Manual exposure on Opturas?
 

Reading at camcorderinfo.com it seems that none of the Opturas have the ability to indpendently set the aperture and shutter speed. Is this really true? If so it's a shame because I was seriously considering this line.

It is true. You cannot set aperture and shutter independent of on another on Canon's consumer-ish camcorders. However, you can do an exposure lock and use the slider bar to set exposure giving you the setting you want, but you don't know what f-stop or shutter that sliding bar really is. Only the GL1, GL2, XL1, XL1s and XL2 give you full manual controls.

This manual exposure problem shouldn't be an issue because Panasonic's, JVC's and Sony's consumer camcorders all have the same "problem". What consumer camcorders (<$1499) actually give you full manual controls?

Panasonic DV-GS400 at around $1250 street price gives you full manual controls (independent exposure, shutter, zoom, focus, white balance on easily accessible external buttons and ring). Also, manual picture adjustment controls for contrast, saturation, sharpness, and exposure. Exceptional manual controls.

There's also the Panasonic PV-GS19 which offers independent manual settings for shutter speed and aperture for about $300. However, there's no audio meter, mic input or even headphone output (I guess, why would you need it?).

They had this ability on the first Optura and discontinued it I believe, on the following model and haven't re-intoduced it since.
If you want these things, plus progressive scan (gives you a 30fps look) get the original Optura from Ebay for around $100.00 for a clean example.
I have 2 of them and they are awesome.

I set shutter speed and just lock (and adjust) exposure. Yeah, you don't get the #, but honestly, I've found the aperture setting doesn't really matter with a camera w/ a nano-sized CCD in the first place (messing with aperture isn't going to do anything to DOF - just not large enough to really matter). I wouldn't be suprised if somehow the software for aperture control is really nothing more than just controlling gain. *shrug*

I've since bought an Optura 60, and I agree with you, the exposure scheme isn't as bad as I had feared. The worst part is you have no way of preventing the camera from applying gain. Can't say I agree about the aperature making no difference though. You can certainly affect the depth of field. The biggest problem is if you use filters. You can't use a Black Frost filter with a small aperature.

Shutter priority plus exposure lock does in fact give you full manual control on the Optura camcorders. No it won't display what the f/stop is when shooting in Tv (shutter priority), but the exposure control is indeed there. I agree that the biggest drawback is the lack of control over gain.