When to sell your DVX?

J

jpastuch

Carbonite Member
I just got my DVX used in January and have learned a great deal in the short time using it. i love it too, but...seeing the footage on my friend's 1080p, 52 inch tv screen made me a little worried.


My college thesis film is fastly approaching in the Springtime. I'd start shooting around February, and planned to use my DVX. But that's before I learned about the GH-1 and it's very cheap pricetag.

Now, this is probably the last time for a while where I'll be able to gather actors/crew members for no money to actually shoot something with all our willpower. I want to focus whatever money I save up into putting together a light kit, buying a new mic, etc.

Originally, I was going to spend the time between now and February buying equipment, experimenting with it, etc. I still plan on doing all this, but since I want this to be something really good (that I could submit to festivals), I was thinking about upgrading to the GH-1 since it's HD and has lens options.

I realize how crazy out of stock it is, I mean realistically doing this IF I could score one in the coming winter months. To afford it, I could sell my DVX soon to put money towards it.

OR, I could just stick with what I have- either way, my focus is on the lighting and sound and composition. But ultimately my question is how big a price drop I'll take if I wait until- next summer to sell my DVX instead of this fall. I got mine used for 1100 bucks online, so I imagine the more I wait, the less I get.

See my dilemma? Again, this isn't my MAIN concern. But I'm thinking, if I can get MORE for my DVX now, I'll only have to spend a few hundred on the GH-1...and with that comes HD as well as lens options (and a still camera for publicity photos!). I'm not trying to jump on a bandwagon, I realize there are many downsides to the camera...but THAT PRICETAG, along with lens options...kind of makes me wonder what someone will pay for a used DVX by next year...

Let me know what you think...
 
Well, there are COUNTLESS student films that have won many awards shot on the DVX. I wouldn't worry so much about the camera, but more about the content. The DVX is still an amazing camera, and has much more manual controls than a DSLR. Even though DSLR's have 35mm lens mounts, the DVX can give you shallow DOF right out of the box if you frame and plan your shots right. You can cheap out on the lighting for sure. Eventually you will want a real light kit, but I spent about $100 total on my light kit which consists of work lights, incandescent clap work lights and a fluorescent light fixture. The only professional lighting components I use are black foil and lots of it, a couple C-Stands and some CTO/CTB gels and chroma green sleeves for my fluorescent light tubes. I would say invest in the audio. The audience will like your film more with nice clean audio so make sure you have a decent mic, and most likely, either a camera shock mount or a boom pole with shock mount.
 
You'll be losing a couple hundred, but it might be worth it. I would sell it if I were you... but not in that order if the money were available. Buy the GH1, live cheap for a while and sell the DVX when the GH1 arrives. No downtime, eventually a cool new toy that will help with production value at a low price difference. But I haven't ordered one myself because I don't know what my situation will be in months from now, so it's clearly a personal choice depending on your needs and schedule.
 
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btw, what camera did your friend have?

altho the DVX is not HD, I still like the look of it.
and I hate to say this but your film won't be 10 times better just because it's HD.
the GH1 is a cool camera but ...I would imagine the price being cheapter then the DVX in just a few years.
remember the DVX used to cost like $4k

I would work on the lights more seriously.
if you get a GH1, remember you'll need lenses too.
also every time you see a new DSLR hit the market, it's always going to be bettter then the GH1 and you'll always want to upgrade to something newer.
that's just how people are. and it's all up to you.
 
Spend $3,000 on a camera today and it's worth $300 in ten years
Spend $3,000 on sound, grip, electric and it's worth $2,000 in ten years if you take good care of it.
There's always rental if the project needs more than you can give it.
 
Forget the lights and sound, that's what I'm focusing on right now EITHER WAY. I'm basically asking if I should wait to attempt to buy the GH-1 until next summer, or try to get it this fall/winter (IF possible). I just don't know how much my DVX will be worth in the future, or if I'm jumping the gun by selling it so much earlier than I planned. I have a feeling it'll be easier to just use it for this project since I have it right now, and not to deal with the stress of buying the GH-1/selling DVX for a good price at the same time. I'm also thinking of festivals and how some may (unfortunately) turn me down for being shot in SD. There will always be newer and better DSLRs, but I don't care about the newest and best- just the options of HD, lenses, tapeless recording for less than 2000 bucks. It's a very nice low-budget option.
 
Oh man,
That GH-1 price is gonna be HIGH HIGH HIGH the rest of this year. Then it's gonna DROP DROP DROP! Digital SLRs always do that.
If you really want to make FILMS - stick with the DVX for now until you can get a high def video camera like the HMC-150 or similar.
 
well don't forget about HD format too
if you make that jump, remember you'll need a faster computer, bigger ram/ hard drive.
which will triple the cost...

if you like the gh1, go for it then. no ones gona stop you.
it's like when the d90 came out. a lot of people sold their camera and got the d90.
but as soon as the gh1 comes out, everyone sold their d90...poor girl
 
I agree with a lot of these guys, although I have trouble taking my own advice. I spent so much time early on worrying about gear instead of content. Honestly a great film is going to impress no matter what it is shot on as long as the content is there. Also every student film fest I have been to and every screening is on an SD projector which you can't tell the difference anyway. Focus on telling a great story and if you are able to get HD before you shoot go for it, but don't stress about it. The DVX can still put out a hell of a picture.
 
I've been completely focused on the content up until now, which is when I began questioning technical things. I guess seeing the DVX footage in HD scared me a little. I knew it'd be not as clear, but it got me thinking about putting a lot of work in the technical end, only to have that disappear on a higher resolution TV (I also need to take into account that he may not have lit properly and the DVD may have been very very compressed). I'll also be shooting this in black and white, which I think may be SLIGHTLY more forgiving in HD, but I could be wrong.

But yeah, I think I'll hold off on the camera selling for now. If the oppurtunity presents itself somehow I'll decide then.
 
Thats a good idea. If your going to DVD anyway you can get great results out of the DVX. I find all DVDs dont look too impressive on HD tv's anyway, and it definitely could have a lot to do with compression on the DVD and how it was shot. If you can somehow get HD without going nuts over it, go right a head but if not, you'll be fine with the DVX.
 
For what it's worth ... I shot in dv using DVX100 and GL-2s for 3 years before buying an HVX200 three years ago. Then, I continued to shoot dv until recently to get to know the camera and the technology. I loved the all digital and would only use tapes if a client required them. I was hired to shoot in 720 and was intrigued by the power of the camera.

A few months ago, I started shooting DVCPRO 50, 16:9, 60i - still in DV, and now I won't shoot in anything less. Last weekend I shot a 10 minute segment for roll-in in 24p, and felt "Now we're talkin'!".

Yes, content is everything. But once you go DVCPRO 50, 16:9, you won't go back, but you can go forward. Oh, and yes, you need twice the memory so you shoot more economically ... not a bad thing.
 
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You will end up spending an equal amount of money to upgrade your editing suite to ingest and store HD footage by moving up to the HVX. At least 2-3TBs of hard drive space, an HDMI/HD card and a color-accurate display, as you have twice as much information to deal with.

The HVX-200 is a great camera, but for DV, I find myself using my DVX more often, as all I need to ingest footage is a Firewire 400 port and cable. Use HD for film and TV, and stick with SD for DVD and the web.
 
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I'm in the same situation, sort of. I'm going to wait till the RED Scarlet is released this fall and get the 2/3" cinema and some RED miniPrimes to go along. I'm not going to spend a lot, probably $5000 if the website specs are right about prices. Then probably another 1000 on sound. I dont need to purchase lights at this time.

But thats my decision, because the 4:4:4 color sampling and 3k resolution will help with all the effects i will probably do in post.
 
Maybe I am mistaken, but if you viewed the 100b movie on a 4.7gb DVD with your friends 1080p, then I do not feel it is the problem of the 100b but that you played a standard DV thru a HD TV.

If that is the case and you had a two hour video from the HD camera and a two hour video from the DV camera , then to have them both burned to two seperate DVDs would give you the same playback file quality due to the amount of information put on a 4.7gb DVD.

Try using a uprezing DVD player. I have a HDDVD (don't laugh) player and it uprezes when allowable by the movie industry. I like it. It looks great. Its not a blue ray but then again I do not produce blue ray.

I know that HD is better so flame me not but for what it is worth, I can view 720p on my 8' projector screen using the built in DVD player (standard DV type) and it looks great but put it on my 19" HDTV with built in DVD player (standard DV type) it looks like CRAP!

A lot of this has to do with the playback units ability to uprez correctly. Personally I do not like HDTVs of the LCD and Plasma type. I still prefer CRT for color, tone and gama range accuracy.

LCD and Plasma sucks! CRT still rocks!
 
Accent Photography is completely right about the uprezzing stuff.

However, I do disagree about the CRT versus LCD and Plasma. I have seen some great plasmas and LCDs that I think are way better than any CRT tv. Plus, LCDs and Plasmas are easier on the eyes. But, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
 
Hard to beat the look of a Sony Bravia, I can play SD DVD's on that with stuff I've shot on my DVX and it looks amazing, the uprezzing from the Playstation 3 is pretty darn good. I'm yet to watch anything shot on my HMC, looking fwd to that!

BTW. don't sell your DVX for a GH1, save the extra bucks and buy an HMC150, there are a many reasons why. Do some reading over at the GH1 forums and see why.
 
If you bought it used and are selling it in the same calendar year then hopefully you won't loose too much money. I'd say it would be like renting in that respect so I'd say to sell it.

Whatever HD camera you get you'll be having a learning curve but one that's happening. The DVX is a camera that has seen its time and place and everything else has moved on. You'll end up with superior results and if lighting is a factor, then shooting in HD will allow you to do a lot more and have it show up on the screen.

Plus.. there's a lot more "cred" and B/S that people feel about something shot on HD vs. SD, and even more when it's high rez HD.

Either way, I think if you are going to sell it, get the most you can for it now and then get whatever is within your budget that works for you. Shooting with the DSLRs has other contingencies and virtues too over shooting with a HD cameracorder.
 
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