I have been shopping for a camera and i'm down to the PDX10 or the GL2. I didn't have much chance to examin either of these cameras thoroughly, so I'm depending largely on reading reviews and forums like this one.

I'm planing to use the camera in an Independent Film, so I want the best manual control.

So my question is about the Manual control on the PDX10. As far as I know the manual controls encompas: focus, exposure, shutter speed and white balance. Now my question is can you control all these together? I mean can you manually control the exposure, shutter speed and white balance all at the same time?

I'm sorry if that seems like an obvious question, but from the brief time I got to play with the PDX10, it seemed that when I manually adjust the exposure, then go and try to manually adjust the white balance, I can't. And if I switch to white balance, it seems that my setting for the exposure get overwritten by some automatic settings. Same with trying to adjust exposure and shutter speed, I can't manipulate both of them at the same time. I have to manipulate them independently.

Can somebody with more experience with the PDX10, shed some light on this matter.

Another question:

I have noticed that the GL2 most of the time gets compared with the VX2000. Why is that? Would you say that the GL2 is more professional than the PDX10? Which of these cameras are targetted more for filmmaking? I know the GL2 has Frame Mode, but again the PDX10 has 16:9.

Thanks in advance.
amir

Hi Amir,

Browse back through the topics here in the PDX-10 forum. Most of your questions have been covered pretty thoroughly already. But the short answer is yes, you can take full manual control of exposure, focus, shutter, white balance, color level and sharpness and other things. The only caveat is that you need to pick your shutter speed first, then set the exposure. If you change shutter speeds the camera will automatically change the exposure setting intially. After that you can manually set it wherever you like. This is the exact same behaviour exhibited by the VX-2000.

I really like the results I get with the PDX-10 in 16:9; I often deinterlace the 60i footage with DVFilmMaker. The results look pretty remarkable on a 16:9 LCD when fed 480p component video from a progressive scan DVD player.

The VX-2000, GL-2 and PDX-10 are all often compared since the sell for similar prices (at least here in the US). They're all good cameras with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Amir - if you want to shoot 16:9 footage there's no choice - it's the PDX10 for you. But if I read you correctly and you want control - real manual control - then get the GL2.

In PAL land it's considerably cheaper than the Sony which is quite a hit to start with. But although the Sony has manual control of the exposure, it's a hit-and miss affair because you have no viewfinder information about what the three NDs are up to and what apertyure you're shootoing at. Worse - on replay the 'display' simply tells lies. My PDX10 often says 'manual' when I shoot in auto and it says I shot the last scene at full tele using f1.6. Nonsence.

The Canon has lots more zoom but the colour v/f isn't as sharp as Sony's B & W one. The chips are bigger though, and the depth of field control is a lot better. But the one big clincher is this: The Canon has far less CCD flare and can be used into the light with no fear. The PDX10 has ruined lots of my shots with point sources of light such as discos, headlights, the sun and its reflections.

tom.