Sony DCR VX1000

Ron Acuna · January 21, 2007

Hi everyone,

I have just purchased the Sony DCR VX1000 camcorder and I'm curious to see if this still holds up to the various prosumer camcorders being sold today. I saw that it was listed in PCWorld's "50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years", so I was just wondering with the camcorder being released in 1995, if it still holds up to other camcorders such as the Panasonic AG-DVC30 or the Canon GL2 (in terms of picture quality, features, etc.). Thanks for your help!

Edited January 21, 2007 by Ronaldo Acuna

Jack Schwitz · January 30, 2007

Hi everyone,

I have just purchased the Sony DCR VX1000 camcorder and I'm curious to see if this still holds up to the various prosumer camcorders being sold today. I saw that it was listed in PCWorld's "50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years", so I was just wondering with the camcorder being released in 1995, if it still holds up to other camcorders such as the Panasonic AG-DVC30 or the Canon GL2 (in terms of picture quality, features, etc.). Thanks for your help!

its a nice entry level camera. use it and flip it on ebay.

james smyth · January 31, 2007

I think it a great camera for the price. It produces a beautiful picture and has a full list of manual controls. Only drawback is the lack of an LCD monitor.

Jaan Shenberger · January 31, 2007

aside from the obvious drawback of lacking 24/30p, it also only records audio at 32khz, 12-bit... which can be a minor headache/speedbump in post, depending on your workflow and how picky you are about audio quality (because of capturing and/or conversion to 44khz or 48khz).

i've shot hundreds of hours on them and the image quality is good, even though it's from 1995. definitely a good bargain camera for 60i needs.

J. Michael Whalen · January 31, 2007

The Sony VX1000 is hands down the best mini DV camera ever to hit the market. My theory is that since it was one of, if not the first, pro-sumer camera to come out, Sony made it better than it needed to be. Sure it doesn't have the LCD screen but what it does have is an image that most can't produce on their best day.

Even the more recent cameras to hit the stores just seem underpowered next to it.

David Auner aac · February 1, 2007

The Sony VX1000 is hands down the best mini DV camera ever to hit the market. My theory is that since it was one of, if not the first, pro-sumer camera to come out, Sony made it better than it needed to be. Sure it doesn't have the LCD screen but what it does have is an image that most can't produce on their best day.

Even the more recent cameras to hit the stores just seem underpowered next to it.

Hi folks,

I've shot some hours on the VX1000 and I think it was the first good quality small camera. But it can't hold its own against a PD150 or anything more recent. Even the ageing XL-1 is way better. The DSP just isn't of the same quality and it isn't as fast the 150 or even a 170.

And I agree with Jaan, audio on this camera is pretty nasty.

My 2 cents, David

james smyth · February 1, 2007

Hi folks,

I've shot some hours on the VX1000 and I think it was the first good quality small camera. But it can't hold its own against a PD150 or anything more recent. Even the ageing XL-1 is way better. The DSP just isn't of the same quality and it isn't as fast the 150 or even a 170.

And I agree with Jaan, audio on this camera is pretty nasty.

My 2 cents, David

Well, the XL-1 is certainly a more upper-class prosumer camera. The VX1000 I always thought of as being more on the level of a GL1 (but has closer specs to a GL2). The XL series is a jump up that I think is unfair to compare with. At it's price range, the VX1000 is still an excellent contender (much better image than the GL-1).

Patrick Cooper · February 2, 2007

According to some sources, Ive heard that the Sony VX1000 was used to shoot some soapies for television. I find this hard to believe. I assume soapies would usually be shot on Betacam. Must be an extremely low budget soapie to utilise MinDv as a recording format.

David Auner aac · February 2, 2007

Well, the XL-1 is certainly a more upper-class prosumer camera. The VX1000 I always thought of as being more on the level of a GL1 (but has closer specs to a GL2). The XL series is a jump up that I think is unfair to compare with. At it's price range, the VX1000 is still an excellent contender (much better image than the GL-1).

James, when talking about the XL-1 being better, I thought more of the age of the camera than the price range. But you are right, there is a price difference. But I still think that, since the VX-1000 was the predecessor of the VX-2000 and PD150 I think of it on the same level. And, IMHO, you can't even closely compare a XL-1 to a 150 quality-wise...

Cheers, Dave

Patrick Cooper · February 5, 2007

Does anyone know offhand the particular soapies that were supposedly shot with the VX1000?

David Auner aac · February 5, 2007

Does anyone know offhand the particular soapies that were supposedly shot with the VX1000?

Nope, can't help you with that. Here in Austria it was used mostly as second camera for ENG/docu stuff and given to solo news teams (as is the VX2000 nowadays). I have used it as second camera/third camera in combination with an XL-1 and my PD150. quality-wise it was the worst, the PD15ß was best.

Cheers, Dave

PS: One thing that annoyed us the 32Khz audio which had to converted before editing and the fact that the camera would switch itself off after 5 minutes idle time and when you switched it on again, it had lost all setting (f-stop etc.).