer etc but perhaps the most important for me is to be able to get the best quality images possible.  So I began to think about what I call the filming format.  Based on information gleaned from conversations, I had thought I should go for 1080i.

 BUT then I watched an article (http://www.petapixel.com/2012/05/09/hd-video-explained-why-720p-is-better-than-1080i/) which expounded the virtues of ‘Progressive’ as opposed to ‘Interlaced’.  This stated that 720p will give a better resolution on screen that 1080i and that 1080p is the very best and gave good explanations as to why this is so; it’s worth viewing.

So I’m leaning towards 720p or even 1080p if the cost is reasonable.  But I need to know what overheads there might be for filming in ‘Progressive’ e.g. storage requirements both in the camcorder and when the data is captured for editing.  And what impact on the editing process too?  And other things such as: Do I need HD specific SD cards for filming? or HD quality DVDs for the output?  If I record in HD can I view the edited output on a non-HD TV?

As you can see I am a more than a bit confused, so I wondered if this might be a worthwhile topic to open up for discussion one Club evening when there are 10 minutes or so to spare as perhaps others might be in a similar position.

Brian Pfeiffer