Which camera: DVX-100A or HVR-Z1U (no HD)?

[agcohn]

We're going to start shooting our thesis project toward the end of March, and we need to make a decision about which camera we are going to use: my personal DVX-100A or the school's HVR-Z1U.

The catch with the Sony is that we have been told that we are not allowed to shoot HD. They do not want us using their new expensive cameras as decks (wimps ;) ), and they have not installed separate HDV decks yet.

I have been told that the Z1U should be higher resolution in true widescreen than the DVX, but we like the look of the DVX's 24p, and we're not sure how the Z1U fares in this regard. None of us have used the Z1U very much, and certain features have confused us so far.

I am a lot more familiar with the DVX as far as basic functionality goes.

Thanks for your input.

[KROOKEDKROWN]

Honestly the Z1 doesnt have that much better of a picture to warrant any concern. Seeing how your audience wont care and you allready know how to get a nice picture out of the dvx then stick with what you know

[bansheeproductions]

If you use the PAL mode on the Z1U and then shoot 25fps you can make it 24 in post and apparently it looks amazing

[ecking]

If you can't shoot hd use the dvx. But since it's your thesis maybe you could shoot hd and rent your own hdv deck for a few days and log all your footage. Or just use the z1 for logging clips and lie and say you brought your own deck in, I doubt they check the playhead count.