Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Digi-View would be a good starting point.Version 4.0 has been giving
    better pictures than ever. There are packages that do realtime capture
    but at a cost in resolution. Digi-View gives you the digitizer that
    connects to the parallel port,software,and a color filter wheel
    to be used with a black,and white video camera.You could use a color
    camera if you bought a color splitter. The paint program you need
    will depend on how you digitize the picture. If you digitize in
    ham then you cannot use DeluxPaint III to edit the pictures.Digi-
    Paint will allow you to edit ham images,but lacks some of the nicer
    features of Dpaint,but will allow much better image manipulation.
    Any of the paint programs will print to the LJ252,but of course
    you will want a parallel switch to use if you have a parrallel printer.
    								bill
    

    The source makes ALL the difference in the world, I have a Frame
    Grabber, and I always tought my pictures lacked the quality the
    Digiview gave untill I bought a B+W camera and the PROPER color wheel
    (from the Memory location).  Now I get the best of both worlds, real
    time video digitizing from camera, camcorder or VCR + quality from
    pictures or drawings.  I digitized some pictures from my beta deck and
    the improvement in quality was quite impressive just going from B2 to
    B1.
    
    Jean
    

    Under good conditions and with good equipment - how does the quality
    of a Digiview Gold capture using a color camera with a color splitter
    compare to the b/w with the color wheel?
    
    I already have a color cammera and the cost of just a splitter would
    save me some bucks over the b/w setup; but I don't want any big
    sacrifice in quality.

       Along the same lines as .3, if you have a CAMCORDER/HANDYCAM (I
       have a SONY 8mm) can I use it with Digiview Gold WITHOUT a color
       splitter??
       
       I'm itchin' to get Digiview.  Timing will depend on the cost of
       any addons I might need.
       
       Thanks
       
       Art
       

    Well the average color camera has about a 230-250 lines of HORIZONTAL
    resolution, so a vertical line in 640 x 400 could be a pixel or two off
    and that makes those vertical lines jagged.  There are color camera
    that have better resolution than that, but the cost may be a factor
    (like $10K+).  The Panasonic BW camera has a 550 lines of horizontal
    resolution and in all Amiga screen sizes, the difference is noticeable.
    
    Jean
    

    Re -.1
    
    	All I know of Digi View is that the source MUST be stable for the
    time it takes to digitize the picture (quite a few seconds).  I saw
    some pictures that were digitized with Digi View from an 8mm deck that
    had a perfect still image they were in black and white.  A color
    splitter can be used with Digi View but then again, the source must be
    stable during the whole process.  I have some reviews from Amiga world
    for some of the more common digitizers, if you want a copy of the
    article, send me mail with your mail stop.
    
    Jean
    

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  >  Re -.1

       Jean,
       
       Re .-2 perhaps?
        
       Assuming it was my entry you were responding to (and not your own
       - although I too talk to myself at times :-), I quess my question
       is a bit more basic in terms of how DigiView works with a
       camcorder.  Do I / can I simply mount the Camcorder on a copy
       stand, aim/focus it on a photograph, have the Camcorder video out
       attached to the DigiView 'box', and capture the signal on the
       AMIGA?
       
       Thanks for the offer of the copy of AMIGA World, but I have them
       all (except the first issue - I bought my A1000 when the second
       issue was on the stands).  It was the article on digitizers that
       appeared a few months ago that got me thinking about the DigiView
       / Camcorder combination.  I can't remember the exact quote, but it
       implied (after some discussion about b/w cameras, colour splitters
       and colour wheels) that if you had a Camcorder you didn't need all
       this stuff - "Just plug it in and away you go".  Ain't life
       grand!!
       
       Art
       

    Having recently acquired a camcorder and DigiView, perhaps I can answer
    some of your questions.  I was unable to locate any color splitters
    (around Christmas time).  Most places I called had been carrying units
    made by CMI, which has gone out of business.  The only other brand I've
    heard of is SunRise Industries, and there seemed to be a general
    shortage of those.  Anyway, I can't comment on the color splitter setup
    yet.

    I have managed to digitize some things in black and white, using either
    the camcorder or a 4 head (freeze frame) VCR.  I'd say the results were
    'acceptable', though I can believe the the b&w camera could produce
    sharper images.  I tried using the color wheel with the camcorder to
    get color images, but I got some kind of vertical striping effect,
    especially with the red filter.  Not sure what causes this, but I
    suspect the camcorder is trying to do some type of color balance
    adjustment or something.  This was rather disappointing...

       re. -1
       
       Sounds like a colour splitter is required.  I will be interested
       to hear what the results are with a splitter added to your setup.
       
       Thanks
       
       Art
       

    I'd be interested also. Part of the reason I asked about this was
    that I also know that DigiView is picky about what shades of red/blue/green
    are used during the capture. I wondered how different the color
    splitter "colors" were compared to the color wheel. It's already
    been stated that the resolution is less when using a color splitter
    - how do the brightness and color reproduction fair?

    I've used a SunRise color splitter to digitize from a digital VCR,
    and from an OLD Panasonic color camera. As far as I can tell, the
    colors are as good as, or better than, the color wheel setup. They
    are quite accurate coming from the VCR, but it does require some
    bit of fiddling to get the proper balance. DigiView allows several
    methods of color adjustment itself, and the SunRise splitter has
    a color balance adjustment knob. The only problem is that the "split"
    signal doesn't have enough information for you to know if the balance
    is good. So it's pretty much trial-and-error, but I've gotten good
    results with a little effort. 

Abel has the Sunrize splitter listed:


Electronic Color Splitter --------- Sunrize ---------------28 $119.95 $ 84.08


John

    I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile for someone to upload a
    couple of high-res pictures "snapped" using a color splitter?

    I added a light box to the setup mentioned in .11. Purchased from
    K-Mart for $90.00.  It was originaly designed to videotape photographs
    it sports a built in macro lens and does a pretty good job.  The light
    source tend to add a slight blue tint to Digiview but that is easy to
    adjust for.  It can handle up to a 4X6 inch photo.  It also works well
    with a 35MM camera to reproduce negatives from old one of a kind
    photos.  If you are into genealogy, it runs on 4 D cells and is
    quite portable.
    
    Alan