Used HVX200 price question

M

Mark Briley

New member
There's a used HVX200 advertised in the classifieds near my town for $3000.00 It comes with a CGP-D28 battery and a pelican case. Supposedly it's in perfect working condition. This seems like a good price, but is there anything I need to look out for specifically when it comes to a used HVX200? Also, it doesn't include a P2 card and it's missing the remote. B&H has a 16gig P2 card for $850.00 (wow), so for $3850 I'll have an HVX200 with a decent hard case and a spare battery. Also, what do I need to have to read the card into my iMac for editing? Before I saw this I was considering buying a new AG-HMC150 instead. What do you guys think?
 
i can't really help you out on the pricing, but if you don't want to buy a card adapter, you can feed your data to your IMAC via firewire. Handy if you don't have to dump your cards in the middle of a shoot, but if you do, then you lost both your camera and the card until the transfer is over.
 
For a frame of referance I sold my HVX200 (993 hours), everything that came with the 200 when I bought it, an extra spec.com battery, and 2 8gig cards on ebay for $3550. There was 2 bids. And I sold it 1 week before the 170 came out.
 
That is a good price. The main thing to look out for is cracked or broken battery tabs (early models) and any signs of damage.
 
Well, looks like I have some research to do before jumping at the bait too soon. I didn't realize there was a 200A, and the AG-HVX200A supposedly has some improvements over this one including a better image sensor which has improved performance in low light. Does anyone here know if it's significantly better than the original HVX200?

Also, how would the HVX200 image quality (1080/24p specifically) compare to the AG-HMC150 1080/24p mode? Doesn't the AG-HMC150 have sensors more comparable with the newer 200A? I guess you can see where I'm going with this - not sure if I should just get the newer AG-HMC150 even though it might lack some advanced features on the older HVX200 which I can live without for now.
 
I apologize for rambling on in my post. I just want to see if anyone knows if the "older" HVX200 has better image quality in 1080/24p than the HMC150 does in 1080/24p.
 
Mark Briley said:
Well, looks like I have some research to do before jumping at the bait too soon. I didn't realize there was a 200A, and the AG-HVX200A supposedly has some improvements over this one including a better image sensor which has improved performance in low light. Does anyone here know if it's significantly better than the original HVX200?

Also, how would the HVX200 image quality (1080/24p specifically) compare to the AG-HMC150 1080/24p mode? Doesn't the AG-HMC150 have sensors more comparable with the newer 200A? I guess you can see where I'm going with this - not sure if I should just get the newer AG-HMC150 even though it might lack some advanced features on the older HVX200 which I can live without for now.
Click to expand...

Because of the new sensor, you might get a cleaner image from the 150 than the original 200, but even with the original 200 you'll get an I-Frame codec and 422 color. I would take the original 200 over the 150 because of those benifits, but that's just me.
 
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By most accounts the HMC150 is not really any sharper in 1080 mode than in 720 mode.

Barry Green states the HVX's 1080 mode as being about 15-20% sharper if I am not mistaken.

The 200a and HPX170 do have a new sensor which gives a much cleaner image (less noise) by most accounts, and better lowlight performance.

If it's within your budget, it's certainly worth considering. If you are looking cheaper, then a used hvx200 is not a bad idea.

But, if you don't need variable framerates, and would prefer recording to much cheaper SD cards (rather than P2), you might want to strongly consider the hmc150. It's a very good deal as far as price to performance is concerned in the new crop of cameras... At least from first hand accounts. I have not used one myself.

HMC150 (I believe) also uses the newer imaging sensors that the 200a and HPX170 use. It's the HD version of the DVX100. It will have a noticeably cleaner image than the original 200, and be more in line with the 200a and 170 in regards to picture. But, it's shooting to sd cards vs p2, long gop, no variable framerates, etc, etc..

200a has some other add'l features over the original 200 that you can learn about if you search around on here. Check the articles section towards the top fo the forum for Barry's hands on with it, the HMC150, and the HPX170...

There is certainly quite a bit of info out there already regarding these cameras, so take the time to do some more research before jumping in. Figure out what your needs are and see which camera will give you the best bang for your buck.

Later,
Jason
 
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