DVX100P and 16:9 lens and DVX 100B

J

Jonathany26

Active member
I own two DVX100P's they both have less than 70 hours on them, I bought them both brand new when they came out many years ago, I am not ready to plunge and buy two HVX 200's yet, I still love the quality of the DVX100P's, but as time goes on I REALLY would like to start shooting in 16:9 more and having the HD look, while remaining in standard definition. I have a friend who is willing to sell me his panasonic 16:9 lens for a really nice price, the lens is the original made buy panasonic, but while doing my research, I read many times that that lens does not shoot well close up, and you can only shoot in manual focus, I am wondering if you were me would you just sell the two DVX100P's and buy two DVX100B's used ? this way I can use the 16:9 squeeze mode already built in the camera, now I do understand that the squeeze mode is not true 16:9 and I will lose 25% to 33% of picture quality shooting in that mode, is that really noticeable ? on the other hand the DVX100B is a nicer and richer picture than the DVX100P. Nevertheless, the DVX100P with the 16:9 lens is true 16:9, my friend is a very experienced shooter, but he says that lens DOES take some practice to get the optimal performance, he confirmed that it was not the best lens in close up sitiuations, so if you were me what would you do buy the lens and learn to use it and go with the TRUE 16:9, or sell the DVX100P's and put that money that I was going to buy the lens with towards teo DVX 100B's ?? thanks for everyone's opinion and input in advance.
 
yes there is a loss in quality in the squeez mode but you can't notice it really.
btw, the orignial dvx is still a great camera. there are some stuff you can't do that the A and B offers but I have to say it's not much different.
also the anamorphic lens does give you native16:9 but I don't think it will effect your prject much.
don't try to worry too much about the tecnical stuff. the content of your stuff is more important.
I still injoy watching most of my dvd's in 4:3 when I have the option to choose :)
 
Ya I would just stay with your 100p's and get the anamorphic adapter. With all the cool extra color settings, you can always color correct in post and then you have extra $$$ to get more accessories.
 
I'm trying to learn more about the DVX100 cameras. Do they not shoot in 16:9? Can you tell me briefly what the difference is between the 100, 100b, 100a, 100p? How do these cameras compare to the Canon GL1 or GL2? Thanks for your patience.
 
Kitman2 said:
I'm trying to learn more about the DVX100 cameras. Do they not shoot in 16:9? Can you tell me briefly what the difference is between the 100, 100b, 100a, 100p? How do these cameras compare to the Canon GL1 or GL2? Thanks for your patience.
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Use the "Search" function here, all your answears can be found easly.

but just to briefly tell you,
-yes the DVX can shoot 16:9 (for A&B)
-the difference between the 100 100A & 100B is a lot. I can't list each difference so I'll just tell you I would recomend you the 100A & 100B. it's mainly because it shoots 16:9 and the extra manual options.
-the Canon GL2 can't shoot 24p so I would say that's the biggest difference.
 
Your, best bet is the anamorphic adaptor...it is actually proven to raise the image quality (horizontally). But I use letterbox and it works great for me.
 
Jonathany26 said:
I have a friend who is willing to sell me his panasonic 16:9 lens for a really nice price, the lens is the original made buy panasonic, but while doing my research, I read many times that that lens does not shoot well close up, and you can only shoot in manual focus, I am wondering if you were me would you just sell the two DVX100P's and buy two DVX100B's used ?
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Well, are you going to get two adaptors, so you can use both cameras? No point in having two cams if you can't use them together.

If you can go true anamorphic with the lens, that's fantastic. You won't beat the quailty, although the B model does have some other enhancements (ASPECT CORRECT on the LCD, new GAMMA and MATRIX modes, better audio circuitry, and other changes) that you might find useful, and has even less video noise than your model.

this way I can use the 16:9 squeeze mode already built in the camera, now I do understand that the squeeze mode is not true 16:9
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It is not true 16:9 in the sense that the camera does not have a 16:9 CCD. However, it is captured from a 16:9 portion of the CCD.

It IS true 16:9 in the sense that it is 16:9 anamorphic DV laid to tape, and you capture, edit, and do all your post work in 16:9 mode. You don't have to play any games with it.

and I will lose 25% to 33% of picture quality shooting in that mode, is that really noticeable ?
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It may use 25% less than the full CCD, but that does not mean you lose 25% of the quality. The image resizing is done before 4:1:1 color subsampling and 5:1 DV compression. It's not as good as with an anamorphic adaptor, but it's better and much easier than trying to resize in post.

Also, no one seems to factor in how the image is degraded through the anamorphic adaptor. I'm sure it's OK glass, but it is glass. So, what do you lose by having that glass on there? 5%? 10%? I'm just saying, no one seems to bring that up.

I scrutinize my footage a great deal, and honestly I cannot see any loss of detail in SQUEEZE footage, compared to NORMAL. It looks like pixel for pixel detail to me.

As much as I would like to shoot anamorphic myself, if I were in your spot, I'd go for the DVX100B's. Much less hassle, much more flexibility.
 
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