I am a newbie when it comes to digital video, but I am torn between the GL2 and the Sony TRV 950, so I have a couple questions for the gurus of this digital video collective.

My questions are as follows:

1.) Will the GL2 give me the same pass-through analog to digital conversion as the 950.
2.) Will the GL2 also let me do video streaming and videoconferencing.
3.) Which camcorder will give me the better indoor (mainly wrestling matches) as well as outdoor (wildlife footage in a range of lighting conditions) results.

Thank you in advance,
Jim

1) Yes, the GL2 will perform this a/d conversion.

2) No, there's no built-in facility specifically for this. You could probably accomplish this through your computer. Do a Search on the topic here, since someone comes along with such a question every so often.

3) There's no definitive answer to such a question. The GL2 has one hell of a good zoom lens, some of the best glass in the business. It would be very good for wildlife shooting.

Ken,

Thanks for the Info. How is looking through a different discussion board, and someone had mentioned that they use the GL2 with ichat on the Mac, so a tireless journey awaits.

Jim

Jim,

I shoot mostly indoor martial arts, which often ends up as wrestling . Chuckle. I went with the Sony vx2000 for its
reputation for low light performance. The TRV 950 doesn't
stack up as well in such situations. Apparently, the GL2
doesn't, either.

Jim, I assume the wrestling matches will be lit and not in the dark? If so then I think the GL2 will be fine for you. I video wrestling matches ("professional" not olympic style) for a friend of mine who is a wrestler. They come out perfectly fine, without a problem. What type of light levels are you talking about here?

Also, the TRV950 only has a 12x zoom whereas the GL2 has 20.


Aaron

Aaron, and the Gang,

Thanks for the interest and your opinions. Here's a little more information about my dilemma.

I am trying to get freestyle (Olympic), Roman/Greco, and high school. The freestyle and Roman takes place in a fully florescent light gymnasium, whereas, the high school varsity matches are pitch black except for a florescent light up above the middle of the mat (8-10 feet) with very little ambient light coming from the locker room and a couple of fire exits. I will probably be anywhere from 10-20 feet away. I have also been looking at the Sony VX2100 with a 2x telephoto lens, and that camcorder is supposed to get excellent low light performance. I have pretty much given up on the 950 after reading user reviews from that model, the GL, and the Sony VX.

Jim

Jim, you might want to look at Canon's DV Messager, it is built for Optura for video streaming but I was told that it also works for XM2 and GL2. It is on official Canon website under Optura section and it it free.

Jim, I have a GL2. I'm in the process of doing a wrestling video right now. If you want to see how the GL2 performs in an indor environment, you can see some wrestling videos at my site. Bear in mind that these are compressed, but the original video quality is very good. I shot this stuff in manual mode with the gain set to 0 in most cases (sometime it was too dark and I turned the gain up to 6). I had the aperture wide open, and the shutter speed set to 30 or 60, depending on the available light. My site is:

www.slakrboy.com

go to the Videos section and watch the wrestling movies.

Cheers,
Mark Jefferson

Mark,

Those turned out very well. Thanks for giving me something to use in my decision. By the way, how compressed are those files?

Jim

The files are very compressed. I used MS Windows Media Encoder 9. The source video is 720x480 (4x3 aspect, DV). I used custom setting to create this project. I set the resolution at 240x180, 15fps, 200kps VBR, and audio is 64k mono.

Just as an update, the DV Messenger program does support the GL2. However, there are some limitations with the software. First, teleconferencing is only available between two computers running Windows Messenger. Secondly, you cannot perform videoconferencing with two or more parties because Windows Messenger does not support simultaneous connections (Canon 2003).

Since I am a Windows user, albeit sometimes I wish they would just stop changing things every six months, but that is another story for another discussion board, so this will probably work fine for the simple "videoconferencing" (for lack of a another word) that I will be doing.

Kudos to Colin for pointing out DV Messenger.

Jim

Sorry, citation is just a habit.

Canon (2004) Canon DV: DV Messenger Retrieved February 18, 2004, from http://www.canondv.com/dvmessenger/faq.html#general1

I've used both cams Jim, and although a long time Sony fan, I do believe that the GL2 (or the XM2 as it is here) is the better cam. There's that longer zoom, but the camera's much better in low light and has less CCD smear and has a decent wide-angle and bigger chips and you're told the aperture and gain up in the v/f. OK, it doesn't MPEG4 and has a smaller side-screen, but in my book there's no contest. But the Canon's dearer, so it should be better.

tom.

Members,

Thank you very much for your opinions, and after many hours of research I have finally made up my mind and will be getting a GL2 very soon.

Thanks again
Jim