The gigantic "which camera should I buy" thread!

[Darko Flajpan]

Well for 5 grand, I would personally choose GL2. With rest of money you can buy everything you may ever need, even a low cow-cost minijib, which will get that aaaaa from customer.

[Tom Hardwick]

Lots of excellent replies here Jeremy with some good solid advice. But if you've seriously discounted the PD170 (and I assume you have because you're posting on the VX/PD site and don't have it in your line-up) then any one of the three cameras you list will give you staggeringly good results. They all come with the list of pros and cons, but the main thing is to get to know the beast, that way you'll wring the very best out of it that it's capable of giving.

The man with the GL2 who knows his stuff will get far better footage that the newbie with both the XL1s and the DVX100A - of that you can be 100% sure. It's knowing what you have that counts. The cost of the equipment is not the concern; the man in the BMW always gives way to the man pushing the full supermarket trolley across the parking lot.

tom.

[Glenn Chan]

The main difference that I notice in those DVX/PD comparison clips is the DVX footage staying warm and nice on the girl's face while the PD seems to clip. Is that an S curve thing or what?

I'm not sure really. The DVX100 does have an adjustable gamma curve, one of which is kind of like an s curve. The DVX100 also seems to have greater exposure latitude than the PD150 according to adam wilt's review of it over at dv.com.

http://www.dv.com/features/features_.../2003/wilt0203 (registration required)

Anyways I think the important things to note are:
1- The DVX100 looks better in this test.
2- You can add a s curve in post to make footage look better. It shouldn't matter which camera's footage you do this on.

[Pat Chaney]

Are there any good apps or FCP plugins for making 'film like' changes to S curves? (the same as altering the gamma?) Or is this part of what Magic Bullet etc. do?

[Glenn Chan]

FCP4 might have a curves filter in it. For FCP3 and before, you will need a 3rd party plug-in. I believe CHV may have released a free curves plug-in but I don't know about that anymore.

Anyways once you have the curves plug-in you just make the curve look like an s.

In FCP3 and above, you can use the 3-way CC to boost saturation. Use the secondary CC part of it to boost saturation to shadows more than midtones. You could apply another to completely knock off saturation on highlights if you like that look.

2- I'm not sure exactly what exactly Magic Bullet does, but it does do a few of these things. Some other things it does:
A- Renders in 10 or 16-bit (I forget which) to reduce rounding error on color correction. To see rounding error in action, apply 2 filters to a clip that does opposite things (i.e. boost and lower luminance). You should banding occur on gradients.

In FCP4, use the high definition rendering mode to get the same results. This mode uses 32-bit floating point numbers for processing, so there is insignificant rounding error.

Magic Bullet may also highlight or chroma glow. For FCP I believe you can buy plug-ins that do this. Your NLE of choice may have plug-ins that also do this. Without any special plug-ins, you can try the following:
Duplicate the video track onto itself.
With a lumakey or secondary CC, you can:reduce the alpha/transparency on everything except for highlights. Add your favorite blur to the top layer. Guassian blur, any blur faster than gaussian blur, circular blur, zoom blur, etc. etc.

[Pat Chaney]

Thanks Glenn. I couldn't see anything obvious in FCP 4, but it may be there. I don't yet have enough experience with it to tell. I'll look further into this and the other options.

[Dave Frank]

FCP 4 has no curves controls. Nattress filters makes a plugin for FCP that controls curves though. It's cheap.

[Pat Chaney]

Thanks Dave - I'll try the demos of Film Effects and DVFilm Maker and see how the compare against each other, and against Joe's Filters (which I already bought).

[Ralf Strandell]

"There will be a lot of detail shots of engine work, slow pans over car bodies and interiors"

Slow pans over car interiors sounds like you need a wide angle lens so that you can get a wide enough angle of view inside a car. Try before you buy. A wide angle conversion lens is not as good a choise as a natively wide angled lens (such as the Canon XL lenses).

Is this "engine work" beeing filmed from close distance and at 45 degrees (or so) vertical angle (from above)? You might need a wide angle lens unless you can back away enough (and climb)...

[Andrew Fowler]

As a novice who has done a few short instructional/promotional vids, I second Glen's point about lighting - I started out thinking that it was key to have one camera or another, but it isn't so. Any of the cameras mentioned is capable of doing a fine job, but none of them can overcome poor lighting, at least not if you want the results to look professional.

Ditto audio. If there's going to be any live audio (or even voice-overs), spend money on proper microphones and accessories. It's often said that good sound is more important than good video, and I've found that to be true.

Ditto tripods. If the camera's going to be moving, or you'll be outside in the wind, spend money on a sturdy tripod with smooth action.

Just some input from someone who has been down the same road.

[Gary Brown]

Looking to buy new camcorder, JVC 700 or Sony 570 both 16.9 native, both 2/3 CCDs. Has any body had a chance to use either one?? And which tape is better mini or dvcam larger??

[Bankim Jain]

Even i am eager to understand the simiplar topic...cox I hve DVC200 from Panny and am plnning a buy for JVCGYDV-5000E.

I look forward to users bits...

[Dylan Couper]

My father is looking to purchase a video camera in the $500-$700us range. Does anyone know the best of the best in this price range? Are there any new 3CCD cameras available in that range?

[Bill Greene]

The Panasonic PV GS120 can be had in that price range. Is he in Canada? If so, make certain to buy from an authorized Canadian dealer, since he will not have any warranty at all with products brought into Canada from the US.

[Dylan Couper]

Thanks Bill
That looks like it should fit his needs perfectly.