kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (08/27/90)
"I bought MacVision (version 2.1) recently and have found it pretty "good at some things and a bit problematic in other respects. It works "perfectly with still frames from VCR or camcorder...which is probably "your best solution for portraits: record the subject and digitize from "a freeze frame. But it takes 20 seconds for a full-size (640x480 "pixels of eight bits (256 grays)) scan, not 6 seconds. The quality is "as good as I can detect since I currently have only a four-bit "grayscale monitor. Currently I have not been able to make it "recognize a "live" signal from the camcorder's camera (even a still "life with the camera on a tripod). Does anyone have any suggestions "as to why it won't recognize the "live" signal? "-Neil Interesting. I had the opposite results. My freeze frames were unrecognizeable blobs of gray and the live stuff was at least recognizeable. I gave up on using the camcorder (maybe it's not very good - a Magnavox that is 4 to 5 years old?). I got the Canon Zap Shot which takes a digital picture instantly (no 20-second waits) and that has produced the best quality yet. It looks much better on a grayscale monitor than I can print on a 300 dpi printer, but still a long way for being usable for customer documentation. A lot of the problem is that the Zap shot is a color camera. If we had a good black/white digital camera, I think quality would improve. But the whole world is more intersted in color these days, so I wouldn't look for technical publication solutions in the near term (until someone figures out who's really doing the most publishing). Hint, it's not the people doing color glossies. I do have fun with the camera by taking pictures that can instantly be put into letters, so that's worth something. Shirley Kehr
nsj@Apple.COM (Neal Johnson) (08/29/90)
In article <150590@felix.UUCP> kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) writes: >"I bought MacVision (version 2.1) recently and have found it pretty >"good at some things and a bit problematic in other respects. It works >"perfectly with still frames from VCR or camcorder...which is probably >"your best solution for portraits: record the subject and digitize from >"a freeze frame. But it takes 20 seconds for a full-size (640x480 >"pixels of eight bits (256 grays)) scan, not 6 seconds. The quality is >"as good as I can detect since I currently have only a four-bit >"grayscale monitor. Currently I have not been able to make it >"recognize a "live" signal from the camcorder's camera (even a still >"life with the camera on a tripod). Does anyone have any suggestions >"as to why it won't recognize the "live" signal? >"-Neil > >Interesting. I had the opposite results. My freeze frames were unrecognizeable >blobs of gray and the live stuff was at least recognizeable. I gave up on >using the camcorder (maybe it's not very good - a Magnavox that is 4 to 5 >years old?). I got the Canon Zap Shot which takes a digital picture >instantly (no 20-second waits) and that has produced the best quality yet. > >It looks much better on a grayscale monitor than I can print on a 300 dpi >printer, but still a long way for being usable for customer documentation. >A lot of the problem is that the Zap shot is a color camera. If we had >a good black/white digital camera, I think quality would improve. But the >whole world is more intersted in color these days, so I wouldn't look >for technical publication solutions in the near term (until someone >figures out who's really doing the most publishing). Hint, it's not the >people doing color glossies. > >I do have fun with the camera by taking pictures that can instantly be >put into letters, so that's worth something. > >Shirley Kehr I have used MacVision extensively with a Panasonic video camera doing live shoots (don't move it takes about 10 seconds to scan!). I then take the 72 dpi images and drop them into PixelPaint. Selecting the GrayScale pallate (256 grays) and then selecting the image, I do a Smooth operation, which results in a very respectable B&W image. You will be amazed!!! - neal ============================================================================ name: Neal Johnson "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." mail: nsj@apple.COM "Love is the law, love under will." phone: (408) 974-6246 disclaimer: Everything stated here is disclaimed by all. ============================================================================
chris@momenta (Chris Christensen) (08/30/90)
> Currently I have not been able to make it >"recognize a "live" signal from the camcorder's camera Probably a camera problem as it works fine for me, what are you using and how? >I got the Canon Zap Shot which takes a digital picture >instantly (no 20-second waits) and that has produced the best quality yet. I don't know about the Canon Zap Shot. What is it and how much? Is this that digital camera and if so, does it have a video out to hook up to a Mac Vision?
dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) (09/04/90)
In article <1990Aug30.162037.14323@momenta> chris@momenta (Chris Christensen) writes: >>I got the Canon Zap Shot which takes a digital picture >>instantly (no 20-second waits) and that has produced the best quality yet. >I don't know about the Canon Zap Shot. What is it and how much? Is this >that digital camera and if so, does it have a video out to hook up >to a Mac Vision? The Canon Xap Shot is a "still video camera". It's an analog medium with a video output which you can feed to a TV or VCR. Images are stored (in analog form) on a 2" floppy disk, so that may be the reason there's some confusion with it being digital. The Canon Xap Shot and a similar unit, the Sony Mavica, run about $700-800 at most camera shops. -- Steve Dyer dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer dyer@arktouros.mit.edu, dyer@hstbme.mit.edu
DLP@psuvm.psu.edu (David L. Passmore) (03/03/91)
Does anyone out there have any experience with MACVISION? I just acquired version 3.0. The sample looks fine, but I am having great trouble getting it to capture my images. Iam getting a video signal into the digitizer. I keep getting a msg saying that the video connections are not made. I will try all of this with a virgin system tonight. Any war stories?