Hi guys (and girls)
Once in a while I film a wedding and do some personal projects (film student). Currently I'm using a Sony TRV-60 with an home-made "grip" which connects (via mini-jack)an external mic next to the cam. This nice little set has given me great video (content wise). But image quality wise, it has some big problems with not so well lit environments (grainy and terrible colours) Contrast / lattitude isnt great either and I also I miss the wideangle end of the lens.
For personal projects the manual controls come into play. I have no XLR, no audio levels and cannot turn off automatic attenuation. Shutterspeed and iris are modified through Sony's scene selection (luckely Sony doesn't make cars
) So I figured that at this point a better cam is justified. Now here come's the thousand dollar (euro) question. Which cam to buy? What I need / like is: (not in particular order)
-True widescreen (weddingvideo's have been always in widescreen on request and as time goes by will probably stay this way). Moreover, personal narratives will also be widescreen
-Decent low light (at least noticably better than my TRV-60)
-A 25 frame / progressive mode (this is for the personal projects)
-A lens with a decent wideangle
-Manual audio with XLR inputs
-Manual controls generally
-Better lattitude contrast range than my old cam.
The only two cam's that fit these things best (within a budged of max 4000 euro) are the DVX100b and the XH-A1.
I can get the DVX100b for around 2650 euros (less second hand), but I get no true widescreen (only with loss of resolution) and no high def. I know the widescreen isn't terribly bad on the DVX, but it just feels a little weird spending so much money and then 'missing' on one of the biggest wishes and using the DVX in a mode it isn't optimised for. (p.s My TRV-60 has true widescreen, so I actually go backwards in that respect! :huh: )
The XH-A1 I can get for around 3650 euro's (i'm not counting on getting a second hand) and has everything I need or like plus high def and full resolution widescreen in SD, but again - it's about 1000 euro's more! And if I can get the DVX100b second hand the difference in price wil get even bigger...
The second 'problem' is that my output (for the time being) is standard definition DVD, but what I saw is that downsized HD looks really, really sharp and good. If you go straight to DVD from a HD project in Vegas, you even skip the DV compression. If the DVX100b is set to widescreen it actually loses some sharpness and uses the DV codec. So this goes multiple ways
So at what price would you guys go for the for the DVX100b and skip the Canon A1? I'm still the poor student :beer:
:dankk2:
Oh one more question: Is contrast range / lattitude on both camera's the same? I read that the DVX100b is really good in this respect!
Once in a while I film a wedding and do some personal projects (film student). Currently I'm using a Sony TRV-60 with an home-made "grip" which connects (via mini-jack)an external mic next to the cam. This nice little set has given me great video (content wise). But image quality wise, it has some big problems with not so well lit environments (grainy and terrible colours) Contrast / lattitude isnt great either and I also I miss the wideangle end of the lens.
For personal projects the manual controls come into play. I have no XLR, no audio levels and cannot turn off automatic attenuation. Shutterspeed and iris are modified through Sony's scene selection (luckely Sony doesn't make cars
) So I figured that at this point a better cam is justified. Now here come's the thousand dollar (euro) question. Which cam to buy? What I need / like is: (not in particular order)-True widescreen (weddingvideo's have been always in widescreen on request and as time goes by will probably stay this way). Moreover, personal narratives will also be widescreen
-Decent low light (at least noticably better than my TRV-60)
-A 25 frame / progressive mode (this is for the personal projects)
-A lens with a decent wideangle
-Manual audio with XLR inputs
-Manual controls generally
-Better lattitude contrast range than my old cam.
The only two cam's that fit these things best (within a budged of max 4000 euro) are the DVX100b and the XH-A1.
I can get the DVX100b for around 2650 euros (less second hand), but I get no true widescreen (only with loss of resolution) and no high def. I know the widescreen isn't terribly bad on the DVX, but it just feels a little weird spending so much money and then 'missing' on one of the biggest wishes and using the DVX in a mode it isn't optimised for. (p.s My TRV-60 has true widescreen, so I actually go backwards in that respect! :huh: )
The XH-A1 I can get for around 3650 euro's (i'm not counting on getting a second hand) and has everything I need or like plus high def and full resolution widescreen in SD, but again - it's about 1000 euro's more! And if I can get the DVX100b second hand the difference in price wil get even bigger...
The second 'problem' is that my output (for the time being) is standard definition DVD, but what I saw is that downsized HD looks really, really sharp and good. If you go straight to DVD from a HD project in Vegas, you even skip the DV compression. If the DVX100b is set to widescreen it actually loses some sharpness and uses the DV codec. So this goes multiple ways
So at what price would you guys go for the for the DVX100b and skip the Canon A1? I'm still the poor student :beer:
:dankk2:
Oh one more question: Is contrast range / lattitude on both camera's the same? I read that the DVX100b is really good in this respect!
$3538 with HD and all the features is worth getting isntead of DVX.
