Camera craziness

Joe Black · November 1, 2004

Hi folks,

I'm caught in a dilema.

Originally, I was decicing between the Sony PD-170 & Panasonic 100a.

Was considering the XL1s, but there aren't any affordable underwater housings for the XL1 series.

But today, my friend told me about the JVC HD10U.

However, I haven't heard much about this camera and can't seem to find much talk about it. Was it under-rated? Or just something that isn't worth considering in terms of overall quality/functionality?

Elhanan Matos · November 1, 2004

You should take a look at the sony HDV camcorder.

John Sprung · November 1, 2004

Cameras go obsolete very quickly in HD. Rental houses are in the business of eating the depreciation on them. If you can't decide what to buy, rent. That way you get to try a few different ones.

-- J.S.

Joe Black · November 2, 2004

Thanks for the feedback.

I looked into HDV & looks like it's something I won't be getting into anytime soon. Just everything in general is expensive to get an HDV setup going.. .monitors etc... more & bigger Hard Drives, even the stock is expensive.

I am pretty much going to buy a cam sometime before the Spring which I can take with me on a 2 week surf-trip to Indonesia. So I was interested in HD since for the most part, is becoming affordable. But most people I know, don't even have an HDTV, or plan on getting one anytime soon.

I saw the quality from that Sony FX1 though... amazing stuff. You could see the fuzzy hairs off a fly from 5 feet away on that thing.

Joe Black · November 5, 2004

If you guys had a HD post facility at your disposal, would you get the FX1? Or should I stick to the DVX 100A?

I will be renting the FX1 in a couple of weeks once it comes available to test it out.

Edited November 5, 2004 by Joe Black

J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR · November 5, 2004

If you guys had a HD post facility at your disposal, would you get the FX1? Or should I stick to the DVX 100A?

I will be renting the FX1 in a couple of weeks once it comes available to test it out.

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If the FX-1 cineframe24 mode looks bad in person and the Pro version doesn't have a good 24fps mode, I wouldn't get it. But that's my opinion, I'm all about shooting 24p or 30p before 60i.

November 17, 2004

For underwater work I use a Canon GL1 and the Equinox housing. The combo produces great pictures and I've shot with it all over the world.

The Sony HDV I think would be a good choice. I've heard a lot of positive feedback about it from the early buyers. The data rate for HDV is the same as DV, 3.5 MBs per second so you won't be using any extra hard drive space. Also with HDV it takes the standard Mini DV tape, there is no such thing as "HDV Stock." So you won't be spending any more on tape stock.

Monitors are a different issue. You don't need a production monitor to view HD on your computer, so you can at least edit without them. You will need HDV compatible edit software though, and that I don't know about. Perhaps FCP HD is what you need?

But, to view your HDV on a standard def TV you will need to have it down converted. Unless you have all the gear for this at home, you'll need to send the tapes out. The Sony HDV also shoots in standard def mode as well, so it's like getting two cameras in one.

Why spend all that dough on an XL1 now when you can get HD and SD in one camera?

Of course you could just shoot 35mm film and not worry about all this tape format crap :-)

DC