Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Since September of 2006 - with the introduction of the Nokia N93 - the Nseries class of devices have offered VGA resolution video capture. Though nowhere near DVD quality, having the ability to capture a decent video with clear sound has become something that most of us have come to appreciate.
Can the 6220 Classic deliver a similar level of video capture quality, can it equal the mighty N95 8GB? I intended to find out!
On a recent visit to Techniquest in Cardiff, Wales, I shot video using three devices, the 6220 Classic, the N95 8GB, and my control camera, the ever awe-inspiring Canon HV10. It was a perfect location to test video capture; lots of movement, bucket loads of colour and plenty of people.
Unfortunately, the MP4 formatted video that the 6220 churns out does not play nicely with either iMovie 08 or iMovie HD, hence I am unable to present to you a proper video comparison. But not to worry too much as I have made the 4 clips available below, please click the links below to download and see the difference for yourself...
What do you think?
Clearly the 6220 Classic video is worse than the N95, but let’s set about trying to define the problems seen in the clip (Please refer to the screen capture above).
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1.Resolution. Though the video file is 640 x 480, it appears that the native capture is perhaps 320 x 480 or even perhaps as low as 320 x 240 and scaled up to VGA for the final file. Look at the area I’ve marked in red, notice the shadows on the floor, see the stepping? It’s not good is it.
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2.Exposure compensation. As I pan through the scene notice how much better the N95 deals with the changing light, though the N95 is no master when in comes to exposure compensation, it totally destroys the 6220!
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3.Compression. The 6220 is over compressed, look closely and you can plenty of artifacts.
So what does this mean? In my opinion it means that video from the 6220 Classic is only usable for quick reference material, nothing more. I certainly would not be happy using the 6220 as my primary video camera.
Perhaps the 6220 Classic can paint a prettier picture when it comes to still photography, more on that later.
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