DVX100 and HVX200

[ZephyrStar]

Starting a thread for those of us would-be directors wanting to shoot our own stuff for fun and profit to discuss cameras :O

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4 ... D_24p.html

I'm hoping to be able to get one of these fairly soon. Yeah, it's a standard def cam, no HD but it will shoot 24p. The features/controls on it are much more like a professional movie camera than a camcorder (there are also tons of attatchments and stuff for it, including 35mm lenses/rails/follow focus that can give you a REALLY filmlike look) although just out of the box it does amazing stuff. Only reason I'm thinking I'll get one of these is #1 the price, #2 it's for learning the higher end cameras with. I've had some experience, but not enough. I want to get one of these and shoot some short projects, maybe do the film festival circuit with some of them.

and, if I had the extra money to go HD:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/3 ... ormat.html

Granted, there are probably some nicer HD cams out there, but you can't beat this thing for under $10,000. Only drawback is that it uses P2 cards to store the HD footage, and those are expensive, but coming down in price. I would think a good alternative would be a firestore external HD also. Nice thing about this cam is that you can apparently still shoot SD 24p and such with it, to a regular miniDV tape. (so you have SD for those clients/projects that don't require HD)

For a long time I was obsessed with the Canon XL2, but when the DVX came out, it effectively blew the XL2 out of the water, with very similar quality for a lot less money. Same thing with Sony's cams at the time.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/3 ... 1080i.html

Sony's HD cam

Also looked at this cam:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4 ... order.html

Which is an HDV camcorder, which seems to be a format that will be kindof a "transition" between miniDV and things like P2 cards and hard drives (or maybe some kind of new HD tape format?)

All stuff to drool over :/

Maybe if I rant about this stuff enough people will kick my arse every time I talk about spending money on other stuff and I'll actually get a cam and shoot a project. (it's up in the air between shooting a project and spending 3500$ on 3d software to make my own indie animation at this point)

fun stuff.

[Greggus1]

I own the DVC30, and I've used the DVC100A (I think that's what it's called), and yeah, they kick arse.

[lister007]

Canon are the biggest imaging company in the world with one of the longest histories, I would be looking at the canon range almost exclusively. I'm personally into the D-SLR's but from that I know that the lens in that camera, especially top end stuff is going to out weigh so much of anything else you need to consider.

Also there processors (DIGIC DV II) are among the fastest and every thing that goes into a canon is produced by canon. The processor is particually good for use in low light or getting rid of noise that sort of thing. I know that some sony cameras that claim to have Carl Zeiss lens are really canon b grade lenses with carls zeiss filters over the top. Not saying that that particular model is but you see where I'm coming from. Also your talking 1080 res, the sensors in most cameras these that say they can do hi def, ok can do hi def but the lens is so crap that what you get is crap. Its all about the lens!, if the lens is crap the rest will be crap no matter what you do.

That particular canon your looking at has one of the L - series lenses I think, amazing, and the image stabliser is meant to be really good!. you should also have 100% coverage EVF, gamma controls, the XH G1 is pretty much the same as that one is it not, and that camera is qual-a-tee!

[lister007]

oh you should also bear in mind that anything cheaper recorded to dvd or hard drive, is going to be frame blended. In a mini DV camcorder the frames are frame by frame, so for editing tapes are still superior to anything else on the market, I think you will basically have key frames and interpolation/interlacing with DVDs or hard drives, this is why the mini DVs are still around because for real editors they are the best option still, imo. The canon will be individual frames, and "broadcast ready" just having a quick look and there not a huge amount of differnce from the xh a1 and the model up the xl h1 I don't think....but like I said at the mo I am more focused on the Digital SLR's side of things so not completely sure...

[ZephyrStar]

http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/shoot3/

I would be looking at the canon range almost exclusively

I did for about 6 years till the DVX came out and proved to be a very affordable and somewhat better solution for shooting 24p :/

[trythil]

stuff

Have you even looked at any other cameras that were linked here?

All of those cameras are capable of operating in progressive-frame modes, and hence have no issues with frame blending, regardless of whatever storage medium they use, They all have high-quality optical systems, with the major differentiators being image format, extra features, and price.

I mean, seriously. I own a few thousand dollars' worth of Canon gear, and so I do recognize the merit in their products -- but your fanboyism is ridiculous.

[Esrhan]

rambling long stream of crap

lol wut?