Waiting on my HDR-AX2000 to arrive...
 

tomorrow. It will be replacing my HVR-V1U that I put out to pasture when I got my Panasonic HMC-40 last year. Not having to fiddle with Firestores and their added weight has been fabulous.

Would it be safe to assume the shotgun mike that came with the V1U will also work on the AX2000? I want to re-use as much of the accessories from the V1U as I can.

Hi Sherri,

Congrats on the AX2000. I love to see a real world comparison of the HMC-40 and the AX2000 from your prospective.

The mic will work, but you should probably set AUDIO TRIM to +12dB. This according to the Z5 manual, which specifies that the newer XM1 included with the Z5 and NX5 needs trim set to zero, but the older NV1 mic supplied with the V1 needs a setting of +12.

OK, thanks for the tip, Adam!

Knowing me, I'll be up all night tomorrow fiddling with it.

Sherri, In your opinion, how did the V1U compare with the HMC-40 lookwise, low light situations, and in ease of editing? I know the V1U is HDV tape based and the HMC uses SD cards. Also, if I'm not prying, why did you select the AX-2000 over the NX5U? There seems to be just a $500.00 difference and it seems to me that the extra record modes, possibility of getting the FMU later on, HD-SDI , and other future proofing options would make it worth the extra bucks.

I'm going to be making a purchase this summer to replace my venerable PD-170 this summer and am looking at all sorts of options. Tape based is also still on the table! Thanks!

Also I think the NX5U comes with GPS, a bigger battery and the ECM-XM1 Microphone. I agree that the $500 difference seems to favor the NX5U.

Difference in Canada is even less at around $200 to $300. That is why I got the NX5U

Ron Evans

Bob,

Both the HMC-40 and the V1U are outstanding in daylight. But strangely enough, one of the reasons I got the HMC-40 is that I wanted to see if other similar cameras sucked in low lighting as badly as the V1U does (or did for me anyway). The icing on the (wedding) cake was when I was shooting pre-wedding b-roll inside my cousin's house at mid-day with the V1U and no external light. The footage was horrible! I cranked up the gain and most of what I got was a grainy mess.

I can happily report that the HMC-40 does very well in low light, even with the gain cranked up to about +18. And as far as ease of editing, Premiere Pro CS4 can handle HD files now, but not terribly smoothly unless you have a super-fast computer. Since I used a Firestore on the V1U, there wasn't really any difference in the work flow between the two cameras - it's just plugging in a Firestore vs. plugging in an SDHC card to dump the files.

And as far as my choosing the AX over the NX, it's just basically that I don't need all the extra bells and whistles the NX has. My work is 100 percent Web-based breaking news, so I don't need a lot of record modes or tweakability.

Ah.. very cool! Thanks for the quick response. I'm definitely considering going completely digital. I have the machine to handle the files and have even tested some og the AVCHD files floating around on my editor (CS4, Win7 64 bit, 12GB Ram, etc.). Not a prob!

I am leaning more toward a Sony product because I already have a dearth of Sony batteries, LANC controller, etc. that would plug right into an AX200/NX5U. I'd have to start from scratch going Pany, but if the price were right and the pictures clean, I'd do it.

One last nosy question... are you buying the cam for yourself or is the paper (web news guys) buying it for you? I'm asking because I'm always interested in corporate reasoning over personal reasoning!

(I find personal reasoning usually more reasonable!... if that makes any sense!)

Cheers!

Bob,

DV Tape is completely digital as well. Your PD170 isn't any less digital than the NX5. And I think you mean "plethora". Dearth means shortage. Plethora means surplus or a lot of something. ;-)

Adam,

I have been properly shamed. Yes, I meant "Plethora" not "dearth" and I realize also that DV tape IS digital as well. I meant to say solid-state and not tape based.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go stand in a corner for a while with my nose against the wall.

Hey again Bob,

I'm buying the camera myself. I'm a gadget freak and I've had Sony camcorders over the years and really like them.

The company bought two V1Us and Firestore FS-4s about two years ago to shoot prep sports. They made the decision to buy the V1Us because one of our junior photogs attended a video bootcamp and that was the camera used in the bootcamp. (I actually had pushed for the V1U previously, but the company kept resisting. The bootcamp somehow validated my choice. Love their logic.) After one season of shooting, the cameras were packed away and are hardly used unless we're working on a special video project.

That's kinda what I thought would happen. I worked for a company here in south LA that asked my opinion on camera gear and such. They wanted a three camera studio with studio cams that doubled as field cams.

At the time I suggested BetacamSP rigs and BetaSP decks in the studio. The PVW(?)1800 series was coming out and they wanted good gear but wanted to be frugal as well. They bought nice DXC327 cams with Hi8 VTR's!!! The source decks were also Hi8 and one of the principals of the company knew someone who could get a deal on equipment and we ended up with MII mastering decks! Later on, we edited on the VideoCube nonlinear system and kept mastering to MII, even though we always had to send the master out to be dubbed onto Beta for broadcast.

It seems most of the "bosses" aren't going for what works, but for what works their budget only!

(As a side note; I do rememer a number of times I had to set up the studio with the three cameras on weekends because the bosses, who weren't married, liked to take potential girlfriends through there to impress them! They even had one wall painted Chromakey Blue to get that "pro" look even though we had NO chromakey ability!)

Hi all,

After a rough day - torrential downpours all day, getting into a fight with the guys at the body shop over my car - I am finally checking out the AX2000.

I'm having a bit of a snit with the gain control. Logic would dictate that it works similarly as the V1U. Apparently not. I am now immersed in the owners manual.

I have to say, it's a very substantial-feeling camera. Can't wait until I can finally figure it out...:)

Sherri, love your HMC-40 videos! Can't wait so see what you can do with your new baby!
Congrats!