Any worth in buyin new?

T

Tyshalle

New member
So you can get the DVX100b brand new for about $2200 now. Is there any worth in buying this camera new? I'm a little nervous about buying a used one for like $1500 off of ebay, but I'm not sure that peace of mind is worth the $700 difference.

I'm not looking to make money with this camera so much as learn the ropes with it. It seems like with a new one if I put a couple hundred hours on it and then sell it off a few years from now, I'd probably get more money back than if I bought one that already had a few hundred hours on it and did the same thing.

But then again, I don't know how popular the DVX will be a few years from now.

Any advice here? I've also thought about stepping it up to the XH-A1s for HD, but I keep coming back around to the DVX with all of the tales of how it is basically the best prosumer-level SD camera ever made and all that.
 
I have DVX-100a with 189 hours, a 2,3,9 hour batteries. External mic, light, and a hard case if you might me interested. If you would like photos, or more info feel free to get in touch.

Thanks Taan

taanr@hotmail. com
 
Buying new is always good, i got a 2nd hand 100b of ebay for about half price of a new model, which i thought was a great deal... until the tape heads and lens had to be replaced almost immediately due to a less than carefull previous owner (hooray for camera insurance!)
But at this point in time, as brilliant a camera as the dvx is, if you are planning on spending that kind of money i would strongly advise adding a few hundred more dollars and taking the HD route, as SD is just not all that viable in 2010 if you planning to do any commercial work (personally i have to spend a dispropotinate amount of time in post upscaling dvx footage to 720p so it will display properly on modern devices) with the new generation of prosumer gear from all manufactures having being released or being very close to being released (canon xf300, panny af100, and the new sony "filmlike" nxcam thing) i would expect to see price drops across the board for all the older hd models sometime soon, so unless you are desperate for a cam right now i would wait it out a bit and see what kind of deals you can get on last generations hd stuff at the begining of next year.
 
I'm with Josh, buying used is great for so many things, but when we're talking about more expensive items, new is probably the way to go.

And yes, depending on what your aim is with the camera, you might want to consider an HD unit if it's commercial work. I've done some commercial work and almost immediately have to drop the SD bomb in the hiring phase. So far, it hasn't cost me any work, but I don't expect that trend to hold.

(Also... interested in the process of upscaling to 720p... How???)
 
i_am_remote said:
(Also... interested in the process of upscaling to 720p... How???)
Click to expand...


There are many, many ways... getting the best results is all about trial and error. if your doing it without any additional plugins (red giant instant hd etc) the quickest method is to shoot in squeeze, edit on an sd timeline and simply export as a 720p file with square pixels, this works fine if you are just putting stuff online where image quality will be compromised anyway.
However for the absolute best results, (and this will be far more time consuming) shoot in 4.3 or letterbox mode and edit on 720p timeline, now from here, your footage will be too small to fill the frame, so it needs scalling up to 133/134% (and reframing if it's normal 4.3 footage) and then exporting again at 720p in your desired format. this method will give you slightly sharper footage with less artifacts than the first method, due to your footage having only being manipulated once to get the 720p resolution (with the first method the pixel aspect ratio is electronicaly changed in the camera as you shoot in stretch, and then again when you export to 720 which, obviously leads to a degredation in quality due to all the encoding going on)
the difference in quality is quite small but if you are doing stuff that will be shown on large screens the second method is deffinately the way to go. though please note that doing any of this doesn't magicaly transform your SD footage into hd footage that looks like it was shot on a hvx rather than a dvx, the primary reason i do any of this is that pretty much every modern display uses square pixels as a standard, so by exporting footage in this format you are essentily modernizing it and ensure greater compatibility and image clarity with HD generations tv's / iphones /computer monitors/ digital projectors or whatever other device your work will ultimately be shown on.
 
Thanks

Thanks

Josh Balti,

Thanks for the rundown, I didn't know this was possible or that anyone was even doing it. The second method looks like it would be a bit of a nightmare with all of the reframing going on, but getting DVX footage to jive better with modern displays is super valuable.

Thanks!
 
Im thinking about selling mine too. Only has 40hrs on it. Its practically brand new. But to be honest buying something brand new is always better than buying used.
 
Since like half these posts don't actually answer my question, but are just trying to sell me their ****, I'd just like to point out that I've already purchased a camera. Also generally speaking, when somebody asks for advice and you try to sell them something, your opinion is effectively rendered Not Worth Listening To.

I don't mean to come across as insulting, but this kind of thing is pretty shady. It seems to me that there's a market place section for a reason.
 
Tyshalle, I agree that when looking for advice if all you get is sales pitches it isn't very helpful.

I'd suggest if you got a new DVX to return it & get your money back. The only reason to use SD is because you can't afford to upgrade to HD. If you have $2,200 you can afford a HD camera.

Personally I'm always a little surprised that there are still new DVXs out there and more surprised when I see new Canon XL2 & GL2 cameras being advertised. And I truely think you will NOT get a good price for your DVX in a couple years, if you're the only owner or the third owner of the camera. SD & tape are on their way out & in a couple years they'll be as wanted as HI-8.

These are the cameras I'd suggest you look at:

if you want to do indie film look at these + an audio recorder (Zoom H4N, or similar):
Canon 60D / 7D / T2i
Panasonic GH1 (Hackable) or GH2

if you're looking for a more traditional video camera:
Canon XF100 (much more money, but 4:2:2 color! on affordable CF media)
Sony NEX-VG10 (though you'd probably want a seperate audio recorder as this doesn't have XLR inputs)
Panasonic HMC40 (well below your budget)
Panasonic HMC150 (a little above your budget)

Or look for a used HVX! It is pretty much a DVX when in tape mode & HPX170 when in P2 mode.
 
I agree about the sellers man, you're post was pretty clear that you weren't very interested in a used DVX.

As far as used gear? Free money IMO. If you do your homework. Many many many professional production companies will buy cameras new, use them for a project or two (or think about using them) then sell them to get the next best thing or for a host of other budget reasons. It is also a big help when the person selling you the camera is a professional who has correctly set the camera up, made custom scene files.... which are then transferred to you.... very handy for learning purposes. Speaking of learning, the hour meter on my film schools HVX's are over 2,000 now and still churning out pretty HD pictures. The hour meter on my used HPX is under 200, so it still has 1800 hours of abuse to endure before it is the "learning tool" that my school offers. Considering I paid less than half of what they did, for a better camera, I'd say that's a decent investment in a "learning tool."

As a senior in film school, I have bought, sold, upgraded cameras a couple times on microbudgets, and I always, always, always buy used. But you have to do your homework. DVXuser is a great place for great used gear and great deals, plus you can research the post history of the person you are buying from. It's an added bit of security that ebay doesn't offer. Like you said the camera is for learning purposes, so there is no need to pay the premium for new equipment to learn on IMO. I have never had a problem with my used gear (knock on wood), and will only buy something new when I can't hold back my tech lust any longer and have the cash to pay the "new" premium price that comes with brand new technology. Cough AF100 Cough. If I could hold my horses long enough for some AF100's to get used and hit ebay, I would welcome the price savings. Which I would then turn into lenses and batteries.

However I just read all 36 pages of the "A Verse Before Dying" forum, and I'm going to have a hard time holding my horses on this camera for the release date alone. Again. For the sake of learning, do your homework, find yourself an awesome HD package, and buy it used.
 
Tyshalle said:
Since like half these posts don't actually answer my question, but are just trying to sell me their ****, I'd just like to point out that I've already purchased a camera. Also generally speaking, when somebody asks for advice and you try to sell them something, your opinion is effectively rendered Not Worth Listening To.

I don't mean to come across as insulting, but this kind of thing is pretty shady. It seems to me that there's a market place section for a reason.
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure that wasnt directed towards me as I told you that buying new is the best way to go but if someone sincerely thinks that buying used is a good option, and they have what you want, then why not bring that to your attention?
 
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