For those who have had it for a few months, have you found the money spent worth it?

The main purpose in upgrading was to have it help land some paying gigs, rather than freelance ones... No one will take you seriously with a tiny hand-held consumer camera.

So far, I find the handling of it a bit tough to get use to...I've never had a camera with manual focusing, so trying to balance the cam with right hand, and using left to focus and zoom takes a bit of getting used to, even though I know it's a skill worth learning...

So, just curious on what the Ax2000 owners have to say on this cam after a few months of in field use, and do you think it was worth the money?

Thanks!

edit - mods, please fix tittle.. thanks!

What is a Sony AR2000?

Did you mean to say Sony AX2000?

As in this camcorder:

Sony HDR-AX2000 (http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666112725)

Crap, double muck up.... fixed :)..

yep, that camera :)

Thread moved to our NX5 / AX2000 forum.

double, and a tripple muck up for wrong forum, :)..

Sorry, still learning all the different areas. Thanks for the move:)

My New AX2000 arrives Wednesday and I look forward to working with the Cam, I also ordered a Spiderbrace 2
http://www.spiderbrace.com/
which should make the handling a lot easier without breaking the bank....

My first paying gig with the cam is on Thursday evening. I went out practicing with it for a few shots along our lakefront and had no trouble using it. I actually managed to pique the interest of a couple of joggers and handed out a couple of business cards. Who knows if it will pan out, but I feel my investment is worth it!
The gig Thursday involves shooting a speaker at a local restaurant. The client wants the entire thing recorded and it should last about 90 minutes. (He'll be a bit long-winded!) The AX2000 will allow me to juts keep recording without having to worry about swapping out tapes midstream. I will have a Canon HV30 runing as a backup cam in another location, just in case. My plan is to set the AX2000 at a Medium Wide Shot to get the speaker. I'll have a copy of his Powerpoint to edit in later. I have an intern running the cam and keeping things in frame. I'll be runing around closer with my T2i to get closeups, cutaways, and crown shots.

Knock on wood, all should go swimmingly... <--- famous last words...

Nice to see I'm not the only one who goes a tad overboard with backups.

In this case, until I see that both the camera and the media it shoots on is reliable, I am always going to do a double shoot with the XR550V. Since I do not have an assistant, it'd just be a wide shot with as much of the action zoomed in as possible..

Also, here's a question..

How well does this camera handle rain? Would it fry after a minor light downpoor, or would it survive in tact?

Not sure what I can get for it to protect it from getting wet..

There are lots of rain guards available online for just about any brand of cam....

Rain capes, like Petrol makes, are a pretty good investment. Have one for my old PD-170 but nothing for the AX2000 yet. I wouldn't shoot outdoors when there's a chance of rain without "some" protection! Use a plastic garbage bag if necessary or even an umbrella over the cam until the showers go away.

If you're determined to shoot where it's wet, get a full underwater enclosure... or a great insurance policy...

YouTube - Goin' Clubin' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QCR_Dq7WDM)

Here is our first night shot... no real on site adjustments made to the camera.....

First day shot is tommorow at a softball game in Montclaire...