Which HDV comes close to the pd170 for lowlight?
 

Thinking about to upgrade all my pd170's to hdvs:
Which HDV comes close to the pd170 for lowlight quality? (indoor, wedding, lowlight sources)
And the most valuable for a $5000 budget?

You might want to specify if your budget is for each camera or total.

each camera... Thx :)

Question 1: EX1
Question 2: US$? Probably a shoot out between the XH-A1 and the discontinued (by the sound of it) V1.

Found a great deal here to buy XH-A1. Would you think it'll be my best choice?

If you went the Z1 /Z7 route then you'd be able to use all those NPF batteries you've bought.

nice point. So z1 would be the best option for wedding? what about lowlight quality? I use the sony oncamera light 10w/20w on my pd170, would it be enough for z1?

Good - you're coming round. I chose the Z1 (with an FX1 for backup) when I moved from the PD. I shoot a lot of weddings, and although the Z1 isn't as good in the gloom as the PD, its video amplifiers are far less noisy and intrusive. The tradeoff between grain and sharpness is a good one, and I've shot entire wedding chunks at +18dB on the Z1 and even off DVD it looks fine.

Nothing wrong with the Canon though, and its longer zoom is a delight for picking off guests on a summer lawn.

tom.

Oh, forgot to say - I too use the 20-DW2 on my Z1, diffused with a Lumiquest Mini soft-box. All those NPF batteries soldier on.

EX1 in interlaced mode is quite fast on low light, faster than the Z7.

And the Z7 equals the EX1's low light performance in progressive.

EX1 would not be the best choice for recording weddings, unless you buy loads of 16gb cards.

Z7 would be the best choice for you, you record to tape, and later you can buy some fast CF cards, record to them and only use the tapes as backup.

Hope this helps brazilian buddy ;).

PS: Like people said Z1 must be a good choice too, but I can't say nothing about it. Never used one.

pietro

dont you find with your z7 the photographers flash causes pixelation when you slow it down in post

Rob

Fellipe, I'd gently warn you about buying a CMOS camera for wedding videography, and here's why.

This short movie beautifully exposes (Ha!) the truth about the EX1's rolling shutter. That police car's strobe sequence can look a lot like the guests crowding round the wedding cake cutting.

http://freshdv.dreamhosters.com/mjep...r_artifact.mov

or

http://tinyurl.com/57umxo

You may find this sort of 'half frame over-exposure' to be acceptable (though I don't) but slowed down (as I often like to do) it looks just awful.

tom.

Tom, thanks for your sharing. I always preferred ccds instead of cmos. (just preference, no fundamentals hehe).

I'm searching more infos about the z1... (I liked that camera).

Besides the XLR inputs, what significant differences between the Z1 and FX1?

43 differences between the two cameras. I have both, and will always, always, pick up the Z1 in preference to the FX1.

Here's some very good reasons.

XLR inputs
underscan
fine tune of the manual white balance
more assign buttons
focus assist (not expanded focus, note)
black stretch

and that's just for starters.

tom.