Help required to choose HVX200A kit for an indie film

R

rakshith.shetty

Member
Hi Guys,
I am very new to posting but this forum had been very helpful to me from a long time. Thanks to all the users who come up with questions and others who help them with an answer.

Myself and my team of 12 are planning for an indie film after working on lot of short films and we are planning to invest on a Camera and some more equipments for the same. We have finally decided on HVX200A, but we are still confused with the equipments we need to buy. Please help me out with this. Here are some of the equipments we are planning to buy keeping in mind that most of our scenes would be on road and a bike ride. Our budget is $10k to buy these equipments along with the camera

1) HVX200A - $3100 (Thats the least prise I could find on the net. There this one place where he is selling the camera for $1600 but i have my own doubts if the product will be genuine. Have a check http://soniccameras.com/catalog/pro...GLL_en&aq=1&oq=panasonic+hvx&products_id=5207)

2) Letus Elite Cine bundle - $3300
(Letus35 Elite 35mm adapter
PL Lens Mount
M42 Screw Lens Mount
82mm Panasonic HVX200 Optimized Thread
30cm + 15cm Rods V2 Complete SystemRod Support System )

3) Carl Zeiss Planar T* 1,4/50 -$550
Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f1.4 SLR lens for Letus35 Adapters

4) Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2/35 -$830
Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f2 SLR lens for Letus35 Adapters

5) 32gb p2 card - $1400

We have tripods and mattebox. Please let me know if I can buy something else of more important and if i have made a wrong choice here and if you want to currect me. Thank you
 
sonic cameras is another of the famous scam dealers.

id get two 16 gig cards instead of one 32. if you only have 1 card youre stalled while you transfer its contents. if you have two smaller ones, you can shoot to one while transferring the other.
 
wgzn said:
sonic cameras is another of the famous scam dealers.

id get two 16 gig cards instead of one 32. if you only have 1 card youre stalled while you transfer its contents. if you have two smaller ones, you can shoot to one while transferring the other.
Click to expand...

Hi. We r going for one 32GB card because we wont be shooting anything more than 30 mins in a day. That is after deleting all the NG shots. More over 1 32GB card turns out cheaper than 2 16GB i suppose
 
jrmiller_entertainment said:
just curious...why not rent?
Click to expand...

We have many more projects in line up and hence renting the camera every time will turn up spending as much as buying. More over we r planning to give the camera and the set up on rent when we are not working on it. This will bring us some income which will help us for our future projects :)....... Thats the plan, hope it works out
 
How can you be so sure you won't shoot more than 30 minutes in a day? I think it's best to expect the unexpected. You may want to look into a Firestore (around the same price as a 32gb card). Also, the lowest advertised price for a legit HVX I've seen is $3700 (without p2 card) from B&H used. AVS San Diego may be around $4500 for the 200a right now, but that's it.
Good Luck.
 
scorsesefan said:
How can you be so sure you won't shoot more than 30 minutes in a day? I think it's best to expect the unexpected. You may want to look into a Firestore (around the same price as a 32gb card). Also, the lowest advertised price for a legit HVX I've seen is $3700 (without p2 card) from B&H used. AVS San Diego may be around $4500 for the 200a right now, but that's it.
Good Luck.
Click to expand...

Check this site of ebay where they sell it for $3200 without the card
http://catalog.ebay.com/Panasonic-A...Z13QQ_pidZ66620065QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em271

Fire store would be a problem while fixing the camera on the bike because it is connected to the camera through a cable. But otherwise, you think i can manage without the card if i have a fire store? If so, then it will be great and helpful
 
rakshi*h.shetty said:
Check this site of ebay where they sell it for $3200 without the card
http://catalog.ebay.com/Panasonic-A...Z13QQ_pidZ66620065QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em271

Fire store would be a problem while fixing the camera on the bike because it is connected to the camera through a cable. But otherwise, you think i can manage without the card if i have a fire store? If so, then it will be great and helpful
Click to expand...

The camera that you linked to appears to be a non-US model. It may work fine for you, but keep in mind that countries such as China, Mexico, etc. have less stringent production standards for domestic products and they may use cheap parts. Also, if there is a problem with the unit you have to send it back to the country of origin for repair... As far as the firestore is concerned, there are ways to secure the cable; angled firewire, tie-down cords, etc., but you may want to opt for a P2 card if you anticipate a lot of movement. If you are shooting in 720p mode the 32 card will give you about 80 minutes of DVCPRO-HD, but I like to shoot in 1080 mode.
Hope this helps.
 
Hi Rakshi*h,

How is Bangalore doing? My sister in law lives there--I get there about once a year.

The link you used looked like they only ship to the US--though I'm not sure.
I would be careful buying on eBay, they will try to up sell you.

I guess as long as they have a good rating it should work, but I would careful.
Or you can try one of these packages-this is a good deal with a P2 card from Texas Media Systems

http://www.shop.texasmediasystems.c...-HDDV-Camcorder-w-16GB-Card-BSTOCK_p_411.html

Bill
 
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Why not get a new hpx170 from a reputable dealer?

It will have everything you need in the box like a battery and charger.

It will be smaller and lighter than the 200 (or 200A)

It will include a 16gb card.

You could buy another card or not - if you set up a fast offload workflow* you can dump your footage in about 10 minutes. The cost for the 170 w/the 16gb card would be about equal to the 200 you've found plus a 32gb card.

*get a used laptop (I use a 15" Powerbook g4 which I found on ebay for $550) which has a PCMCIA slot so you can plug the card right into the computer and transfer the footage into your hard drive (external or internal).
 
MrBill said:
Hi Rakshi*h,

How is Bangalore doing? My sister in law lives there--I get there about once a year.

The link you used looked like they only ship to the US--though I'm not sure.
I would be careful buying on eBay, they will try to up sell you.

I guess as long as they have a good rating it should work, but I would careful.
Or you can try one of these packages-this is a good deal with a P2 card from Texas Media Systems

http://www.shop.texasmediasystems.c...-HDDV-Camcorder-w-16GB-Card-BSTOCK_p_411.html

Bill
Click to expand...

Thanks Bill,
Bangalore is cool as ever except the traffic part. Other wise i love it :)

The deal out in texasmediasystem is a s good as the one i saw in ebay too. I found some more good deals there. Thanks to you. Most of the sites only ship to US and Canada but that is not a problem because my sister stays there and i can get it through her. Please let me know if i am missing anything in my list. Thank you once again :)
 
quicklad said:
Why not get a new hpx170 from a reputable dealer?

It will have everything you need in the box like a battery and charger.

It will be smaller and lighter than the 200 (or 200A)

It will include a 16gb card.

You could buy another card or not - if you set up a fast offload workflow* you can dump your footage in about 10 minutes. The cost for the 170 w/the 16gb card would be about equal to the 200 you've found plus a 32gb card.

*get a used laptop (I use a 15" Powerbook g4 which I found on ebay for $550) which has a PCMCIA slot so you can plug the card right into the computer and transfer the footage into your hard drive (external or internal).
Click to expand...

I have a laptop with pcmcia slot and hence that wouldn't be a problem. Thank you
I would still prefer HVX200A because i have more options in it to record in different formats like tape
 
scorsesefan said:
The camera that you linked to appears to be a non-US model. It may work fine for you, but keep in mind that countries such as China, Mexico, etc. have less stringent production standards for domestic products and they may use cheap parts. Also, if there is a problem with the unit you have to send it back to the country of origin for repair... As far as the firestore is concerned, there are ways to secure the cable; angled firewire, tie-down cords, etc., but you may want to opt for a P2 card if you anticipate a lot of movement. If you are shooting in 720p mode the 32 card will give you about 80 minutes of DVCPRO-HD, but I like to shoot in 1080 mode.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...


But the supplier is from US and he has good customer rating too. The link i gave then was a mistake. This one is the real one

http://cgi.ebay.com/Panasonic-AG-HV...4|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1308|301:1|293:1|294:50

Let me know if you think the same about this one too. About the movement, yes we have a lot of movement since the whole shoot is on a bike ride but after all this if i can do without p2 card and do well with firestore then i would be the happiest person. We will be shooting it on 1080 itself....
 
As he said the 205 is not a US camera. Probably Grey market of some sort.

I would stick with the Texas deal with a P2 card.

B stock just means it was used as a demo.
 
MrBill said:
As he said the 205 is not a US camera. Probably Grey market of some sort.

I would stick with the Texas deal with a P2 card.

B stock just means it was used as a demo.
Click to expand...

Yes i heard it is a Japanese made but the reviews at the other forum says that it works just the same and they come with US warranty too. To be frank it doesn't make much difference to me because i live in India....
 
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