Comparison between modern Hi8 camcorder and 7 year old 8mm.

Here are some video images from a brand new Sony TRV-95 Hi8 vs. a 6 year old RCA Pro8 8mm video camera. I started this page because I was shocked to find that a new Hi8 camera would have worse picture quality than a tired old 8mm. I hadn't planned on spending more to get less!

The first 3 shots were taken outfront of my house on a very sunny day. The last four were taken indoors with the room being lit by outside light streaming through two glass doors.

NOTE: IT IS BEST TO VIEW THESE IMAGES AT 16K COLORS OR HIGHER

Outdoors

Shot with RCA Pro8 8mm

Shot with Sony TRV-series Hi8

The RCA is oversaturated. My Son's pink shirt is pretty close to how it looked in the intense noon sun, but my other Son's blue shirt is not nearly that blue. It was suggested that a neutral density filter would help out the RCA's image. The Sony's shot is not oversaturated. On the otherhand, it lacks the dynamic range seen with the RCA. The Sony shot is missing the bright highlights from the sun, the dark shadows cast by the trees, and my Son's bright pink shirt is a dull purpleish red. The Sony's lack of contrast takes vitality away from the shot, leaving it flat.

Here I tried scanning the shirt material with an HP4C. The blue is very close. The pink came out too red.

Indoors

Shot with RCA Pro8 8mm vs. Shot with Sony TRV-series Hi8.

The Sony lacks warmth (leaning toward blue.) The skintones are too pinkish. The RCA is much warmer (slightly yellow.)

The first series of shots were comparing the same Fuji 8mm film in both cameras. The next two shots are comparing Fuji Hi8 in the Sony vs. Fuji 8mm in the RCA.

Shot with RCA Pro8 8mm vs. Shot with Sony TRV-series Hi8.

It shouldn't take much of a hint to figure out which is the Sony and which is the RCA. The bean bag pillow is bright blue and red...similar to the colors of the American flag. Sony apparently thinks the American flag is red and torquoise :-)

For kicks, I scanned the beanbag he was holding with my HP4C. It oversaturated the red a bit but the blue is very close. Notice how dead on the RCA is with the blue.

Now, take a look at my Son's hair color. He has dark blond hair. This is reproduced pretty well with the RCA. With the Sony there is not a hint of blond. Look at the smoothness. My Son's skin looks pretty good with the RCA. With the Sony it looks like he has a blemish on his chin and freckles on his arm.

While the Sony's picture definitely has more resolution, the extra resolution just gives it a grainy, computer generated appearance. There are artifacts in the Sony picture that don't show as much in this captured still as they do when viewing the moving footage. The Sony's "grainyness" gets much worse as light levels fall. The RCA lacks the sharp focus of the Sony but this softness is particularly appealing when viewing fleshtones which are warm and smooth.

So what gives?!@! The feedback I have received points to the CCD's in modern camcorders. In order to reduce cost and offer lens with ever greater zooms the camera companies reduced the size of the CCD (the camera's eye.) The smaller CCD is not as light sensitive. Additionally, the newer, smaller aperature, "long" lens gather less light. The ensuing darker image is amplified (gain) to make it seeable. This high gain yields a much noisier image, especially in lower light when the gain is turned up the most. I've also got feedback that the amplifiers are not very sophisticated (another cost savings) and therefore produce lots of noise.

The manufacturers really can't be faulted. In this capitalistic market, being driven by cost and specs (like length of zoom and size of screen) they just responded. Unfortunately, they've traded features (which sell cameras) for picture quality which is harder to quantify and, more importantly, market (what metric would they use.)

Bottom line: You might want to hold onto that older camera a while longer. Lets hope that consumers become educated and start voting with their wallets for better picture quality.

*How the images were captured. The Sony TRV-95 was connected to an ATI All-In-Wonder card through its NTSC RCA jack. The images were captured as bmps. They were then converted to jpegs using Macromedia's XRes2 batch convert.

**It should be noted that the Sony was able to capture pictures at much lower light levels than the RCA. In fact, with its 0 lux night vision it can capture infrared. While this low light ability is nifty, the images are horribly grainy in low light. In low light the colors are terribly undersaturated and the tonal balance is wrong. Effectively this low light ability would be only beneficial for documenting activity (security camera?) as the images are too poor a quality for even home movies. In total darkness (infrared mode) the images are black and white (or greenish grey and white.)

***Counter points. Please note that these tests were very limited. I had a short window in which to evaluate the camera before it had to be returned to the store. I have received several intriquing questions and suggestions on testing.

1. Tape type. The tape I used Fuji Hi8 MP is not the best Hi8 tape. It was suggested a better Hi8 tape (specifically Sony HME) would have better signal to noise ratio and generate less graininess.

2. Lighting conditions and white balance. Several people suggested that it would not be a fair test if the white balance was not set up properly on both cameras. Also it was suggested that there might be indoor vs. outdoor modes I could have set the cameras to. It was suggested that I should have tried turning down the gain in the Sony to reduce the graininess (but at the expense of further color loss.) I made no attempt to set anything on either camera. Everything was left on the standard auto modes for both. This mirrors how I actually use them. PS. I have been told by a Sony TRV owner that there is no manual way to adjust the new Sony's white balance...it is auto only.

3. Hi8 vs. 8mm. It was suggested that Hi8 is inherently noisier and has less saturation than 8mm. This is because (as was explained to me) it has more resolution which reveals more details and because Hi8 is approaching the limits of its analog tape technology. I have not had a chance to test another Hi8 but am looking into a used older model Hi8 and if I decide to purchase one (or find a friend who lets me test one) will post pictures from it for comparison.

4. Image Stabilization (IS.) Other TRV camera owners mentioned that, with Image Stabilization turned on, artifacts were introduced into the pictures. These were particularly noticable in high detail areas like text where you could see the moire type waves the best. I ran all my tests on the default auto settings. On the Sony this was with IS on. This would probably explain the disturbing pulsating I could see in the wood paneling behind my son in the clip of him dancing.

Bryan Biggers was kind enough to send me some pics with image stabilization off and on. Looks like image stabilization should be called image destabilization!

You can Email me at dlauring@hotmail.com.
Please send me your comments and suggestions.

Here are some informative video links:

First some magazines, DV sites, and general video info sites:

"Digital Video Live"

"NewMedia Magazine"

"DVD Insider"

"DV Central"

"Videomaker Magazine"

"The Mining Company"

"The Video Guys" (a commercial site but lots of good info)

"Super Video" Another commercial site that specializes in selling Japanese imports. Lots of good info on new products.

"Sima's filming tips"