Hello all,

I decided to ask people who work with cameras a lot more than I do about a future acquisition. I do a lot of airshow/aviation documentaries. They're small scale right now but this coming year I'm aiming for better product quality. I'm currently using a Panasonic GS35; the zoom is wonderful but the resolution is a little low considering its a one chip design. Most of the 3 chip cameras out there dont have massive optical zooms, which helped whittle my choice down (along with price) to the DVC60 or the GL-2.

I read all the threads about the tape transport problems with the Canon but also the threads on how good the picture quality is. I havent seen much on the DVC60 in terms of potential problems which is a plus, and it does have the weight that helps when I do pans of fast aircraft. Would a teleconverter bring it on par (zoom-wise) with the GL-2? Is the GL-2 free of bugs now? Is there a camera/option I missed? Please fire away with the good and the bad.

Thanks in advance


Chris W.

Visit http://www.supervideo.com/dvnews.htm

Browse the site.

The webmaster is into air shows. Try pick his brain, although be aware that he appears to be somewhat partial to Panasonic and Sony products.

I'm also considering buying a GL2 and I recently used the DVC60. I don't know if it's just me, but I find the shape of the DVC60 a bit awkward to use compared to the GL2 and the DVC60 is surprisinly light. I love how the DVC60's focus ring can be programmed to control iris or zoom when in autofocus.
Since I shoot summer camps, the long zoom is important to me as well and I think I'll be going with the GL2 since it has a great lens and is physically smaller, so it'll by easy to carry for weeks at a time.

I had the chance to hold a DVC-60 today (university film crew doing a feature on our gym) and it really felt comfortable. Maybe its because I'm used to a poorly contoured shoulder stabilizer but I thought it felt pretty natural. To be fair I need to try out a GL-2 just to be sure. The gentleman who uses it said its rugged and never gives him any trouble. That really stuck out in my mind. I can always buy a teleconverter for the Panasonic to get some extra zoom but the Canon's random tape errors worry me.

Thanks all

Chris W.

Chris,

I have owned the GL-1 and GL-2 and the DVC30, the DVC60's smaller cousin with basically the same componets. All would probably do a good job for you. The Canon 20x zoom is great but the 16x on the Panasonic comes pretty close. I really liked the Canon color reproduction. However, the Panasonic can be tweaked pretty close in the settings menu.

I no longer own the GL-1 and GL-2. The major thing that swayed me to the DVC 30 was it's rugged construction, metal exterior for the most part, vs. the plastic Cannon and the fact that it has had no tape transport problems which plagued both of my Canons.

Regards,

Mark