Looking to up grade from DVX100

Some good posts here.

The HMC150 is a nice camera. I almost bought one instead of the HPX170. The main reasons were I wanted 4:2:2, variable frame rates, and to be able to transfer to my Mac and start cutting. A lot of people don't need that though.

I agree with what BradJohnson says about lights. Having even basic lights and knowing how to use them will get you a long, long way. I know some basic lighting, but whenever I think I know "enough" someone comes along and shows me how little I actually know.

If you are shooting an adventure comedy you may be able to shoot the entire film without an adapter and just use good composition and watch your backgrounds as you will inherently have a lot of DOF. But if you find yourself in some scenes with usually dialog or close-ups where you need shallow DOF, you could rent an adapter, a DSLR or big camera.
 
I meant a used HPX and a new M3 from redrock would put you in the same ballpark as the af100. Certainly there are used adapters for much less, but many of them have quirks and issues nonexistent in the new adapter. It's hard to look at M2redrock footage and say it looks as sharp as a 5D IMO, but the new M3 looks legit.

I agree with snowleopard for scenes where shallow DOF is a must, I would rent a 5D for the day only 125 bucks here in KC. Shallow DOF is nice and filmic, but is not the only thing that makes a good film or good shot. Composition and lighting are just as important, and using these two variables wisely will allow you to achieve shallow DOF on the fixed lens of the 170.
 
The HMC150 looks like an interesting option. For some reason I didn't think it had XLR inputs, but I just watched a tutorial on Youtube and seen that it does have them. A quick look on Ebay and it looks like they are about a thousand dollars less, used.
I'm not exactly pinching penny's, but a thousand dollars is a thousand I can use else where.

We have a pretty decent lighting kit that I hope to build on for our next movie, so shooting in low light is not a big issue. (Shooting in great lighting is not an issue either as we are still learning, lol)

I have a computer that I use for edition only so I will have to research if I will be able to edit with my current setup by using the HMC150. I like the idea of the SD cards over the P2 because of the cost, as long as the image is of the same quality.

Thanks to all who have given info on this topic.
 
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