Hi all. Well before I left on my vaca I was all set to buy the NEX-EA50. Hot to trot. While gone, a very good friend of mine and a member here at DVi emailed me and said he was selling off his entire HM700 kit. I've known him and worked with him for many years and know the kit. After taking the week in St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba and Curacao and an unwanted extra day in Miami to ponder if it was something I wanted to consider, I made my decision to take most of his kit off his hands. For me it was a very difficult decision but in the long run I believe it will be the best camera for me. I've used the old 100 and 200 series a lot in the past and like the form factor so this is a natural for me and since I have just about weaned off of all the weddings I had booked for 2013 and converted over back to a majority of web-a-mericals, promos, MoS and talking heads I felt the 700 would be a better fit for me than the EA50.
It is with mixed emotions that I tell you all this as I really do like the EA50 but one must do what one must do.
Please do not hate me! :-0

Are you kidding me! JCV!!!

Just kidding Don. Why apologize? It is a good camera and if your getting a good deal who cares. I don't need to remind you it is not the camera, it is the shooter that counts.

Are you a mac guy so you can use the native .mov or you going the S&S route. I have Mac but I am partial to PC and do most of my work there. Imagine that from a video guy.

I hope you will still stop by our little sub culture here in the big world of DVINFO and harass us one in awhile. I think you were mentioned several times while you were on the boat.

Take care Don. The next time I have a shoot in Chicago I am going to call on you. See the thread you started about lenses, I commented there about Chi-Town.

Steve

Hi Don

Tsk, tsk... An old JVC ??? I really did think that you were going to get a decent camera? Also only kidding...!!

I was looking at the HM750 at one stage but with no autofocus at all I would need another camera to do my Realty reports as manual is impossible there....also prices seemed a bit over the top for over here as well as crazy battery prices....However you can still visit this forum as the JVC one doesn't see much activity especially on the HM700 series.

That aside, hope you had a really fantastic vacation and are now relaxed and ready to roll

Chris

I'm sure that you'll be able to find Don regularly perusing our JVC HM-series boards... we're one of the biggest online communities for that camera system anyway!

All about the shooter & not the equipment ... as im sure you've heard a gazillion times by now.

Enjoy the new camera.

Hi Chris

Correction..not one of the biggest, but THE biggest on most if not all cameras!! Quite correct, Don pops up everywhere so he will even pop in here too!!

Plus he will always chirp in on the wedding forum on a regular basis...he cannot seem to give them up although he has threatened to do so for many years.

The HM700 will do a good job in your hands Don since you are also an ex-JVC man plus I'm sure the offer was just too good to pass up.

Chris

I only feel bad because I'm abandoning everyone that I told I WAS buying the EA50! ;-0 This deal came along and frankly I couldn't pass it up. The 700 has been on my list since it came out and while it's not AVCHD it does give me the opportunity to run MOV (only if a client is taking the cards off my hands for edit and tells me they want MOV) or XDCAM and that's what I'll be running 99.9% of the time. The camera also has a great lens. The 17X so it's pretty much what I would have bought new had I bought it new.
Anyway, all of you have fun with your EA50s and I'll stop by to make sure you're all behaving yourselves.
See ya on the DARK SIDE!
O|O
\--/

Back in the days of 3/4-inch Umatic JVC made a portable deck and two desktop tape editors. They called them the Tape Handlers. We called them the Tape Manglers. There used to be a joke: Videographer calls a repair shop and asks, "Do you fix JVC?" The tech responds, "Oh yeah, all the time." All this of couse in jest. Enjoy your HM700. I hope you got a great lens with it as well.

yeah they've come a long way baby haven't they? I woudn't have bought the kit if I didn't know the person selling but I have known and worked with him for a good number of years and he has always babied his gear and yeah the lens is the Fuji 17X. Best lens for the HD/HM series. I've used the 100/200 cameras with the 16 and the 14 lens and while the 14 wasn't as bad, IMO the 16 was, well, terrible but the 17...ahhhhh. good piece of glass!
I'm lokking forward to getting my hands on it.

Since you mentioned 3/4. There was a time when advertising agency's were in love with 3/4 inch tape. I was freelancing and I got put in the tape review room before a big awards show. This woman came in with 25 tapes for me to log her cues on. She knew the material so well I said "did you do the post production on this?" She said "no, I am the bitch that sits behind the editor and tells him what to do". I laughed so hard, what a funny thing to say. But she was telling the truth. I became her next victim. I wasn't laughing anymore. I was younger then, but have never forgotten. Since then I have been in edit suites with that person (not her) on the couch behind the edit chairs. That couch is not there for casting calls. At least not for ME. I have left blood, sweat, and tears on them.

Steve

I've been fortunate over the years not to have too many supervised edits.

actually wait a tick, they do have something new
JVC Professional Features page (http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/features.jsp?model_id=MDL102153)

doesn't look half bad either

Yep the 600/650 is new but for me they were the most inovated when they came out with the compact fullsized cameras. The HD100/200 series and when the introduced the HM7XX series, I had always said that if it were a 1/2inch chip it would outsell every other camera out there. The form factor is fantastic, it records MOV or MP4, has a great LCD and a really good viewfinder. To me the biggest drawback to that camera was the 16X lens. They changed to the 14X still not one of my favs, but the one I'm getting has the 17X which is the best lens possible for this camera without spending $5K+.
If they would put the 600/650 inards into the 7XX body, I think they'd have a hell of a piece.

Hi Don

Looking at some of the new 600 footage I'm not so sure at all..I reckon you are just as good with the 700 exactly as it stands. Other 700 footage has impressed me far more than any of the new 600 footage ..they seem to be having soft issues on focus as well as not great low light!! Yep, you cannot beat the 700 form factor..it's one camera you can actually balance on your shoulder!

Are you going to sell the Sony's now and maybe find another 700?? It would be wise to drop miniDV cameras before they totally vanish from the market, otherwise they can be the strat of Don's SD museum.

Tell us when the new toy arrives on your doorstep!

Chris

Chris,

I am the proprietor of the SD Museum. I am SD (Steve Digges). It is known as my AV bone yard. But since I run the museum I will go there often to find "some old part or something" and I always seem to come back with more than I was looking for. It is full of, wow, I can use that, stuff, what was I thinking when I retired that?

A couple of weeks ago I scrounged up an entire Sony Hi-Eight camera kit I gave to a friend of mine. Remember Hi-Eight? I thought it was pretty damn good when I paid the thousand bucks for the camcorder and accessories. Wow, look at that, 400 lines of resolution AND a flip out LCD!!!!

And hey....I keep two Canon XL2s around just for Mini DV jobs. They are dusty but not in the bone yard yet!

Don,

Did you look at my comment in your e-mount lens thread. I was wondering if there is the one in a million possibility you were on any of my gigs in Chicago? All of my labor came from the local union?

Steve

Chris,
Yeah I'm extremely happy that things are working out the way they are. I am quite sure I'll be 110% happy with the 700. As for my PDs, they will be listed for sale very very soon. I need the money! ;-)

Steven,
Yeah I did see that comment about the Chi town jobs but at the time I was in the carribbean and couldn't answer and then I'm sorry to say when I got back it kinda slipped past me. In answer to your question, no I'm sure I haven't worked on any of your shows but if at any time in the future you need a small hand here in Chicago let me know. I have access to lots of guys and even equipment houses depending on whats needed.

Remember Hi-Eight?

I made a living with Hi-8! For a short while anyway. The color from that little VX3 was amazing.

Don,

Next time I have a shoot in Chicago you are the first guy I am calling. And for anyone that sees this I have had great luck on four different occasions when I hired guys or full crews from this board even if I had not been chatting with them. Chris Hurd will remember one of his early wranglers named John Locke. I hired him for a gig in his home town, at the time, and liked him so much I took him to about five other states including Hawaii.

Steve

Hawaii? Did I hear someone say Hawaii? Pick Me Pick Me!!!!!! lol. I
I've actually been to Honolulu, Maui and the Big Island to do seminars for an organization I did work for for almost 20 years. Sweet stuff!

Hi Don

Hmmm that would be a neat trip indeed..I don't get oppportunities like that!

I still have both the Pansonics and the Sony cos after my fiasco with the AC-130's last year (I sold the Pannys and bought the 130's so bridges were burnt!) However I'm pretty darn impressed with the Sony so far so I think next week I'll pop one Panasonic on the market and that should give me enough for a 2nd Sony ...when that arrives and I make sure it's running 100% I will ditch the 2nd Panny to replenish my bank account!!

Chris

Speaking of jobs I did with crews I hired here....I just went and posted one of them from Lambeau field here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/show-your-work/513916-lambeau-field-who-helped-me-shoot.html

Go Packers...oh yea... they did not make it to the big game.

I have been to many major sporting events and venues, Lambeau field is weird. They really do treat it like hallowed ground. You would think his ghost is still hanging around and everyone is afraid to piss it off!

Steve