well the camera just got here .. WOOHOOO!!! So im getting my batteries and a fresh tape and going out to play. Will see how this thing performs, it sure does feel nice in the hands though. Has a nice weight to it.

Got my capture to work dudes!!!! It was a stupid transfer panel that was noncompliant I guess with the camera or something. I plugged it into my motherboard and then break out box and voila!!! Capture city with scene detection!

I hadn't I guess read fully through the manual so I discovered the navigation feature! That is great for playback or searching a clip. Now I need to read up on how to basically fast forward to the end of a clip in navi and then I will be in buisness!! LOL

Gregg! Your going to love your cam! I think it is great. And I was asking, and maybe I didn't ask correctly because there are online free servers correct? Where I could upload footage? But then again, you have your camera now, so that isn't necessary... LOL

Enjoy!

Congrats! You're official now. We'll have to teach you the secret handshake now. :-)

well im going to actually post a clip. Did the compressing with 'compressor' and its in the H.264 codec. The link is...

http://www.videopartypatrol.com/frog.mov

Its just a small clip of our neighbor playing with a small frog that she found. Make sure to save the file to your drive as it doesnt play well within a browser window.

Also I picked up one of the Steady Stick Compacts and it works really nice.

Hey, that looks pretty nice. Definitely sharp. How do you like the results?

I haven't shot anything with mine in a few days due to other projects. Hoping to go play a bit this weekend with it.

The Davis & Sanford one? Saw those on ebay and have been debating on getting one. Don't need one yet but I like the idea. Here's an animated GIF showing it for anyone interested:

http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sel...yStickAnim.gif

A few days ago I took a break and was sorting through my drives and found some old (2001) footage I shot with my old Canon Optura (original model, that I let collect dust and later sold) and going down memory lane. Mumbled to myself that if I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have sold that camera to get the one I replaced it with.

Yesterday, I found a guy selling the same model Optura with a Canon stereo mixing mike (?) for $40! At that price I just HAD to buy it. Camera and mike are mint but no manuals or charger/AC adapter so I have some more shopping to do.

Now I'm all set for that one-man three camera shoot. :-)

the image is definitely nice and crisp thats forsure, so far I am quite pleased with the camera. The Steady Stick is nice and they have added an extra arm to the device which can be used as a small monopod for low shots (as the arm is only about 12-15 inches long), a swing out arm for helping to steady your shots, and can also be used to put on your shoulder so that the camera not only rests on your hips but your shoulder. So all in all not to shabby for 99 bux.

And its always nice to have multiple cameras. As of now I have

JVC GY-HD1u
JVC GY-DV300u
Sony TRV-17

And two digital SLRs
Canon 10D
Canon 300D

I seem to be one of those people that just has a real problem getting rid of old equipment.

Also I did some encoding on the macbook (frog clip) and the laptop handled the footage quite nicely. I then captured some footage on my PowerMac G4 (1.25ghz) and it surprisingly handled the footage. The only thing is of course rendering which will be an absolute killer on the G4. But its nice to see that I can work on it. Again an older machine that I just cant bring myself to get rid of.

I'll consider getting one myself. Going to wait to see the type of shooting I'll be doing before accumulating a bunch of neat tools I'll never use. Right now I expect my video shooting will mostly be lit and tripod shot (note to self: remember to turn off OIS when on a tripod), so a Steady Stick won't be needed...yet.

Cool. We can team up and do a two-man, six camera shoot. :-)

Felt nice to play with the Optura today (kludged a charger to charge the very dead batteries). Really prefer the Optura's 35mm camera type form-factor to most vidcams. Very easy to hold steady and shoot smooth with. Now I need to remind myself that the JVC is the "A" camera and I need to master it, so put the Optura down.

Great! Internal or external hard drive? Just curious as I'm always hearing about things that won't work that people that don't know that seem to be doing everyday.

Newer than my dual 867 G4, rendering time is coffee and break time.

Then, I have several PowerPC Macs and a G3 tower still. I use those for my "bill by the hour" jobs or when clients are here, watching over my shoulder. Just kidding. :-)

well it looks like im going to have to get a hold of B&H on Sunday as there is a dead pixel just slightly off center. Cant see it while recording but when playing back the footage on the HDTV can see it very clearly. It really stands out when shooting with less light as its very prominent. Very sad. So hopefully they dont have some crazy thing that 1 dead pixel doesnt warrent a return. Will see when I call them.

And a 6 camera shoot would be plenty of fun!!! The most ive ever been involved with is a 4 camera shoot and that was pretty nice. And even better to edit, as you always have at least one cam thats getting a nice shot.

So I guess Ill let you all know how my dead pixel issue goes and what resolves out of it.

Question for "Damon Gaskin", how long did it take for the RMA with your camera? Did you have to pay anything upfront to ship it or how did that work?

And in regards to what drive im using on the macbook, Im using the internal 5400 drive and it seems to be working just fine. It may choke if Im doing multiple video layers but we will have to see. I can see having to pick up a newer mac come this fall. Wouldnt that be to bad :)

Greg: I had the replacement the next day. We ordered it next day Saturday. We did not have to pay for the new camera while the RMA was being transmitted(had to jump through hoops though and pitch a b##ch). They paid for next day shipping for the RMA and also for the new camera to come to us. But once again, I had the new camera the very next day. It wasn't easy either for that setup and I am sort of displeased with the whole ordeal we had to go through and the calls back and forth for a whole afternoon. I spoke with four different reps and my friend spoke with another 3. We had three different order and RMA numbers and the person my friend spoke with was not very nice. It was not a pleasant order process with B&H this time around on this order. But at the same time two things; this was the largest order we had placed with them, and this was not what I was used to when dealing with them on previous purchases and returns.

The odd hours, the memory card experience(had to make like four calls betwen B&H and JVC only to speak back with B&H and someone to say after 30 seconds that they would mail out a replacement little 8MB card), being placed on hold for extended periods of time after only being asked one question over and over and over regarding the return, and lastly, the return/exchange experience all together has really made me not want to mail order again. I guess though that I should be greatful. I have never had any return problem via mailorder up until this point. With that in mind, I suppose I was overdue.

But their RMA process when it was finally done was easy.. They give you a sheet or should I say email you a RMA sheet, you indicate the reason for the return or exchange, include that in your box along with a copy of the original sales invoice, attach the UPS label they also will email you on the return box(that is, if they give you that option), take it to your local UPS and your done for the return.

I am not sure, or should I say they probably will not do this on average to be honest with you, so I would not hold my breathe. Ours, as a manager I spoke with in the end advised, was "a special circumstance" for this policy.

But that is our story.

Bummer. I don't have an HDTV and probably won't for a while yet. Like I mentioned previously, I'm getting the extended warranty so if I later discover a problem it will be covered that way. It's good you found the problem early.

No kidding. I can image that having footage from four cameras to work with would be nice from a selection point of view, might also be a syncing challenge. I'm just hoping my two camera ideas work well, will probably have to be in DV mode until I learn this stuff better.

Thanks for the info. I've always read that you had to have 7200 rpm for video but no one ever said what would happen if you used a 5400 rpm. I know I saw "drive too slow" warnings on a guy's notebook but he was trying to record direct to disk and he said the drive speed of the notebook's drive was 4400 or 4500 rpm (I think).

Hope you have a smooth exchange experience.

yeah i hope so too. I cant see them giving me any issues since it is actually a defect. I just hope they get it all happening nice and fast. I did find a piece of software that is used for fixing dead pixels on your footage. So even after the RMA I may look into buying it. I believe its around $40 and works for Final Cut Pro 4 or 5. My other camera has a dead pixel on it so that would help me fix that. Seems to work really nice.

Ive included a link just in case any of your cameras get this problem

http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/fcpl...ncarnation.php

Has a nice little video clip to show you how easy it works.

That looks pretty cool and less effort than my Magic Marker on the screen approach. They have some other interesting items, too. I assume there's one for Windows, too. Thanks for sharing the link.

well i contacted B&H today in regards to my camera and they seemed pretty good about everything. Was only on the phone with them for about 10 minutes. They sent me an RMA form and gave my their account number with UPS so that I didnt have to pay for anything. Looks like ill be without the camera for a week or so, but rather that then have a burnt out pixel.

I think I may not have gotten the 'run around' as I buy everything through my company and have bought numerous orders, some of them being a fair amount. It always seems to help when they think they are dealing with a company and not just one person.

Anyways Ill keep you up to date on how it progresses.

Also I went and filmed a buddy of mine get his black belt today (thought I may as well get a bit more footage before having to send the camera back). It was not overly well lit and I was pleasantly surprised as to how well it recorded. There were a few spots where it lost focus but quickly found it again once I stopped moving the camera.

Greg, I am glad to hear your experience was much better than ours! And I am sure that ordering history and through a company helps tremendously.. But I am also sorry to hear that you'll be without your cam for a week! That sucks! But I do agree also with you on it's better to be without it for a week and then to have the new camera... But yes, keep us updated!!!!!

And yes, the lowlight thing as Dave and I discussed and also I think Ken posted some clips previously, is blown way, way out of proportion on this camera. It simply makes and made no sense once I got the first one and immediately shot some clips of a room only illuminated by my halide on my fish tank(100 watts, but about 6 inches from water level and blue spectrum). I had really no noise as I followed instructions here and turned AGC off. I have some footage I shot yesterday in pretty much pitch black, so I am going to see how that looks when I injest it into the machine. But everything I have seen so far has been really impressive about the camera! Especially for the cost of it! When you factor into that, its insane..

People are just as I call them "on the bandwagonners or naysayers"! That is the only explination I can come up with other than "an agenda to ruin this camera's name". But I and everyone that has seen the footage from the camera think it looks great! I even had a guy(I don't care for him though for something he said that was really inexcuseable) ask me how much it ran and if it was only in NTSC as he is in PAL.

And dude, your using auto with that thing? LOL I think I used auto for the first time yesterday just to see how it would work. It was in the low light situation I mentioned and though it did not do too bad, from the lcd it didn't look as good as the manual focus and white balancing. I did this on purpose so I would not even get used to the auto functions at all. The thing I am trying to work on now and it will take time is if I can basically rack focus while zooming. If I can get that down, watch out...

But yes, keep us up to date with the rma and return! I am off. I have to clean up a few projects and burn a few dvd's. I actually now have burned 4 different little projects to SD and like the results for now! He he He I also have been experimenting with H264 exports and this looks to be the most promising little codec for great video quality(yes, I am late on this one, but better late than never... LOL) and smaller file sizes... Anyhew!

Later man,

D

well the camera is all packed up and ready to go out first thing tomorrow morning. Kinda sad. At least I got a chance to play around with it for the weekend. Hopefully the next one that comes will be all good!!''