Digital Cameras - High Definition

[yaduks]

Hi, i'm looking for a new digi camera that i can hook up to my 1080p TV to view photos in HD. The soon to be released Sony W300 is the first one i came across and looks fairly decent.

To view the photos i would need to buy the HD cable accessory. But my question is if i was to view the photos either via the memory card on my PS3 or direct from the PS3 HDD would i also get the same HD picture?

My other question is are there any other HD type cameras that are recommended?

thanks,
yaduks.

[dfrear]

I would "imagine" that you'd get quality images through your PS3 if the images were of high enough resolution. You wouldnt need a specialist HD camera, and its laughable to see them being marketed as such.

1080p would simply mean 1080 pixels along the longest edge, so any image >= to that is classed as "HD" if you look at it that way.

[Yandros]

Congratulations, you've just fallen victim to the lunacy perpetuated by marketing departments

A quick bit of maths will reveal that 1080p (ie 1080x1920) is actually only 2 Megapixels!

If your PS3 can read jpgs quite happily from an SD card (excuse my ignorance about that part btw), then just buy ANY camera with confidence.

This 'HD' camera thing is pure marketing twaddle. For the record, compact camera sensors are physically very small, and above about 8MP they suffer badly from noise (ie multicoloured graininess) in the images. This totally negates the advantage of the higher pixel count.

[allymac123]

HD camera's I think are camera that are able to output to a TV (or such like) at 1080p as opposed to a normal camera which will only do normal VGA resolution.

As for getting the same resolution images via an SD card I would imagine that is TV specific and you should be able to find the max resolution your TV will display that at in your TV manual.

[pixelpixel]

My Sony DSC-H7 offers 1080 HD images and allows you to output via HDMI to your TV.

As I only have a 720p tv I don't need the feature as I already run dual screens and have been doing for a view years now

[Gadgetcity]

1080p camera - lol

Buy a camera for it's photographic features - not marketing hype.

If you mainly want to display photos on your 1080 TV then you might want to look for a camera that supports 16:9 aspect ratio as an option but this is only a small consideration.

You can take photos at much higher quality than 1080 (some mobile phones are better than that!) and the PS3 will effortlessly scale them to fit the screen. Higher resolution photos will allow you to print them out A4 size if you ever decide to.

You can transfer the photos to the PS3 HDD, stream them from a PC using TVersity, plug the card in via a USB card reader or on some cameras just plug them straight into the PS3 USB port.

The ability to view the pictures directly on the TV sounds nice but you always want to sort and store them safely first so it makes sense to do that and then display the photos from the storage media.

I plugged my first camera straight into my TV. I have never bothered with the next 3.

Having said all that, the Sony W300 spec looks OK but always try and get your hands on a camera before buying it. I just don't get on with some cameras due to either handling, menu system, flash placement etc. You only find that out buy taking a few photos in the shop with one.

[senu]

As stated; forget the Digital Camera High definition Phrase
Sony camcorders are able to output a hi res digital signal to thier Bravia TVs and are marketed as such
Many other cameras are not. However thier Images are Hi resolution as ( as correctly stated 2Mp is High Def)
I would imagine that Images displayed off the PS3 will be displayed as 1080p, upscaled to that if smaller of downscaled if bigger ( which is more than likely)

As such , base your camera buying on other considerations and worry about Hi def display only as a secondary consideration

Some Tvs ( My Phillips Cineos is one) actually display images as high def directly off a USB socket ( or as happens in its own case) a built in media card reader

[yaduks]

My house is filled wih Sony gear, of course i'm seduced by marketing !

Ok, thaks for the posts - very helpful. So my main considerations in choosing a new camera would be:

1) Ease of use
2) Compact (current DSC-P73 is a bit chunky)
3) Takes good photos
4) Takes good short videos (i'm not into camcorders)
5) Good viewing screen
5) Want to get the best use out of it with my shiny Sony telly!
6) Oh and has to be Sony! (only joking, i want to chose the best camera).

I like the look of the W300 and seems to have all that i need, probably much more than i actually need.

Yandros made an important point saying that anything over 8mp can produce "noise" in the images. Should i be excluding anything over 8mp?

thanks,
yaduks.

[yaduks]

My house is filled wih Sony gear, of course i'm seduced by marketing !

Ok, thaks for the posts - very helpful. So my main considerations in choosing a new camera would be:

1) Ease of use
2) Compact (current DSC-P73 is a bit chunky)
3) Takes good photos
4) Takes good short videos (i'm not into camcorders)
5) Good viewing screen
5) Want to get the best use out of it with my shiny Sony telly!
6) Oh and has to be Sony! (only joking, i want to chose the best camera).

I like the look of the W300 and seems to have all that i need, probably much more than i actually need.

Yandros made an important point saying that anything over 8mp can produce "noise" in the images. Should i be excluding anything over 8mp from my list of potentials?

thanks,
yaduks.