First off, this is my first post here. Very cool to have a community like this. Hopefully I'll get my issuses with this camera resolved so I can make use of this place.
Here's the story: I bought my dvx100b in late November, and on the first day of shooting with it, the tripod was knocked over and the camera hit the ground (carpet, thankfully) pretty hard. Physically, there was no noticable damage other than a small scratch on the lens (I didn't have a uv filter yet) which doesn't seem to show up in my footage. But when I took it home that night and tried using it, I noticed that the autofocus seemed excessively loud.
I had to use it for a wedding a week later, and it worked fine for that. Then I sent it off to Panasonic to be repaired. They said it needed a new lens 'unit' (I don't remember the exact word) to the tune of $700. I had them repair it and I just got it back this weekend.
And sure enough, the autofocus is still loud, and the scratched lens is still there. After looking around here, I found that others have complained of the same problem without having damaged the camera. So I'm wondering, did they spend $700 of my money to do a repair that was unneccasary?
Before dropping it, I really didn't pay that close of attention to the noise it made. But after the fall, I was much more sensitive, trying to see if anything seemed broke. And now, even if it is less noisy, which it doesn't seem to be, it's still noisy. This just doesn't seem right.
Now I know that others hear will say that's what external mics are for, but I can only agree with that to a certain extent. I have a Canon XL1 at work, and both the focus and zoom are dead silent.
I will be calling Panasonic to discuss the 'repair', but I'm still left with a dilema. I bought this camera to do wedding videos. After hearing just how bad the built in mic is (I know all are bad, but compared to the XL1, this one is awful!), I planned on buying a shotgun and attaching it to the provided mount. Will it still pick up the noise? Again, since I'm doing wedding work, I can't go around with a boom - I need something that can be mounted. And I need the top shoe for a light.
Any help or comments are appreciated. Thanks
Here's the story: I bought my dvx100b in late November, and on the first day of shooting with it, the tripod was knocked over and the camera hit the ground (carpet, thankfully) pretty hard. Physically, there was no noticable damage other than a small scratch on the lens (I didn't have a uv filter yet) which doesn't seem to show up in my footage. But when I took it home that night and tried using it, I noticed that the autofocus seemed excessively loud.
I had to use it for a wedding a week later, and it worked fine for that. Then I sent it off to Panasonic to be repaired. They said it needed a new lens 'unit' (I don't remember the exact word) to the tune of $700. I had them repair it and I just got it back this weekend.
And sure enough, the autofocus is still loud, and the scratched lens is still there. After looking around here, I found that others have complained of the same problem without having damaged the camera. So I'm wondering, did they spend $700 of my money to do a repair that was unneccasary?
Before dropping it, I really didn't pay that close of attention to the noise it made. But after the fall, I was much more sensitive, trying to see if anything seemed broke. And now, even if it is less noisy, which it doesn't seem to be, it's still noisy. This just doesn't seem right.
Now I know that others hear will say that's what external mics are for, but I can only agree with that to a certain extent. I have a Canon XL1 at work, and both the focus and zoom are dead silent.
I will be calling Panasonic to discuss the 'repair', but I'm still left with a dilema. I bought this camera to do wedding videos. After hearing just how bad the built in mic is (I know all are bad, but compared to the XL1, this one is awful!), I planned on buying a shotgun and attaching it to the provided mount. Will it still pick up the noise? Again, since I'm doing wedding work, I can't go around with a boom - I need something that can be mounted. And I need the top shoe for a light.
Any help or comments are appreciated. Thanks