XL2 to HVX: Is it worth the difference?

As much as I would love to buy an HVX now, I don't have enough money saved up to. So now I am considering trading the XL2 for a DVX and then keeping the DVX as a second camera in addition to the HVX. So will they cut well together? And what model of the DVX should I buy? I can get a new DVX-100B for $2300, or I could get a used one and some accessories. What do you guys think?
 
After hearing about the HMC150, that is probably the route I will go if it is between $3500 and $4500. About how long can you record to a 32gb SD card at HDV quality? I need longer record times than P2 offers, but I dont want to use DV. So the HMC150 seems the perfect camera for my production needs.
 
Well, depends on what you consider HDV quality. 6mbps will give you something like 9 hours of recording, although it'll only probably look fully comparable to HDV if you're doing something like a sit-down interview. 13mbps should give you straight-up HDV quality, and you should get about four and a half hours on a single 32GB SD card at that rate. If its top bitrate is 20mbps, that's still something like three hours on a 32GB card at (presumably) XDCAM-EX caliber quality.
 
Consider this:

SD will give you MUCH better low-light. You need 2/3in sensors to match the XL2 lowlight, you will lose a lot of light going to the HVX. This can be bad for live events. It also means auto-focusing will be slower, especially in 30p mode.

The XL2 has a 20x zoom-through lens; the HVX cuts that in half! Do you use the telephoto (full zoom) on the XL2 much?

Do you go handheld a lot? The XL2 is shoulder mounted, this helps. You'll need to buy a shoulder mount or something for the HVX200 probably.

P2 cards are very expensive; consider the HMC150 when it comes out. It will use AVC-HD which should be plenty high quality for you, and can be fit into much less space. It takes a lot of CPU power to edit, but you can just transcode upon ingest (import) to ProRes if you are using FCP, which takes more HDD space, but it will edit fast. The HMC150 is pretty much everything the HVX200 is, minus variable frame rates and P2. But you can get good slo-mo results from 60i footage by interpreting it (converting each field to a full frame), which gives you 50% slow-motion and looks pretty dang good for not over-cranking.

The HVX200 really is a camera that costs a lot more than the initial price tag when you consider everything, particularily P2 and backup solutions (you have a backup on a miniDV tape right now, with P2, get ready to buy a lot of HDD space to backup, or Blu-Ray discs, which are spendy too.
 
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By HDV-quality, I mean video that looks the same quality as when I shoot HDV on my HV30. So I am guessing I will do 13mbps most of the time, as I shoot events and need a few hours of recording time. If I am shooting a movie or documentary-style project, I will use its top bitrate. Also, would the HMC-70 be a good camera to cut it between? My current set-up is:

Main Camera: Canon XL2
Second Camera: Canon HV30
Third Camera: Canon Optura Xi

I may buy an HMC-70 for use as a second camera so I can have all the cameras I use be HD, and I will keep the HV30 for archiving video until BD-R's come down in price, then I will use those for archiving.
 
filmguy123 said:
SD will give you MUCH better low-light. You need 2/3in sensors to match the XL2 lowlight, you will lose a lot of light going to the HVX. This can be bad for live events. It also means auto-focusing will be slower, especially in 30p mode.
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I never use auto-focus, so it shouldn't be a problem. Low light hopefully will better on the HMC150 though.

filmguy123 said:
The XL2 has a 20x zoom-through lens; the HVX cuts that in half! Do you use the telephoto (full zoom) on the XL2 much?
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I'll miss it, but I can live without it.

filmguy123 said:
Do you go handheld a lot? The XL2 is shoulder mounted, this helps. You'll need to buy a shoulder mount or something for the HVX200 probably.
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No, it's tripod-mounted 90% of the time or more. It's my main camera and is usually hooked up to the audio board, so It doesn't need to be handheld.

filmguy123 said:
P2 cards are very expensive; consider the HMC150 when it comes out. It will use AVC-HD which should be plenty high quality for you, and can be fit into much less space. It takes a lot of CPU power to edit, but you can just transcode upon ingest (import) to ProRes if you are using FCP, which takes more HDD space, but it will edit fast. The HMC150 is pretty much everything the HVX200 is, minus variable frame rates and P2. But you can get good slo-mo results from 60i footage by interpreting it (converting each field to a full frame), which gives you 50% slow-motion and looks pretty dang good for not over-cranking.
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I am now considering the HMC-150, not the HVX-200. I use FCP6 on a MacBook Pro with 2.33Ghz Core 2 Duo and 2Gb RAM.

filmguy123 said:
The HVX200 really is a camera that costs a lot more than the initial price tag when you consider everything, particularily P2 and backup solutions (you have a backup on a miniDV tape right now, with P2, get ready to buy a lot of HDD space to backup, or Blu-Ray discs, which are spendy too.
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When I get the HMC-150, I will back-up using my HV30 until BD-R becomes more affordable.
 
Nick Royer said:
Low light hopefully will better on the HMC150 though.
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Still nowhere near the XL2 - just be prepared.

With a MBP w/2gb RAM you'll probably still want to transcode for anything more than single stream editing I am guessing. Nothing wrong with transcoding, just be aware.

HMC-150 is a great choice, and a better choice for you than the HVX200, IMO.

Good luck!!
 
Kegan Sant said:
How do you KNOW that though...it's not even out. :undecided

-Kegan
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Based on Panasonic's reputation and the feature list.

I don't feel it's a stretch to say that, and I feel confident to assert that. Obviously if it comes out and it's a stinker, we'll know...
 
Yeah the HVX would cost me about $8,000-$9,000 at the end of the day, while if the HMC-150 is $3500, I could get it and some additional accessories for about $5000. How much is the HMC-150 likely to be? A lot of the websites are saying it is $6,000, but there is now way that is even close to accurate unless it is replacing the HVX, which it isn't.
 
No pricing information has been released. I can't comprehend how it would be any higher than $4,000 though. My bet is $3500. But that's unsubstantiated speculation based on this being the DVX replacement and the competition being in that same basic price bracket.
 
Yea that's what I am guessing too. How could some of these websites be saying all this information that doesn't even make sense though? It's pathetic.
 
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