Purchasing A Camera, Advice Appreciated...

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Jon Downs

i just wish the sony was shoulder mounted. i suppose there are always brackets.

See: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=57910

Sony is supposedly releasing a shoulder mounted HDV camera; a non-working prototype was on display at NAB. I don't think I've seen anything official about when this might happen, although there has been a lot of speculation. It will probably be out of your price range though. See: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=91617

[David Knaggs]

Originally Posted by Boyd Ostroff

FCP 4.5 can't capture HDV so that isn't going to be an option.

Hi Boyd.

I'm only going from memory, but I'm pretty sure that FCP 4.5 HD could capture HDV from the single-chip JVC HDV cameras, such as GR-HD1U and JY-HD10U (which were released a year or two before the first Pro HD camera - GY-HD100).

As these cameras only shot in 30p, I believe that only HDV 720p30 was supported in FCP 4.5 and that HDV2 (1080i) support was added for the Sony camera (and for the later Canon model, of course) in FCP 5. And FCP 5.1.2 added support for 720p24 and 720p25 framerates.

There have been probably (I haven't counted them up, but it's a reasonable guess) hundreds of posts reporting problems capturing with the 24p and 25p framerates, but very few with 30p, so FCP seems quite a stable platform for capturing and editing HDV 720p30 footage.

If Jon is only going to be working with 30p footage, I would urge him to borrow (from a friend or maybe a dealer has an old demo model?) a GY-HD100 and shoot a bit of 720p30 footage and actually try to capture and edit that footage on his existing rig. Then he will know, for sure, what he is getting into (or not).

Not having to pay for an FCP (or computer) upgrade might help offset the cost of an IDX or AB battery (which I believe is a must for this camera).

[Jon Downs]

Boyd Ostroff, just when i thought i was ready to purchase the Z1, you just made my decision very tough. the full size Sony HDV would be absolutely perfect for me! but sitting around and waiting is so frustrating. i needed a G4 laptop a couple years back, but didn't want to buy the TiBook...and i waited for the 15" Al PowerBook for months and months and months. every rumored release date came and went. i'm not looking forward to that again. i'm going to search around the net for possible release dates, because i need to decide if it's worth waiting for. thanks!

[Glen Vandermolen]

Originally Posted by Antony Michael Wilson

You should also consider that with the JVC gear (including the deck), you cannot shoot HDV and then capture and edit DV with a straight down-convert via firewire on ingest as you can with Sony's HDV2 gear. For a simple firewire DV workflow you will need to shoot DV on the HDxxx camera. If your machine can handle HDV native for capture at least, then you can always down-convert in software before you begin your edit, of course. Just worth a mention, I think, because this lack of down-conversion via firewire is a thing many new users are horrified to discover - especially if they are used to that convenience with the Sony HDV gear.

I called tech support at JVC and you can convert HDV to NTSC video in the deck - provided you're using an analog link to your editing system, like component cables. You're correct in that you cannot do this over a firewire.
I edit with an older AVID Media Composer that isn't capable of HD capture, so I'll shoot HDV and down-convert to SD analog. The picture should still look a lot better then if I originally shot in mini-DV, don't you think?
Has anyone tried this with the JVC system yet?
I have a Sony Z1 at work and I regularly shoot HDV, then convert to DV for editing, via component cables. It looks a whole lot better than originally capturing in mini-DV.

[John Mitchell]

You have to look at horses for courses. The JVC 101E we use every day in controlled lighting situations but I would hesitate to label it as a good wedding camera.

It's low light performance is not great - the Z1 being an interlaced camera, is significantly faster, albeit from a slightly higher noise base. It lao features realtime downconvert to DV.

I would steer clear of the DSR250 at all costs - it is really a glorified PD150 and no better than that camera (which was a good enough workhorse) - the DSR 300 for 4x3 work gave significantly better pictures than the 250. The DSR250 is quite old tech now - if you want a shoulder mounted DVCam style camera I would look around the used market for a bargain.

[Akbar Ukani]

Originally Posted by Jon Downs

i'm interested in buying a new camera for a variety of uses (weddings, short films, etc) in the $4000-$6000 price range (my current camera is a Sony PDX10).

my first choice was the Sony DSR-250, but i'm tempted by the JVC GY-HD110U. for the time being, my machine cannot handle working with HD footage (PowerMac G4 w/ FCP 4.5), so i'd probably be using the JVC is SD mode (or downconverting, i guess?). is the JVC in SD mode on par with the DSR-250? how does the downconverting process work? a friend of mine once used a Sony HVR-Z1U, and i thought he said he was able to shoot in HDV mode and import into FCP as SD footage...which supposedly yielded a high quality picture. is that possible with the JVC?

sorry about all the questions, and please excuse my ignorance about this stuff. i greatly appreciate any help.

Hey John....looking into your budget...are you ever planning to do HDV...if not then I recommend that you look into the JVC dv-5100U....Its a great camera...and quite importantly it has a bigger CCD than most of its cameras in the price range....its 3 - 1/2" CCD's which works great for low-light conditions....but thats only if you are going to be doing SD...if you wish to HDV then I myself am looking into the JVC gy-hd200 primarily because its additional features...the only think I don't like about the new jvc hdv cameras is the 1/3" ccd but I can afford that as a trade-off.

bandhphotovideo.com

is selling the camera for 6000, but if you look elsewhere you can save a good 400-500 dollars on it....I bought mine from vsa1.com