I thought it will be very useful to compare these three models side by side, using the following criteria (for the video part only):

- Resolution
- Low light performance
- Overall performance
- Major gotchas (e.g., did you notice that Optura Xi is "bottom-loading"!?)

I've listed only these three models as they seem to be the most relevant "pro-sumer" models in terms of:

- Availability (so TRV900 is out)
- Size (so VX2000/GL-2 are out)
- Performance (953 is borderline due to its poor low-light performance, so it might be included)

Nick, a lot of this has been discussed already by Allan. Allan lives in Japan and has played with these cams extensively. Perhaps he may respond with the short answer, though this basically his short answer (from his posts):

The GS100 is better in low light than the Optura Xi and TRV950. In good lighting, the Xi has the superior video quality, followed with the GS100. In lower light, the GS100 is superior in video quality. (Makes you wonder because the Xi is only a 1 CCD cam.) Furthermore, the GS100 and Xi have better 16:9 than the TRV950. In terms of resolution, they are all up there, well over 500 lines with playback. Overall performance? All are good performers. The Xi is bottom loading? Didn't know that. However, this is no biggie for me. My MX300 is a bottom loader---still a great cam.

Yes, the 953 isn't that good in lower light, but I would rather buy a MX5000/953 today than spend a year's salary on something that'll be obsolete tomorrow, like with buying the discontinued TRV900.- Availability (so TRV900 is out)

Frank,

Allan thinks the gs100k is better than trv950 in low light? which means it is also better than pdx10 then... now with trv950 and gs100k ,how about the color reproducing? how about the detail exposing? If gs100k is nicer than trv950, then I might consider it instead of pdx10, what is your opinion?

The PDX10 has a smear problem.

The GS100 is more advanced, like the "gamma" as with the Pana DVX100. Another factor is that the TRV950/PDX10 is difficult to grip, and pulls forward and to the left.

On the plus side, besides having English menus, the PDX10 has XLRs, DVCAM and slow shutter speeds in manual. Personally, I'd pick the GS100 over the PDX10.,how about the color reproducingIt doesn't get any better than this, with the GS100, except with the Optura Xi, according to Allan and some Japanese Magazine reviews---and reviews from Japan are far from the garbage reviews we see in the mainstream American and UK magazines.

Frank,

I could hardly believe that optura xi has better color reproducing than 3ccd trv950 or gs100k. It just does not make sense, 1ccd always needs interpolation for the color while 3ccd is the exact color reproducing theoretically, so why oputra xi is better?????

another thing I am confused is that gs100k is better in low light than trv950, the gs100k has only 1/6 ccd while trv950 has 1/4.7, so how come gs100k is better? I even do not understand why the newest sony pc330 is so bad in low condition... anyone can explain it? Thanks.

Hi Cooleye Hu,

I think that the Optura Xi employs RGB filter instead of the usual ones used in single CCD cam. RGB filter can get very close to 3CCD quality but needs lots and lots of light, just like the new Sony PC300. This tiny new cam, although has a huge 1/3" CCD but the low-light capability might just close to a 1/4.7".

GS100K has about the same optics as MX5000/953, but it has a more powerful post-processing engine (Crystal) which reduces noise in low-light situation. This doesn't mean it produces brighter images but just cleaner and useable ones.

I had a 950E, I loved it - it procduces pretty clean videos in low-light, very sharp and saturated images outdoor. I'm disappointed with its vertical smear problem so I sold it in exchange for a 1/3" camcorder.

I guess GS100 would be the ultimate choice for camcorders in this range.

I can't explain it. Perhaps because of those extra pixels designed with a not so good lens and coupled with poor engineering to boot?

In my opinioun GS100 is about equal to TRV950 in low light exept the mentioned heavier smear for the later. Yik Kuen explained very well why the difference is not big.

All new cams with "large" 1/3" CCDs doesn't imediately lead to a better low light. The pixel size is imoprtant here and as these cams are bound for Mega Pixel stills you can make the math. Their pixel sizes are very small - not good for capturing all that important to us light.

One more thing Cooleye Hu,

It depends what are you going to do with the cam. Pro work?

Image quality at it's own is not everything. I would prefer to have TRV950 with the LANC connector, separate mic, phones, high resolution viewfinder, LCD better viewed at different angles.
You can always buy XLR box and mic of your preference to achieve better than PDX10 results. No DVCAM though, but price is lower.

Again that smear. Well to repeat - if you are more consumer than Pro - GS100 is the perfect cam. If you are more Pro - TRV950 is big compromise - you should aim at VX2000 or even better DVX100.

hi Bogdan Vaglarov,

Thank you for your advise. I buy camcorder mainly for my family use, not pro work. but I will need the camcorder for some local operas so I need to shoot stage performance. well on most cases the performance on the stage will have a good lighting condition.I also will do some indoor shootinf for my family and those are somewhere I will worry about the vertical smear...

to be frank I would prefer trv900, it has no smear problem and has better low light shooting. vx2000 is of course satisfying all my needs except one----it is too big and heavy for me. I am planning to bring the cam with me while travelling, I think vx2000 will benightmare for me to carry it all the time. I want the small size that is why I focused on pdx10 instead of gl2 which is in the same price range. Your advise on trv950 is nice, however the 16:9 screen on pdx10 is so far the best ... plus the price of trc950 is still 1699 on j&R , I feel that if trv950 goes to $1400 , it will be a good choice since someone can get pdx10 in $1800 something...

gs100k looks nice, but three things bother me, first of course is the japanese menu, not only me, but also my wife hates japanese menus, that is pain for learning. second, I have sony F717 , so if I buy sony trv950 or pdx10 , I do not need extra bettery since I alredy have two FM50, and no need for memory stick, and it saves me $100 at least, if I buy pana, then ....need extra bettery at least... the last thing is I am a bit worried about buying from japan, I know both pricejapan and allan have good fame for their reliability, however I am a bit picky with the machine, and I do not like bad pixels on my lcd or evf screen, if it happens that I get a gs100k with some bad pixels, what shall I do??? since pricejapan has the no return policy and for allan I am not clear but I guess the same, so I feel it is too risky...

well it is very hard to make decision, I feel haedache...:(

Well, If you see for battery and memory stick,

You miss the quality GS100 provides, better lowlight capability, better 16:9, lot of features, including(to name a few) skin tone, burst mode, better sound quality, LESS smear , compact construction, frame mode(equivalent to progressive), Cine gamma Pro cinema mode, Mega OIS(still), nice OIS for video, low or almost nil motor noise.
Ofcourse, its the latest model than the two year old( i guess) sony model.

In my opinion even image quality of gs100 is CRISP AND SHARPER AND better than trv 950.

I do not like bad pixels on my lcd or evf screen, if it happens that I get a gs100k with some bad pixels, what shall I do???

As far as I know, no one complained about this bad pixels.

Lot of people initially hesitate about the japanese menu, including me. But now I know by symbols, what is what, I dont need a english translation now. because I corelated each of the symbols with the appropriate english menu.

Because you want a good quality video and you never always work on the menu like a word processor editor!!!

Finally its your TASTE ;-)

As far as I remember, Allan did mention the Xi being almost as good as consumer 3-chippers (MX5000/GS100) in colors reproduction, but still suffer in low light lagging behind GS100.

Alex

<<<-- Originally posted by Alex Zabrovsky : As far as I remember, Allan did mention the Xi being almost as good as consumer 3-chippers (MX5000/GS100) in colors reproduction, but still suffer in low light lagging behind GS100.

Alex -->>>

And it's "bottom-loading" to boot. For people working with tripod all the time, that's a non-trivial inconvenience.

Probably, but what I I just was telling is that if my memory serves me well, Allan did not say the Xi is actually better then GS100 in color fidelity, but persumably approaching this range of 3-chippers in this respect. On low-light, the GS100 is still leading for his opinion.

Loading is different pan of the issue.

Alex

<<<-- Originally posted by Alex Zabrovsky : As far as I remember, Allan did mention the Xi being almost as good as consumer 3-chippers (MX5000/GS100) in colors reproduction, but still suffer in low light lagging behind GS100.

Alex -->>>

Another thing about Xi I noticed is Canon recommends NOT recording in LP mode (esp. for "important" recordings) in their Xi manual if users want to upload to a computer.

I wonder if this is specific to Canon models (as my old Vistura does have problem with uploading LP tapes to a PC) or a general recommendation for other vendor's products (like GS100K).

Any GS100K owner want to answer this one?

thx.

Capturing video recorded in LP on Sony TRV10 wasn't a problem for me even on a low spec notebook.

I was also worried some time ago after I read about compatibility issues on different cams if you shoot in LP. I tried for short such LP tape recorded on Sony and it played back just fine on GS100.

What you lose with LP is you can't record 4 audio channels (or do audio dubbing later), the quality is OK but you might get some pixalization in certain moments.

Cooleye Hu, I know it's difficult for Chinies to learn reading Katakana, you shouldn't have any problems with Kanji though.

You save on MS and battery? FM50 wouldn’t give you much (30 min at most). I think, buying extra Pana battery and SD will still leave you extra 200$ benefit over the TRV950. For your needs GS100 is better buy.

Also what do you mean talking about smear shooting indoors? Are you going to point to the action or up to the lights? The smear is most visible when the contrast between dark and light is high. For example outdoors at night when there is street light - smear is on this bright light.

what i mean for smear is that indoor's situation with lights on, if the light is in the screen it is very likely to have smear , right? also I am worrying about the mic of gs100k and trv950 since I will record some local opera which requires good sound inputs...that is why I consider the pdx10 at first...

ok for gs100k, it seems everyone is satisfied with their purchase, and no one is complaining about anything like bad pixels or what ever , however I do worry about what if I have the bad luck? ... it is hard for me to decide, since when I bought the F717 I had returned the camera twice , once a dead pixels in lcd, and once a bright dead pixel in evf...

Bogdan Vaglarov,

I looked the japanese-english translation pdf for the lcd menu of gs100k and several pages of the user menu, they are basically Katakana, not so many kanji...very hard for me to read

There is a simple solution to your concern on dead pixels or even the possibility of the cam arriving DOA. Ask your seller to perform functional test on the cam prior to shipment!

Alex you're right, that was my impression of the OpturaXi's video quality compared to that of GS100K. Twas very difficult to decide between the 2 in good light 4:3 mode. Both have excellent color saturation. Although that of the GS100K appeared brighter, that of OpturaXi looked cleaner (less jaggedy edges - oversharpening). But in 16:9, the Optura Xi rocks! More to follow once I find the time to write down my findings.

Cooleye Hu,

The smear problem on 950/PDX-10 is not as bad as you think - normal indoor lighting is ok and won't cause too much smear. I did not encounter smear problem for all my indoor shots. The problem is only noticeable during night outdoor shooting, bright street lamps, car headlights etc, but if the environment is pretty bright e.g. a busy city, then it should be OK.

Bear in mind that, according to the specs, both 950/PDX-10 require more power to operate as compared to PD-150/VX2000 due to their larger LCDs, denser CCDs and more advanced DSP.

The FM50 battery will only last about 30mins or so, totally unusable. I would suggest at least the QM71/90.

GS100K images might be slightly darker than 950/PDX-10, but I guess it'll be as clean (minimum noise). Also, the skin tone, cine-gamma are invaluable features that you should seriously consider.

I still think that you should rather go for the GS100K.

Well, Allan, in wid screen teh Xi beats the GS100, right ? Frankly, I'm not very familiar with 16x9 mode, have never personally fiddled with one (it is not common in Israel, thuogh many of DVDs we watch here are in wide format, so getting letterbox instead).

I'll have to figure what it is exactly hooking up to a friend's TV that has natural 16x9 mode.

BTW, my cam is already on its way to Israel from CA. The guys in our CA branch has shipped it over by UPS on 15/Sept, expected arrival to the country is tomorrow (and then may or may not take a while for Customs release).

Alex

<<<-- Originally posted by Bogdan Vaglarov : Capturing video recorded in LP on Sony TRV10 wasn't a problem for me even on a low spec notebook.

I was also worried some time ago after I read about compatibility issues on different cams if you shoot in LP. I tried for short such LP tape recorded on Sony and it played back just fine on GS100.

What you lose with LP is you can't record 4 audio channels (or do audio dubbing later), the quality is OK but you might get some pixalization in certain moments.

...
-->>>

I had no problem playing LP on different camcorders. The problem had to do with dropping frames when I tried to capture the content to my PC thru FireWire.

The fact that Canon recommends NOT using LP mode for "important" recordings in their Xi user's manual says a lot about what Canon thinks about recording in this mode. I was wondering if this is a Canon-only problem or not, as the one that gave me this problem was a Canon (Vistura).

Yeah, I guess if you have important shot you should go with SP mode on any DV cam!

I never even think about using LP on a cam. TV, yes, camcorder, no.

Most people don't use LP for important recordings but I've got a friend who's always recording in LP mode, even on used tapes!

I do not know about the rests, but newer Sony cams have quite reliable tape transport mechanisms that allow reliable LP mode recording, but not on my JVC.

If I were to window shop for a Sony cam, I'd have a tough time deciding on a model. At least with Pana and Canon, I already know which ones would be nice: the Pana black mamba and the Canon Optura Xi..., though a GL2 would be just as nice, and maybe then some, in way of lower lux requirements. (But I could be mistaken.)

I've always thought about getting a VX2000. I'm sure it's a great cam. But if someone catches you using one, or, Heaven forbid, owning one, they'll think that you are a pro. Can't have that now, can we?

I wouldn't mind people considering you're as a pro is that doesn't distarb me shooting (though I can think of many situations when regular small cam wuold be fine whilst once you would be looking as a pro you would be banned from shooting).
I had tough time to decide between VX2000 and GS100 (once begining my GS100 purchase process frmo Alln I was offered VX2000 -used in Mint condiiton for about the same amount as ne GS100 !)
But since my home usage and wife as operator would impact from a size factor (and weight) as well lack of usable stills ability, the GS100 won.

I'm actually in this situation shooting around with my Canon EOS-3 + 28-70/2.8L 70-200/2.8L and 550EX. Once doing a pro-kind work (events, weddings) this plays for you - people respect your work and do not rush between your cam and the subject, but once in non-demanding situation - people are staring at you, bothring with various non-relevant questions and besides I was banned from shooting several times on my traveling abroad, while just nearby tourists were clikcing freely on their P&S cams.

Alex