Ok, I've been waiting for a year and a half for this tax refund so I could finally go digital. I was originally going to get a Canon gl2, then decided to do a little research and get something less expensive. After reading dvinfo, I chose the Panasonic dv953. About three weeks ago, my wife and I were discussing finances and I started feeling guilty about spending a thousand dollars on a camera so I started doing a little more research and decided on the 852. I really had my heart set on a 3ccd model, but after reading some good things about the 852, I decided to go for it. It will save me over $300 from the 953 and has optical image stabilization and other features that the lower end 3chip Panys don't have (and great low light recording from what I understand)

My tax refund was electronically entered into my bank this morning and I already bought the camera ($629) and a play station 2 (sorry, but that was for the whole family).

I hope this thing takes nicer video than my old sony hi-8.


Tate

Where did u buy? B&H no more stocks this unit. Did u buy online or local?

Hi,
Unfortunately I was too late to buy from B & H. Someone mentioned pcvideoonline, they had it for $579 or something but I was afraid to order through them because of their terrible ratings on resellerratings.com. I got mine from Smartbargains.com. at $629.00. Their ratings weren't all great, but they didn't have that many and the ones that were very dissatisfied were related to shipping. one even said it was shipped but they never received it. That sounded more like a shipping problem to me. Super saver Shipping was only $4.95. I received an email that said it may take 7 to 10 business days to receive it. I'll keep you guys informed. A week ago the webpage said there were 19 left. Now there are 10. They're going fast.

I noticed the thread earlier about a rectangular lens hood. B & H has the Hama for $16.99. Someone even posted a picture of one installed on their dv953. I think that looks great! Do we know for sure if it will fit on the 852? If anyone has one installed I would love to see a picture of it. I already got a 43-55mm step up ring off of ebay so I could use some of my filters from my slr.

I'm excited, can you tell?

I'm jealous. :-))

You won't regret it if it's for home videos, about the best thing that ever existed!

For more 'pro' application, you might need some manual controls that the 852 lacks, but that me telling your future...

You'll enjoy the cam, I did, and for a year. (My ex-MX8 is the PAL model of the 852).

I'll just be using it to make goofy short films for the entertainment of friends, family and more recently to post on triggerstreet and maybe different online sites. So far I've been using the hi-8 so this has to be an improvement.

I received an email from smartbargains stating that my camera was shipped today. One step closer...

Oh yeah, I checked their site tonight and it said there were only 7 left, so if anyone else wants one, better hurry.

<<<-- Oh yeah, I checked their site tonight and it said there were only 7 left, so if anyone else wants one, better hurry. -->>>

Thanks for posting your find here. I had been looking for a DV852 and had not been able to find one.

This will be my first camcorder in about 10 years. I've had two Canon 8mm models before this one.

So, http://www.smartbargains.com has 7 left at $629 US? I wonder how long that will last. :-))

I'm selling mine if anyone interested for $570.it's less than a month old...i will upgrade to the new AG-DVC30...Brand new condition with Usa warranty,original box,manual everything plus 43mm Tiffen UV filter...

check the link for more info

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22233

You'll miss the "low light" with the DVC30, I'm sure. I think that the DVC80 will be the better buy over the DVC30, except that the 30 has the night thing and frame mode.

WoooHoooo!

Just got my camera today!
I ordered it on Friday. Got an email saying it was shipped on monday and received it Wednesday. Not bad for $4.95 "super saver" shipping that was supposed to take 7-10 business days after it was shipped! I don't understand why they shipped it ups instead of usps, but I'm not complaining.

I just got home from work and ripped open the package. that's as far as I've gotten. First impression- it's alot smaller than I expected! It makes my sony trv58 hi-8 look kind of big.

Well, I'm going to go play with it.


... The camera that is. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Good news, Adam. I just got my email notice a few minutes ago from smartbargains that my dv852 shipped today. But, I paid the extra $12 for two day air.

BTW, did smartbargains charge you state tax? They did me. I am in NC, but the UPS tracking says the order was picked up in OH.

P.S. A little irony...I ordered the DV852 from smartbargains on Monday afternoon. As they warned, it would take up to two days to ship. (It did.) So, I will get it on this Friday.

However, on Monday night, I ordered a bunch of tapes from tape-resources. I picked the supersaver shipping. They shipped on Tuesday and I got it today.

Adam, Chuck, nice catch! The PV-DV852 sold for twice that a couple of years ago.

Hey Chuck,

I looked at Smartbargains and noticed at the bottom of the totals when you are in checkout it says tax will be charged to ma, nc, and ky residents.

I got to mess with the camera a little tonight and am loving it so far. it's dark out now, so I tested it in low light indoors and it is doing pretty good. I already did a side by side comparison with my hi-8 and noticed that the picture was clearer with a lot less noise, even in auto mode. Haven't tried manually adjusting it yet.
I can't wait to see what this puppy will look like outdoors in the sun!

When I first tried capturing video, I kept getting colored blocks show up for a single frame now and then. I changed a setting in vegas- unchecked enable dv device, or something like that, and captured again and the blocks weren't there. Don't know if that was the problem or just a coincidence that it happened to work.

My real problem is- all the video I've captured with my analog card is not recognized! I have a short video I was getting ready to release on the internet, but none of the video will work now. It's an unrecognized format. What the heck? Is there any way to get this back? I didn't think it mattered how it was captured, I mean, it worked fine before. Plus I have a bunch of clips on my hard drive from other films I was working on. Can anyone help?

I kept getting colored blocks show up for a single frame now and then.Do you get this during playback with the cam? If so, run a tape cleaner through it:

http://www.dvfreak.com/tape.htm

Adam, I just started capturing my old analog 8mm tapes a month or so ago. Along the way, they are either AVI (right after capture) or MPEG2 (after encoding, prior to the DVD authoring).

Did you install an application that might have changed your file associations for AVI, MPG, etc.? Perhaps the CD that comes with the DV852 and its included software?

UPS brought my DV852 today. ;-)

I just checked smartbargains.com. They have five left.

Chuck: Hope you enjoy your camera. Let us know how you like it. I hope you don't have the same problems I'm having!

Frank: Thanks for emailing me back. I can't believe the heads would be dirty, It is a brand new camera with a brand new tape with only about two minutes on it! Do I have a defective unit? I would have bought the fuji tape, (because I read your web page first) but I wanted something that I could pick up anywhere at the spur of the moment like walmart, sears, whatever. Walmart only has maxell, Panasonic, and Sony. I heard Sony could be trouble especially when mixed with others, so I made up my mind to only ever purchase Panasonic. It is just the cheap one, not mq or pq. Could the problem be my firewire or card? The reason I ask is because I originally had Pinnacle with the dc10 analog capture card. So when I bought the 852, I needed a card and cable. Being the frugle shopper that I am, I got online and found the best deal I could, which was a $9.96 for a card AND cable package. Almost seemed too good to be true. Here is the page -

http://www.monoprices.com/products/product.asp?c_id=103&cp_id=10302&cs_id=1030201&p_id=157&seq=1&format=2


Does anyone have any ideas why the video that was captured with my analog capture card doesn't work anymore. All I did was remove the analog capture card, plug in the firewire card and captured some video. Then, and this might be the problem, I uninstalled the dc10 software using add/remove programs in my control panel (to keep a message from popping up saying my dc10 was not working when I start my computer). Maybe I have to completly reinstall pinnacle 7 and 8 to get this straightened out. (even though they still work ok). I think Chuck suggested the panasonic software was at fault, but those old videos were not working before I installed those software programs from panasonic. (I didn't install them right away because they were for photos, and mpegs and stuff associated with the card, but I didn't have a free usb port so I didn't bother. Now I have a hub, so I have gotten to try out the still pictures)


Between those pretty colored blocks on my video and not being able to use my existing video files, I'm beginning to wish I had stuck with hi-8

By the way Frank, I forgot to tell you, the girl in between the legos was my wife. She looks younger than she is. :)

I can't believe the heads would be dirty, It is a brand new camera with a brand new tape with only about two minutes on it!I think it is common for a new cam to get dirty heads, usually with the first tape running through.

That "girl" is your wife? She looked about 8 years old in the pic! Since you sent me a pic of your wife, I'll send you one of mine; but she looks a lot older than 8. :-))

It's me again.

I decided to test the dirty head theory by using my 852 as a pass through for my analog camcorder. I was able to capture video, but I still got the occasional colored blocks! I was beginning to think a head cleaner would solve my problems but it seems it's something more sinister. I suppose the only thing it can be is the cheap firewire card or cable that I mentioned earlier. Does this sound like a reasonable conclusion? Please let me know what you folks think before I run out and buy a new card and cable.

Also, any ideas why my old videos aren't recognized?

Sorry about all the questions
Thanks to everyone for all the help.

Adam

PS: Are you liking the camera so far Chuck?

Adam, haven't played much with the camera yet, unfortunately. I did take it to my son's soccer practice to play with it. I did lose color once for a few seconds (camera was paused, started recording, color was nearly gone, but came back a few seconds later while still recording). I haven't researched yet what that might be. I never saw something like that on my old analog camcorders. I hope it's a tape issue or a head cleaning issue.

Just my 2 cents FWIW. I also recently picked up an 852 (from B&H before they sold out) and so far love this little cam. I shot my mother-in-law's little wedding with it and my footage came out great! I shot indoors with less than desirable lighting and used the onboard mic. The footage is comparable to a wedding I shot last year with a GL2 which was also indoors. The color wasn't quite as rich as the GL2 which I knew to expect given the 1 ccd vs. 3 ccd. Just my experience....

Max

Adam,
Are you sure you don't have the cam in LP mode? That's what it sounds like from your description of the pixelation.

It could be the 1394 card also, although it probably wouldn't work at all...is it OHCI compliant?

Guy,

I checked my menu and I am definately recording in sp not lp.

As for the card, here is what the box says:

-embedded p1394a OHCI and PHY core function into a single host controller
-complies with 1394 OpenHCI specifications v1.0 and v1.1

among other things.

I tried capturing on the drive that my os runs on and on my other hard drive which is reserved for my videos and I get the same results.

Here is a link that will take you to a page with a frame grab of the colored blocks I keep talking about.

http://www.geocities.com/freakyfamily/stupidsteve/christmas.html


Take a look and tell me what you think. Have you seen this before? It's not always like that. It will look fine for several seconds, then the block will pop up for a single frame, just a flash, but it's very noticable. The audio even makes a fast static flash sound at the same time. Then everything will look great for a few more seconds.

By the way, I like the pictures on your page. I was checking out the 953 with the hama hood. I would like to get one for my 852.

Adam,
I haven't seen anything quite that regular. Usually when I get dropouts or dirty heads, its random. What does the video look like on the LCD? Is it clean, if so, it's probably not the tape or heads.

Thanks for the compliments on the site. The Hama is available from B&H for $17.

Adam,

I think you lost your ability to play those older videos when you un-installed the DC-10 software. Many times, a vendor will use a special or customized a/v codec with their software. When you un-installed, it removed that codec from your system as well. Their are websites that have most of the a/v codecs available including vendor specific ones.

As for the colored blocks, my guess is a card and cable that only cost 9.95 is cutting corners somewhere. Also, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, you need to shut down as many processes as you can. Some people shut down everything but explorer and systray. Real-time capture puts a strain on your system and you should devote all the cpu cycles you can get to the task. Try this before replacing card and cable.

Just my .02 worth. Best of luck, I've got to go find that rectangular hood for my 953.

regards,

Well, I got my computer to recognize the old videos again. I put my analog capture card back in and using my original pinnacle cd, reinstalled the driver for the card.

Now I just need to fix those blocks. First I'll try your suggestion Gary and shut down everything running in the background.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Adam,
There is a freeware program on the web called End It All 2 that can help stop all the background stuff. Also, if you have been doing analog to DV passthrough, make sure your DV Out setting is turned off. Don't know if the 852 is like the 953 but it is recommended to keep it off or video degradation may occur.

Just thought I'd give a little update on the 852.
I bought a head cleaner and ran it for 5 seconds. Then I put in my new Fuji tapes, filmed a couple minutes and captured. Blocks still there (although after my pass-through test I figured they would be). So tonight I bought a new card and cable- Belkin. I captured a minute and a half and I still get the darn blocks. Now the only thing it can possibly be is the camera or my computer. I'm leaning towards the computer since there are so many things that can be conflicting. Besides, when I play the video back on the camera it looks fine.

My computer is a pain in the butt anyway. Every couple months it dies. I mean the monitor is black, no beep when I turn it on or anything, although the power lights are on and the fan's running. We have to leave it unplugged for a couple days, then when we turn it on it may work.

I wonder if the cam's firmware needs to be replaced. Remember the MX300's firmware glitch? Pana came out with a new update, and then another new one to update that. Oh, Vey. :-((

Firmware? I'm not familiar with that. Is this driver related or something? Can I download it, or do I have to contact Panasonic?

You have to contact Panasonic and get them to do it.

Thought some of you might like to take a look at my no-budget red neck case for my dv852.

It is from my Montgomery ward full size vhs camcorder I bought in 1991.

I figured the hard plastic would protect it a little better than a cloth bag, plus I had it laying around.

A little foam and tada!

http://www.geocities.com/freakyfamily/shorts/shorts.html

Thanks, Adam!

I've got a Lowepro Vidcam 2, with extra foam inside which I use when I just want to carry around my camcorder or SLR---works great. If the bag drops, it just bounces! I'm not kidding. The trick is with the 1" packaging foam inside. For all other times, when I have to work (oops, there's that 4-letter word again), I use my handy Lowepro Nova 5 bag---she's a beaut! :-))

Now thats a zero budget case!

If you can move your budget up to $20 then head to your local hardware meagstore (Home Depot, Lowes, etc..) and pick up this aluminum hard case with customizeable interior.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-12/74415/Case1.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-12/74415/Case3.jpg

Here is what my case looked like when I customized it for my old cams (MX1000 and Sony F717).

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-1/74415/JJWKJSGGZOTURZJTRNIE-Cam%20Case.jpg

These days I'm using the Lowepro Micro Trekker 200 backpack (from B&H of course) which is enough room for my D-SLR, Black Mamba, and all the gear for each (including a full size flash).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=199518&is=REG

Tommy, thanks for the links. I really like the looks of the aluminum cases, and they're very inexpensive to boot!

I wanted to let everyone know that I solved the problem I've been having. I installed my capture card in my parents computer and captured some video and it looked perfect. So at least I know that my Panasonic is innocent! Now I just need to figure out what to do to my computer to straighten things out.

I did stumble across a web site linked off of the home built stabilizer page, that mentioned a problem someone had with a 1GHZ AMD Athlon with via133 chipset. Which just happens to be exactly what I have. There were some remedies to try, so I will look into that next.

Thanks to all the info gleaned from this forum, I decided to try to find an 852 to purchase. It's my first digital video cam ( I shoot digital stills with a Fuji 602Z) and I got one off Ebay for $499. Looks like it was a Frys returned unit, but so far it checks out aok...with what limited checking I could do this evening. Of course I was caught without a tape and since I declined to pay $25 for a 3 pack at CC, I'll pick up some tapes tomorrow at Pro-Tape (I believe they are a sponsor)... for a more reasonable price I trust.

First project will be some oral family history work with my 87 year old mom. I'm still not sure what mic setup to get for that and my head is spinning from all the info in these forums.

Thanks again to all who post here for such a great resource!

Tommy G. Kendrick
Round Rock, Texas

The mic on board the 852 should be good enough to give you clear sounds of your grandma talking if she speaks clearly and within 1 meter of the camera.

Use a tripod or place the cam on a table to make sure that you don't get shaky footage of the interview.

For long interviews, plug in the AV.

Lastly, I am also a S602 user! I owned the MX8 (PAL of the 852) before changing to the MX350.

Happy shooting.

Hi Folks -

I was curious if anyone who owns (or has owned) a DV852 has used it with Final Cut Express (the more affordable version of Final Cut Pro). The list of approved devices on Apple's website does not include the DV852 (nor the DV953 for that matter).

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/qualification.html

Is their list just not up to date? Will my PowerBook recognize the DV852 and will the program work when I hook it up via firewire? Thanks for any tips, stories, etc.

I assume it will, as my DV852 does work with iMovie and the list of devices for that is the same as Final Cut Express...