Hey guys, went to a camera shop today to shoot some footage with the GL-2. I wanted to get a better idea of how the footage looked before I bought it. When I got home and viewed the footage, it didn't seem to be what I expected. Maybe I was expecting too much. I just didn't seem to be very sharp and the colors didn't excite me. Please let me know what you think. Would the AG-DVX100 have a sharper picture or is the AG-DVX100 better just for the 24p? Thanks,
Josh M.

Josh,
The common pragma here is to get your hands on cameras and buy the one that "feels" best to you. But while that will give you some idea of a camera's ergonomics it tells you very little about what a camera can really accomplish. This is especially true of relatively brief in-store encounters. As prosumer cameras become more sophisticated, featuring a host of manual settings not readily apparent to a new user, the likelihood of leaving a store demo unit with an accurate assessment of its true capabilities is slim. I would guess that if stores sold $110,000 CineAlta's few of us would be able to walk out with anything but crappy-looking footage.

That's a windy lead-in to say that I suspect you may have left the store with a false impression of the GL2, perhaps through no fault of your own. Lack of sharpness, for example, is not a fault normally associated with the camera.

Josh - Now that I've upskilled myself - under the teaching of a VidPro friend - I'm being booked for 3 more weddings using my XM2. Oh he uses, he uses Sony 9000 shoulder big tape camcorders. He uses my XM2 output in his work he sells to his clients. This must say something?

As Ken says, getting a real world experience of this cammy is a hard one. Making that initial call too is massive - well was for me. Maybe you should return to said Olde Cammie Shoppe and do a control with say a Sony VX2000 & the PD150 and maybe a couple of Pannasonics - yeah?

Apart from all the features on the XM2 - 20 optitical zoom and 2 manual controllable audio channels - it was the immeadiate "feel" of the thing. It just "slipped" into my hands - it "felt" correct for a non-shoulder mounted cammy - have you tried to "wear" the Canon XL1 or s? - Try it out! - Do more research - go to exhibitions.


Hope this helps,

Grazie

I should add that downloading and looking through the manual (http://canondv.com/downloads/product_manuals.html) would be helpful to orient yourself to the camera's features for a 2nd preview.

Thanks for the comments. It would be hard for me to imagine that changing some setting on that camera would produce dramatically different footage than what I originally got. Is that a false statement? What about the DVX-100? Does it have a sharper picture? Thanks for the info.
Josh M.

IMHO - if the picture you saw was not up to what you would expect, there are several questions I'd be rasing:

1 - What have you been used to before?

2 - How did you get the footage home? MiniDV?

3 - On what did you view it?

4 - The shop one may have not been up to the standard - yeah?

I'm lost for words at this point - I've had pro-videographers "drooling" over my XM2 - don't understand. . .


Grazie

Shooting a little footage in a store will not give you an accurate assessment of the GL2. Not knowing what your images looked like, there is a possibility that the gain could have been too high and under strore lighting you would have needed to white balance the camera for a true color sample. I've shot several weddings with my GL2 in well lit and dim lighting conditions and it has perfomed well enough so that we went and purchased a second for added coverage.

Bob

I ditto what has already been said about the GL2's performance. I just shot a school event in an auditorium with basic stage lighting, and I thought--and parents thought as well--that the color and light recording was extremely good. But you must learn to use manual controls with the camera. Just turning it on and using auto may not always get the best results.

Discovering how to use the exposure control near the front end of the camera has been one of best lessons I've learned for improving my camera's performance.

bakari

and another reason to use all the manual settings and play with them are that it's way more fun to do movies when you're getting used to it. and IT IS better looking...