What should I do?
 

What should Pokey do?[list=1][*]Should Pokey spend his money on a bunch of new gear?[*]Or buy a new PV-DV953 from B&H[*]Or, a new, slightly more costly, Black Mamba??[/list=1]What should Pokey do? :-))

Or should Pokey consider a PV-DV852 for less than 1/2 the price of a 953 or GS100 and make a little money shooting in near dork conditions (low light)? :-))

<<<-- Originally posted by Frank Granovski : shooting in near dork conditions (low light)? :-)) -->>>

Not all unix gurus like to work with the lights turned down, you know...

I was thinking more of the dimmed lights (with soft background music) in a funeral chapel.

Frank, is the low light capability on the 852 that much better? To the point where you wouldn't have to push the gain and end up with a grainy picture? Because if it isn't, you definitely should get the gs100. The gs100 will give you the flexibility to do other stuff. And if it's true that Panasonic doesn't plan to keep producing it (and appears to be focusing on making big inroads into the lower end of the market), well...

Frank, you of all people should know what Pokey wants. You know the story and the limitations of the cameras you speak of.

It sounds like you just need a little cattle proding. I know for myself, I'm happy to have the english menus. Would the GS100 worked for me? Probably yes... since it is point and shoot like Allan says. The advantage to this and the DV953 are the manual features as your aware.

So the question is really what do you want - English or Japanese? Is there that much of a difference in the quality? A light would help in the lower light situations but is there truly that much difference. Probably not, but I don't own the GS100. Tommy could answer that better being a previous owner of the DV953. There is also the smaller form factor which makes the GS100 slightly more appealing. So what is it worth to you?

The jury may still be out on that one!

Yes, I would say the low light is better, by quite a bit. I'm not sure about the Japanese menus---it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. :-))

I think I might just go for some cam gear, and wait for the DVC30P---the DVC30 with widescreen and progressive, and without an XLR adaptor (built in XLRs). :-))

My 852 from B&H just arived - played a bit - every user with a basic technical knowledge should be able to master the menus and features in less than an hour.So far no dissapointment.

I do not miss the 3 ccd from the 953 yet because i did not do any editing to check a final result on my laptop, but I miss a 3.5 " LCD.

As for the black mamba - looks like a pack of testosteron - it is one od the nicest designs for camcorder I have ever seen.

Technical performance I will leave for the proud owners to share.

Nikon and Canon have relied on european design studios to determine the styling lines of their 35 mm bodies - I just wonder whos behind the nice design of the black mamba.

The japanese menus are a No NO for me - I have spent a couple of months in Japan in 2001 and the main reason I did not buy a camcorder then was because of the menus - Menus will be" Lost in Translation"