The gigantic "which camera should I buy" thread!

[Mike Rehmus]

You haven't said why you want to replace the 900. It is a good camera and you won't see a very significant change with your 'upgrade.' What type of events do you tape? Can you tell us what you want to achieve that cannot be accomplished with the 900?

A camera store is a notoriously poor place to test any camera. Unless your test of the XL2 or any other camera is in the conditions in which you will use it, you cannot really compare the cameras for your purposes. Do you mean you ran both the 900 and the XL2 in the same conditions as your events?

BTW, the XL2, with it's 5 lux low light requirement, is going to perform just slightly worse than the 900 IIRC. The 900 requires somewhere around 4 lux IIRC. That say's nothing about noise, etc., however.

I've used the 900 in weddings and general applications with good results. Not as good as my PD150 but it was very close until they turned the lights out.

[Les Wilson]

Be careful about the VX1000. That is a very old camera. As I understand it from when I looked at getting one cheap on eBay, you can't export to it via Firewire, only import from it.

[Jared Thomas]

i do not have a camera as of yet, but im looking for one... i know i want a 3 chip camera , i was planning on getting an xl1s but now they are discontinued so i started looking on the classifieds on this board and emailed several people about their offers....

but now ive been kinda looking at the pd170's and those are neat...but i dont wanna be spending 12 bucks a tape cause i wanna be able to film alot. i could use all the advice anyone could give me im so ignorant in so many things but i wanna learn so bad....

a few friends and i are gonna start filming/photo/dj'ing weddings pretty soon and i want something that will do the job for that but i aslo film alot of rollerblading so i want something that is easily handled and durable ....i dont know of anyone around where i live that is into cameras like i am so i dont have anyone to talk to about this......

[Ray Echevers]

Originally posted by Ernest House : Be careful about the VX1000. That is a very old camera. As I understand it from when I looked at getting one cheap on eBay, you can't export to it via Firewire, only import from it.

Not true, unless you got one with at faulty port.
And you shouldn't be importing on it anyways, get a cheap minidv camera to use as a deck.

[Rob Lohman]

Moderator note: I have created a new thread from a post in the
"these are the people in your neighborhood" forum to help
Jared on his way.


Jared: take a bit of time to browse around the forum and see
what other people are getting. There is a lot of talk about which
camera to get etc.

We also have a dedicated wedding forum which you can find at:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisp...?s=&forumid=72

You should be able to find plenty of XL1S on sale here at the
forum. Why do you think the tapes for the PD170 are 12 bucks
a tape?

Keep in mind that you want a good quality tape. Without it you
might not have the footage you thought you wanted.

More about tape can be found in our dedicated tape forum:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisp...?s=&forumid=64

Good luck!

[Bill Pryor]

I agree that any of the 1/3" chip cameras will be a significant upgrade over your TRV900. Unless you are using external mics and need XLR connectors, as one poster mentioned, you may be spending more money than you have to with those choices. The VX2100 is Sony's "consumer" version of the "prosumer" PD170. It does not have XLRs and records only in DV rather than in DVCAM/DV, which is why it is cheaper. It may be your best bet because it is cheaper than the others, and it will operate almost identically to the camera you are accustomed to using.

[Mike Rehmus]

The 900 can create very good video. Much better than the chip-size would indicate. Gary has yet to tell us what he wants to do and where he wants to do it. In reasonable conditions, the replacement cameras may create footage that is almost indestiguishable from the 900.

[Jared Thomas]

thanks rob, your advice is helpful... i was reading in a b and h camcorder catalog that a 32 minute tape for dvcam type cameras is like $11.99.....but i may have misunderstood.....like i said..im still learning alot.....but thanks again for you help

[Dylan Couper]

You can still use regular cheap miniDV tape in the PD170, can't you?

[Jared Thomas]

i think you can but its probably not very good for the camera....im gonna go post that as a question in the tape forum.

[Ken Tanaka]

Again, confusion between cassette sizes and recording formats.

DVCAM is a Sony-proprietary recording format, not a tape size.

The world of DV features both small and large cassette sizes.

The PD170 uses the small sized cassettes, just like nearly every other camera discussed around here.

The PD170 can record in either the Sony DVCAM recording format or in the more standard plain-vanilla DV format.

The DVCAM recording format runs the tape faster than plain DV format, hence the shorter recording time capacities cited for DVCAM for a given tape length.

I don't know what tape you cited at $12/32 min but I can tell you that shorter tapes are more expensive than standard 60 min tapes. Also, full-sized cassettes (for larger cameras) are, of course, more expensive.

Sony's PD170 page can be found here.

[Bill Pryor]

I think the TRV900 is the best of the 1/4" chip cameras, but if you set it up next to a 1/3" chip camera, there's a pretty big difference. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the 900, but if he's ready to upgrade, a 1/3" chipper will do a better job.

When Agnes Varda did "The Gleaners & I," she intercut TRV900 stuff with DVCAM footage from a 2/3" chip dockable, a DSR30 I think. Most people never noticed the difference because the 900 shots were quite a bit different from the longer shots with the main camera. I've done similar things between the 900 and the DSR250, and I've also used shots from the 900 and 250 in shows that were shot mainly with the DSR500. If the shots are different enough, you can often get by with that; but in a close side by side comparison, the differences in the cameras really shows up.

[Rob Lohman]

So in other words, Jared: you'll be fine with using just regular
DV tapes @ 60 minutes (don't use longer tapes or long play
features on a camera!). No worries and it is cheaper.

[Craig Bellaire]

Ok sorry if this is the wrong thread but need some info about what to buy. We just got 20 grand for a production camera but am having a bit of a time deciding which one would be best.. Yep only one camera will be purchased. So here is my delima. We want a dockable and a hard drive recorder and something to have 4:2:2... The problem is we have 2 dsr-30'2 1 dsr-20 and a panasonic dv-2000 decks, All DV25. Dockable is a must due to not trusting in standard DV for much longer, Thought about a DVCpro 25/50 back to have the best of both worlds but don't have the money for the DVCpro 50 deck and not sure if we can capture out of the camera. And it looks like a FS-3 hard drive recorder for DV25 would be a bargin if we got a dsr-390 or 590... We would love to get an Ikegami with a Ikegami dockable disk recorder which IS 4:2:2 BUT that only works with AVID Systems.... so HELP me spend 20 grand... thanks

[Peter Jefferson]

a Panasonic AJ-D610WBPS1 or Sony DSR570 :)