Broadcast quality, pdx10 and vx2000
 

Ok, I am a know nothing. I used to shoot video years ago and am getting back into it. I have a year long Documentary project that is underway and I am in the process of buying a camcorder. It seems to be boiling down to the pdx10 or the vx2000. The big diffs as I see it are low light, Xlr inputs, dvcam, and size. The thought of getting an xlr adapter hurts my head. The more things you have connected = more points of failure.

I plan on doing all of the editing myself on a g4.

Who can explain to me why then dvcam would make a diff? Why is the vx2000 considered consumer and the pdx10 a pro cam? I have read many of the posts here, but am still confused at the bottom line.

I talked to a Sony guy at SonyStyle and he said it was pro because of the dvcam.

Could anyone add legitimacy or reasoning for this?

Thanks

500 or more horizonal playback lines are considered broadcast quality. However, you can get away with less. The VX2000 plays back 500 lines, the PDX10, more. Anything for broadcast has to be converted to another format usually. It depends on the station. pbs.org has lots of useful info about how to prepare submissions. That site would be a good start. Perhaps someone else can answer your other questions.

DVCAM is a more robust format(less dropouts), but the encoding(compression) is exactly the same as miniDV. The PDX10 shoots both. If you have to do a lot of moving the tape for edits, capturing, etc, then DVCAM should hold up better. Adam Wilt says stepping frame by frame through MiniDV reveals frequent dropouts, when DVCAM dropouts are rare.

http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-tech.html#DVformats

The PDX10 has a black and white viewfinder, considered more accurate and professional, although with the touch spot focus of the PDX10 that's hardly an issue.

The PDX10 gets more pixels on the tape, especially in 16:9.

The 500 lines of resolution is open to debate. Betacam SP is much less than 500 lines, probably closer to 400 lines or less.