Help! Trying to make a buying decision

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Guest

Guest
Hi,

I have a project starting in a matter of days, and I have been given my budget, and told to go get a camera tomorrow, and be ready to shoot by monday.

I have been planning this project for months, and have been set on a DVX100. However, I met a salesman today, who told me that I would be far better off going for a Sony PD170.
My project is a year long, and will be following a band around capturing documentary-style footage. He claims that in low light, the DVX will not be good, and that I would not be able to 'point and shoot' with the DVX, and without the time to set the camera up correctly, I would get worse footage rather than better. I will have no control over lighting, and will be shooting as things happen. Could anyone tell me if this is true? If I have zero time for whie balancing etc, would the DVX still give me good looking footage? What about low light? I am talking about shooting a huge amount in conditions similar to a softly lit living room, or worse. Would the DVX produce good looking footage here, or would it struggle?
Also, he claims that the DVX has build quality issues, which would be a huge problem for me, - as I'm likely to be bouncing this thing round the world for 18 months or so. Has anyone experienced any trouble in this department?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
 
Re: Help! Trying to make a buying decision

Build quality issues?  First I've ever heard of that on the DVX.  I've never owned a PD170, but I know that I've been able to get some pretty darn good footage with the DVX using the pre-tuned scene settings.  

I've had it for less than a month, and was able to get some good footage after a few hours getting acquainted with it.  In fact, I took this footage to work and showed a collegue that I am doing a documentery with and compared it with what we shot with the PD150 and Canon GL2, and my collegue complimented the unique DVX100 look, and thought it was a beautiful picture compared to the GL2 and PD150.  Of course to be fair, my lighting arrangement was better as the DVX has some 32K and 56K light presets that I took advantage of.

Sounds like this salesman has a grudge against the DVX.  I would suggest you look at the night time shots done with the DVX vs. XL2 comparison.  The DVX night shots clearly looked better to me, but you be the judge.  I have also seen some comparison between PD150 and DVX night time, i will try to find the link for you...

Update: Found the link. This is comparison between the DVX100 and PD150 (don't know what is different on the 170).

http://www.lafcpug.org/reviews/review_dvx_pd150.html
 
Re: Help! Trying to make a buying decision

The DVX100A has a better picture even in 60i. But what that guys says it true because for run and gun style shooting the PD170 will be better overall. I use both cams and would choose the Sony for what you are doing.

Also, if you are doing lots of hand held shooting the Sony will look better because it has much better image stabilization (don't let anyone tell you different).

Again, the Panny has the best sound and by far the best image but only if you take time to set up the shots.
 
Re: Help! Trying to make a buying decision

Also, the Panasonic DVC-30 is incredible in low light and has a 16x zoom.

Yet, the DVX-100 gives excellent image quality in 60i. I use it for weddings and have great luck with it.
 
Re: Help! Trying to make a buying decision

In 60i the ISO rating is about thesame. You loose a bit in 24p. Like mickeloaf said the sound recording is very good, just get a good mic. As far as run and gun you will be fine. You can store six presets, you can not do that with the 170.
 
Re: Help! Trying to make a buying decision

The DVX is a very capable 60i camera, but the PD170 does have a cleaner image in lower-light conditions.

As far as build quality, that's a joke -- the DVX is nearly indestructible, as is the PD170.

As for point-and-shoot, the DVX has an emergency "auto" button which will put the camera in complete auto control mode, if you honestly end up in a situation where you can't control anything about the shot.

If you have your heart set on the DVX, go ahead and get it, but get a little light -- even a little 10w video light with a piece of diffusion in front of it -- and you'll get far, far better low-light footage than the PD170 would do without a light. If you want to compare ultimate low-light performance, the PD170 will eke ahead, but either camera is going to do a poor job in very dark situations. Cameras need light to make images.
 
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