You know what I have been wondering...

Mike Krumlauf

Mike Krumlauf

Award Winning Filmmaker
...is how many DVXusers don't actually know or have used a DVX100 which is the camera that began this whole website? This message site has become a general message board for all filmmakers but it began as a place for people who were using or owned the amazing DVX100 camera (hense the name). Hell I remember in 2004 when i had my first user name at the young age of 14 (danny_boyle) and was using a Sony PD150 how there were users telling me to get lost and go to DVfilm.net soley because i didnt have a DVX. I know none of this matters nor am i saying i am mad at what DVXuser has become (quite the opposite) but i am just interested in how many younger filmmakers or people newer to cameras and filmmaking/videography have no idea about the DVX cameras or why this site is called DVXuser. Random I know, but none the less interesting for me.
 
I imagine more than 90% of people who used that camera aren't active on here anymore.

I used one for a little bit (a DVX100B) but bought a HMC150 shortly after, which I really loved.
 
I used one but never owned one, and used a variety of minDV and then the HDV camera HDR-FX1.
 
Used a first gen DVX100 for work (owned a DVC30 at home), then an HMC150 at work (bought one of those for at home), then got the DVX200 for work - have a HC-X1 at home. Started using Panasonic gear in college in the 80s. Went Sony at home for a while (VX2000), then Canon GL1s at a small market TV station. Been a fun ride so far. Had a hard time showing up to shoots when I had a PV-DV953. After that camera, everything got a lot better!
 
I owned a new dvx100b. If I recall it's why I found this site. It never was my favorite camera but I liked it and used it alongside other Panasonics back then (ag dvc60) in multicamera events and corporate. When we later bought hmc150s I sold them all.
Back then it seemed the 2 big cameras around here were either canon xl2 or dvx100. The xl2 was a whopping $6000.

Prior to those cameras I used mostly Sonys.
 
I was here in 2004 and I still have my DVX100A sitting there in the equipment locker. It stopped working in a blizzard in Valley Forge, PA on a corporate shoot in around 2008 but I kept it purely for sentimental reasons.
We bought that camera for, I think it was maybe $4k or $5k back in the day and over the time we used it, I billed it out for over $28k in camera package costs. It was a GREAT camera for it's day and I really liked shooting with it.
It was also one of the most profitable cameras I've ever owned. Bought a BVWD600 Betacam back in the day for $90k and that camera made us a few hundred thousand dollars before it was too outdated but the bang for the
buck factor with the DVX100 was off the scale.
 
Last edited:
I strongly considered buying a DVX100B around 2007 but stumbled across an irresistible deal on a matching pair of JVC DV5000's instead. But I've owned six HD and beyond Panasonics starting in 2010, from HMC80 through EVA-1.

I owned an Ikegami back in the '80s, though. Does that add any cred?

- Greg
 
I really wanted a DVX100B, but I never owned one or shot with one, as they held their value pretty well and cost more than I could afford. Things were transitioning to HD when I started to get into video in 2008, so I ended up with a Sony SR-11 because I got it really cheap. I almost bought a GH1 in the DSLR revolution, but I didn't want to deal with the 2x crop, so I opted for a Nikon D7000.
 
Joined this forum at 19..i think. Owned, and still own, an XL2 (boots up and is in great shape, just like day 1). Was considering a JVC or ikagami at the time...until I met my first xl2 at the DV expo in NYC at the javitz center...24P totally changed my life. Also used the dvx here and there but was much more into the XL2 at the time.
 
I bought one of the first batch DVX100s to come into the UK. I used to come on this site in the early days, but didn't post much, forgot my log-in and rejoined years later after being banned from DVinfo for cracking a joke.

It was a great little camera. I took it all over the world on doc shoots and corporates. A DVX, a couple of rifa lights and off you go. No excess baggage. No carnets. No chiropractor bills.
 
In college, it was all Canon GL2s. I didn't start in video production right away, so I missed the heyday of the DVX100 and only used it for one shoot. When I did start working in production full time, my workplace had just upgraded from a pair of XL1s to an HVX200 (the 720P version), so that was my go-to until we got a Varicam 2700 in 2010 or so. I didn't get into forums until a few years later and then I bounced around between a few of them before I realized that that the exchange of ideas happening here was the most relevant to my work, and now I check the boards most days. I have learned and continue to learn so much from my peers here.
 
Let's see, prosumer handy-cams cameras I owned vs rented... Well, first was the Canon XL1, sold it bought the DVX100 (and struggled with NLE software like Speed Razor that had support for 24p, early Vegas did it as well if I remember right), sold it bought the Sony FX1 (Yuck!!!!) and very quickly sold it and bought the HVX200, sold it and bought the EX1 instead of the RED ONE and there I lived happily for years. I have lots of HVX and EX1 posts on this forum, with cool work... surprisingly none on the DVX.

I do remember explaining to an older sales rep in the Pansonic booth what was going on with 3:2 pull-down and what it all meant the year the DVX was first at NAB... I remember him taking notes with pencil and paper...
 
I still have my original DVX100 from 2003 that I bought for my first feature film (CASI CASI) which got distributed on HBO and DVD way back in 2007. I worked that camera hard for many years, eventually moving on to a GH2, then GH3, GH4... and now I'm on the Canon bandwagon with the 1DX Mark II and two C100 cameras.

But the DVX still has a place on my shelf. Never getting rid of it. Too many fond memories.
 
DVX100 was the camera when i started considering owning. Pretty classic camera overall. I ended up with the smaller version, the DVC30, which wasn’t nearly the same image, but the ergonomics were awesome. I still have a place in my heart for the DVX, i saw one in my local goodwill for $99, but was sold as-is, and i couldn’t test it out. But i found an OG Varicam for $50, and well, my nostalgia is complete for now. But DVX was really the first camera i dreamt of owning.
 
I won't go into my painfully long history of the many, many cameras that I have used over the years. Film cameras, tube video cameras (plumbicon and saticon), single CCD, CMOS, Beta, Beta SP, M2, DVCPRO, Mini DV, HDV, P2, SxS, and so on and so on. I've shot on more than 100 cameras of different types over the years, a personal favorite being Doug Trumbull's Cinema Products 65mm Showscan camera. And I worked as the Technical Director at a rental house for years so I had to keep the menus of 42 different camera types in my head to answer questions from people in the field. I had access to many, many cameras over the years, but I've only ever owned a few. I only bought them when the business model made sense for me to own rather than rent all these suckers I had access to.

The cameras I owned:

- Aaton LTR54 Super-16 film camera (sold it after a dozen years because I was then working at a rental house that had a bunch so I didn't need to own it any more.)

- DVX100 (shot with it for years and made a mint with it until it was stolen.)

- Z1U (Bought it for a specific job that needed the 1080i. Always kinda hated it but it could shoot HD & SD, 16:9 & 4:3, and 50hz & 59.97hz, so it made me a lot of money. It sits on a shelf behind me as it wasn't worth bother to sell.)

- I also have a Bell & Howell Filmo, the 16mm wind-up equivalent to the 35mm Eyemo. It came with a Taylor-Hobson 1" (25mm) lens that has three elements and no focus ring, as it is a hyperfocal lens with everything in focus. This thing was literally developed for use in war, as in it was given to wartime photographers to document battles. I even have the CRUSH-DESTROY instructions that came with it. Don't let any assets fall into enemy hands - destroy the thing. It's made out of billet steel so it would take a lot of work to destroy it.
 
Good luck destroying a Filmo - in a million years, future archaeologists will still be digging those up and successfully running film through them. I never owned one but took a college class - "Cinematography for Television" - that was taught entirely with three-lens-turret Filmos. Dreadful, primitive beasts, but a big chunk of the history of the 20th century was recorded on them.

- Greg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top