there are 3 basic colors, red, green, and blue. in a 3 CCD camera, each chip is devoted to recording each one of these colours thus making the colour look much better in a 3CCD camera.

in most consumer cameras, there is only 1 chip that takes in all of the colours at once.

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Yeah, the details are complex, but basically a 3CCD camera will usually give a much better picture than a 1CCD camera. A few years back we shot a short movie using both my TRV900 and a mid-range 1CCD DV camera running at the same time for the gunfight shots with squibs and you could tell quite easily which camera the footage came from: the 3CCD TRV900 produced an image with much better coloring than the other camera.

Is there any advantage beyond color? If you intended the final picture to be in Black and White would having 3CCD provide any other advantage?

Is there a way to shoot in black and white on DV, or is it something better left to the post-production (should make blue-screening easier for one thing).

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

I wouldn't think that there'd be any real benefit other than that 3CCD cameras also tend to have higher picture resolutions than 1CCD.

All the DV cameras I've used have a black-and-white option, but you'd probably do better to record color and change it in post: however you could use the black-and-white option on the camera to check what the final video will look like.

yeah 3CCD cameras tend to also have better lenses too, just b/c they're usually more expensive and are higher end cameras.

i'm not sure, but they might make B&W films look better too... there might be more detail in the different shades.

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Well there is no question I intend to get a 3CCD camera since I'll probably use it for followon projects that will probably not be Black & White, but knowing it may not have a huge difference allows me to mix in some footage captured with a crappy 1CCD camera. Preferable for some of the action stuff I'd like two cameras running, and I'd prefer not to buy two expensive cameras.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Great info guys, thanks!