changing the clips - what to buy?

dworsley · #1 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 10:46 AM

I have a freebie software POWER DIRECTOR that came with the digital camera. It can give me slow motion

. But now I have 20 minutes worth of a long distant shot(s), and I want to zoom in to get close ups. (imagine shooting a stage, and wanting close ups of individual actors).

So, I have to spend some money, but I'm time rich/cash poor and would like advice on which to go for. Can you help, please?

Output to CD or DVD, with menu and chapters

Alan Mills · #2 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 11:03 AM

There are many manby editors that will allow you to zoom or scale your footage. In fact I'm not at all familiar with any that don't so I won't bother to attempt to list them all.

What i want to get across though is that if you do this you MUST be aware that this will become a digital zoom rather than an optical one. What this means is that you will lose definition everytime you do it.

the more you zoom the more definition will be lost. Imagine if you had a small photo, say 100 pixels by 100 and you expand it to fit the screen. The picture becomes pretty awfull doesn't it. All pixellated. This is exactly the effect you wil get form a digital zoom.

Of course, some editors may attempot to do the job more 'intelligently' than others but they will not be perfect.

dworsley · #3 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 11:14 AM

Thanks for the quick response. I had realised that my zoom would be digital, but the camera blurb tells me that it has 10m pixels, so I must watch carefully until it starts to hurt, then stop zooming further.

And, yup, you now know that Cyberlink's power director can't do this - and Cyberlink say that they have nothing that will.

Adobe premiere elements doesn't as far as their website shows, AP is a huge cost. Is there a budget package that can help?

Marc Peters · #4 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 11:41 AM

No matter what the manufacturer displays in the specs, bear in mind that the standard definition for PAL footage is 720 x 576. Just beacuse you're camera manual claims 1 gazzilion megapixels, doesn't mean you'll be able to zoom in with no reduction in quality....

dworsley · #5 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 11:46 AM

thanks for the advice. I'll get whats there - and lump it. heyho.

I'm going to trial Pure Motion Edit Studio.

Alan Mills · #6 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 12:03 PM

Marc's right. Video is ALWAYS recorded at standard video resolution (which depend onj your local format, PAL, NTSC) no matter how many gazillion pixels the camera claims. Those extra pixels will only be used if you use the camera to capture stills.

Mark W · #7 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 02:09 PM

I do loads of 'vritual' zooms and pans and this is one big reason why I want a hi def camera. Cropping a dv pic results in an awful loss of quality.

Alan Mills · #8 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by Mark W

I do loads of 'vritual' zooms and pans and this is one big reason why I want a hi def camera. Cropping a dv pic results in an awful loss of quality.

Are you dropping high def video onto a standard def project then? Is that your norm?

Mark W · #9 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 07:14 PM

No, at the moment I only have sd cameras. I find virtual zooms very usefull for doing pretend camera movemnt type effects without all the gear.

I had a play with some hi def uncompressed footage I found on the net and was impressed by how much I could zoom and retain sd type output quality.

Obviously hdv is cool for many reasons but for me the freedom to zoom / crop and retain acceptable quality would be a boon to the way I make stuff.