Thoughts on combo deck & B cam?

[kenackr]

I really enjoy my 100B. At the moment. it does everything I want.

I have been thinking seriously about buying a deck to capture with and have pretty much narrowed it down to either the Panny 2500 or the Sony DSR 111. B&H currently has these marked at the same price, $1599.

Like others, I have tried to weigh the pro's & cons of using a smaller and much less expensive (than the 100b) camcorder for deck duty vs. the cost of the decks mentioned above.

The ability to use a new cheaper camcorder as a functional "deck" obviously begs the question why not use it as a "B" cam also. A review of current cam corder pricing and capabilities lead me to think, at first ,while it might be nice to stay in the Panny line of camcorders to maintain similar colors when intercutting "A" & "B" cam shots that other options may be better.

When comparing the GS 180 to other similar units, the Cannon Elura 100 seems to stand out from the crowd with it's current $399 price point. The Elura has: less noise, better saturation and sharper picture than the Panny, plus audio inputs etc and a longer optical zoom, which might be nice to increase DOF on close ups.

I know, I should go out and buy a real deck and a second 100b to have instant setup in the "B" from the "A" cam, but can't afford that right now.

Please give me your thoughts on the subject.

Ken

 

[ryan brown]

Well... as a "cam B", it sounds like you mean you may try and match up footage from the dvx and the small cam. That's not going to happen on any project you want to take seriously.

A $400 canon shooting at 60i just will NOT match up with a DVX100B. There's a reason one is 2k, and one is $400.

Now, if you mean a "cam B" like to use as your mess around camera, then by all means go with the cheap one. I use my cheap capture cam (which just happens to be an old Ellure 2) for a variety of things, not just a deck. It's the cam I use when on vacation, location scouting, and basically anything else that calls for non professional uses.

-brown

 

[kenackr]

brown,

Sorry about the confusion, I did not mean to suggest that a $400 cam would have the same video output as my 100B, (and BTW mine cost $3K not 2).

What I was wondering was if if anyone had tried any inter cutting shots with a less expensive cam that might give a slighly different coloration (like a Canon) but exploit the DOF capability on closups, etc.

Have you actually tried this?

Ken