TRV900 -- various questions

[Jim Ioannidis]

thanx alot guys

i'll pass the info on to him

[Daniel Coutts]

Hi there..

I have a trv 900 that has served me faithfully over the past three years. Im now looking at upgrading to the pdx-10 however some of the concerns about low light performance scare me a little..

Did Sony get it right on this one?

Would be interested to know any thoughts on this.

Thanks,

Dan

[Frank Granovski]

Hi, Dan. Welcome to dvinfo. The TRV900/PD100A requires less light than the PDX10, but the audio is improved and you have that neat widescreen capability. If low light is a concern, just hang on to your TRV900 a bit longer. :-))

[Shawn Mielke]

Just watched Agnes Varda tote her 900 around France in The Gleaners and I.
Great film.

The PDX performs well in many light situations, and being in control of the lighting does away with the "problem" altogether, of course. This isn't always possible, and there are better low light performances in other cams at this price, or near. Buy the PDX because you can light your stuff or shoot in more optimum conditions, and because you favor compactness, native XLR sound, and excellent 16:9.

[Daniel Coutts]

yep I am thinking bout hanging onto it for now.

Ill be going over to central asia virtually backpacking. Lighting setups are gonna be a bit harder to manage and any extra lowlight performance I can attain would be worthwhile in these circumstances..

I like the pdx a lot and I think if I was in more 'controlled' situations I would definitely go for the newer camera. At the moment it will take something a little more to 'push me over the edge' and replace the 900.

Still interested in peoples thoughts/experiences on this topic though. Are there any previous 900 owners out there that have gone the way of the pdx?

[Mike Sanchez]

I have a TRV-950.

If you are willing to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/30 the "low light" (with AGC set to off) is actually quite good. I shoot indoors only with this shutter speed and it gives me 2-3 clicks extra exposure over default 1/60. For the subjects I shoot (my kids ramming around) the slower shutter is indistinguishable from 1/60.

IF you are backbacking, and want quality video and pretty good audio, the TRV950 is compact optimized......

I have excellent video in a room with a 7 watt bulb with 1/8 shutter speed. I pan very, very slowly to minimize the blur. Room is about 25x15 or so. Got the whole room.

At 1/4 shutter speed with the same lighting the room was too bright on the video!!

[Tom Hardwick]

I think you're right to consider the PDX10 an upgrade from your 900 Dan, but I'm not so sure the 950 would be. It's considerably cheaper than the 900 ever was, so I suppose we can't really expect it to be much better.

In your situation I'd stay with the 900. It uses bigger batteries and draws less power into the bargain. It has a much better wide-angle end of the zoom and you can take some floppy discs to 'give away' to kind folk you meet on your travels. You can easily put stills on these from tape or from the Photo button, and anyone can see these on their pc.

The 900 is better in low light though the 950 has a little flash gun built in. the 900 lets you be much more creative with progressive scan, shutter speeds, apertures and ND filters. Choose the PDX if you want to shoot 16:9, but remember to keep point sources of light outside the frame and to avoid high shutter speeds.

tom.

[Daniel Coutts]

That information has been very helpful! Im going to hang onto it now for sure... The widescreen is a nice feature but thats something I can work around..

Thanks for the feedback!


Dan

[Boyd Ostroff]

Daniel,

I think you will find some comparisons of the TRV-900 and 950 at this site: http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/index.html

[Laurence Spiegel]

There's some possibility I may have to replace a cam in for repair ( Pan dv852, very good cam ). I will shoot less than 100 hours/year, probably less than 50. Low light performance with motion ( like a dance club ), then reliability and good but not pro quality video are my concerns. After that, a cam I can grow into as I understand the art of filming. Better to buy it once.

I'll use the camera without added gear - it must be unobtrusive and quick to deploy. I'm not using it on a set - I'll use it on occasions where filming is permitted if it's unbotrusive.
For my use I cannot add lighting, and sometimes would like to capture dim conditions such as nightclubs or the ocean under moonlight.
I understand that the 900 is often used as part of a pro videographer's toolbox and so will have high hours, and that the mic typical goes out. From some comparisons I've seen online it picks up a video image with very little light, so I'm guessing it will capture a sharp image of motion when there's just enough light to be comfortable.
Is a used 900 a reasonable choice, or for my simple uses would it be overkill with a repair bill?

thanks

Larry

[Boyd Ostroff]

I don't have any experience with the 900, however you should visit John Beale's website if you're interested in this camera.

[Frank Granovski]

Re: Buying a used TRV900 - asking for trouble?

Laurence, if a used PV-DV852 or used TRV900 is in good shape, with low head hours, I can't see any worry.

Regarding your other concerns, I would bet that the 852's image quality is more or less on par with the TRV900's---the 852 plays back a lot more lines but the TRV900's color saturation would be "fuller."

If a cam breaks, have it fixed or replace it, and don't worry about it.

[Laurence Spiegel]

Yeah, I was getting more worked up than need be. I just got through with a long aggravation with my computer - the mfr failed numerous times to fix it and eventually sent a newer model - and was very skeptical about repairs for any consumer electronics. One of the few times an extended warrantee pays off is with a laptop.
I worked in tech supporting Compaq Presarios a few years back. Few people then suspected how unreliable a PC could be when they shaved literally the last nickels and dimes out of production costs. Fewer realized that the repair parts we sent out... were taken from the repair parts that came in. I was impressed that the machines had Western Digital Caviar hard drives... then one of our crew discovered that they were all coded as WD rejects. Funny how many of those failed!
I take it that getting a cheap cam to use as a deck is also excess for my use.

thanks folks... I see you put many hours into this board

Larry

[Raimo Repo]

On filming the emulsion of a super 8 mm film moving at 16 fps in my projector ( projection lens removed) I got wild flickering in the interlace recording mode but near perfect video recording using the progressive scan ( frame) mode. I set the camera in both cases to shutter priority mode at 60/sec. Why the difference in results? I have calculated (from the time line) that although 15 frames of movie film pass through per second, each frame of the movie is seen three times ( this is a revolving shutter with three openings per revolution) thus giving a total of 45 images per second that the video camera can actually have a chance to image. Can anyone tell me what camera settings in terms of shutter speed etc I should use to get the best possible transfer of my movie to a DV format? Thanks.

[Kenji Nakajima]

Greeting,

Is there a meter that tells how many hours I used my TRV900? My DSR-PD150 has that in LCD menu.

Thanks