Anyone here actually done any shooting with this cam? I was wondering how is the auto focus? Is it inclined to hunt? And I know that the on-board mic is mono, but how is the mic's sensitivity? Does the mic have okay sound quality? Anything else that stands out to you about this cam? I assume the front of the lens is threaded?

I think this is a good cam for the price -- I paid $299 including shipping for mine. It's mostly my "fun" cam -- something to play around with; a camera I can have out around the dog. It's also useful as a miniDV deck so I don't wear the heads out on my DVC80.

It's not in my hands at this moment, but I am 99.9% sure that it is threaded for filters, etc.

Focus, white balance, etc. are all fine -- again, pretty much what I would expect from this price range.

My favorite feature is the "MagicPix" effect -- a sort of saturated blur that (to me) at times resembles a "true-crime reenactment" (the "Unsolved Mysteries" effect). It's pretty cheesy, but I've actually found use for it for a pro-bono promo short I did for a carnival. The effect looked really good on the bright, multi-colored rides set against the night sky.

The mic is OK -- my one heavy-duty use of the mic was cluttered by the sound of crickets. It was at an outdoor seminar and *no one* remembers hearing crickets (cicada, etc) during the event but man oh man did they overtake the audio.

I had to do some heavy-duty EQ-ing to bring out the speaker's voice, but you can find a RealPlayer video of the seminar at http://www.uga.edu/eecp/seminars/. It's the first link, "Philosopher's Walk Along the Greenway." Nothing professional -- this event was part of my day job and I just wanted an excuse to bring my DV53. Most of our seminars are shot on whatever cheap equipment is available that day from the school (such as old, old VHS camcorders). I shoot 'em, encode 'em, and put 'em on the website. Wasn't an official part of my job at first, but I wanted to make things interesting around here...

Anyway, about halfway through the footage, the speaker is standing at the corner of a road. This part is pretty much untouched audio w/ almost no tweaking. It isn't the best video out there (I don't even know if I bothered to white balance that day), but it will give you an idea of the audio capabilities of the DV53.

What kind of shooting do you plan to do? Work or home movies? I think this is a good camera for a cheap one-chipper, but I don't know that I would use it as a primary camera for any important work.

Does the DV53 support add-on lenses? I know it's got filter threads, but what about extra glass?

Alex (our high school member) owns a Pana DV53. He's dome some amazing stuff with it and posted the footage on the Internet somewhere a couple of times. I believe he's also using a Tiffen wide angle adaptor with it.

I looked at the DV53, it seems like good bang for the buck. It's a very small cam, similar with one of the lower-end Sony 1 chip models.

If you want to spend a little more, see if you can find a deal on the PV-DV702; and another good model to look at is the Canon Optura 20. It's just been replaced so they're going cheap.

John, thanks for the "Walk" clip. The 53 seems okay. I was able to hear that the mic seems to have a pretty wide angle of pick up.
I've been trying unsuccessfully to find out what the slowest shutter speed is that the DV will go down to in normal, full auto
mode (w/no AE adjustments such as "nightshot"), say, when the lens cap is on. Don't suppose you'd know the answer to that one?

Quick test in my hand...


Seems surprising. The slowest shutter speed for this camera is 1/60 -- I would've assumed that it would default to that in auto mode...

But, it looks like the shutter speed defaults to 1/125 and the f-stop to Open + 15db (highest gain is 18db) with lens cap on.

In a moderately-to-low lit room, the auto settings are the same.

Pointing the camera directly at the ceiling light in same room produces the same shutter speed as above (1/125) and an f-stop of 3.4

These settings were checked by pointing the cam at said objects in Auto mode, then switching to Manual to check the settings.

The owner's manual for this camera isn't the most helpful or descriptive as I have found, but I assume that since this camera was probably made for point-n-shoot consumers that they never expected some of these questions to arise.

Thanks for asking this question. I hadn't bothered to check the auto mode settings yet. Now we both know. Probably.

John,
I've heard that the shutter on most will go lower than 1/125th
if the default-to-"on" electronic image stabilizatin is turned "off".
Does the DV53 have EIS and the ability to turn it off? This characteristic of cams with EIS may be good info to know for others who shoot tripod w/auto exposure. Also good for those who use some type of "stabilizer" (e.g. Glidecam), as image stabilization should be turned off anyway when "flying".

Mmmm...lunchtime is dvinfo time...


Dave -- good point; one I hadn't considered -- until now.

And guess what? Turning off EIS results in a 1/60 shutter speed default in auto mode.

Thanks for pointing that out. That teaches me to post here at 2 in the morning!


(BTW, EIS is easy to turn on and off on this cam -- a fair-sized button on the top left of the cam is easily accessible)

John,
So the default for your camera is "on" then, correct?
And thanks for all the help you've given.

Dave --

I will check when I go back home tonight, but I don't think that the EIS has a default setting. I think it just stays at whatever you last set it at. Now, i don't remember what it was when I first opened the cam, but I seem to recall that it maintains the last used setting between power-ups.

*FOLLOW UP*

Hands-on test: Yep, the EIS setting stays at whatever you last have it set at when you turn the camera off. There does not seem to be a "default" setting, per se. Removing the battery doesn't seem to affect the setting, either.

Not that anyone really cares, but I picked up a DV53 and I payed attention to the EIS aspect. The closest I think you could say about this camera's default EIS setting is that when you power up the cam for the very first time, EIS is "on". The "factory setting".
Like John found, the cam retains it's last settings, even when the battery is removed, so the switching from on to off must be mechanical. I guess.

And I both love and hate it.
I'm actually pretty stoked to see somebody else talking about it.

I have shot about 10 hours worth of footage with it, out of which the first five were on full auto, for what it is worth, I have never seen the auto focus hunt at all. not one time, which is a more than I can say for the GL1 I get to play with from time to time.

I have, however, had problems with the audio. I shot some video of my son riding a little train they have about a mile from my house. I was sitting next to him on the train, which had quite a bumpy ride. During play back, some of the audio dropped out, almost like a skipping record. I need to do some more tests.

The manual focus "ring" is less than optimal, although the zoom control is fairly smooth. Low light performance is, as has been said before about what you would expect.

This is a great cam for beginners. Among other things it helped me figure out what I really wanted from a cam. I also made some rookie mistakes with it that I would not want to make with a more expensive unit- such as changing tape brands and gumming up the heads...

I had planned on shooting some shorts with it, but my wife offered me next year's tax return to buy a more expensive cam with- so I think I'll buy a used XL1 instead, after all, who am I to fight the will of a good woman?

After that I suppose the dv53 will become my playback deck. And when my boys get older I will probably give it to them, along with the video bug it gave me.

MG

Hey Michael,
I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one of a couple around who has it. A guy named Alex has one too.
About that audio drop out, did it seem like it wasn't recorded at all or was just playback the problem?
Don't know if you caught it or not, but camcorderinfo.com posted some low light tests of cams under $800. Many people weren't able to see the results, they were so dark. I *was* able to and I compared the DV53 to about 16 other cams. I posted my results over at that site under the "$900 Cam" comparo. The 53 was the second least expensive cam in the test and did quite well.
You say you haven't noticed any focus hunting. What type of light have you shot in? Anything low light at all? If so, how'd the pics turn out? I've been too busy lately to mess with it much.
Regarding that "focus wheel", have you noticed that there's a lag in the focusing and that, when using it to scroll through the menu that sometimes you turn the wheel and nothing happens?

As far as the audio drop out goes, I think it may have been a play back problem, I haven't encountered it since.

For the most part the lighting I have had has been really good, by the time I started fooling with low light, I was using the manual focus zoom in trick- you know turn on the AF, zoom in let it lock and then switch to MF and zoom out.


that said, I shot a scene from my terrible, terrible short with a GL1 , in full day light (overcast on a bright day) and it went hunting on me twice in the same 15 second shot- I will never use AF again.

MG

I had the DV53 for a while and it seemed like a great camera. Unfortunately, it can't output stereo via the A/V cables. So I exchanged it for a cheapo JVC.

Yes, Yang, it's a mono mic. One interesting fact about this cam is that it's better in low light than some of the more costly 3CCD Pannys.

The manufacturer lux rating for the $325 DV53 is 5 LUX (1 X 1/4" CCD, 680,000 pixels).

The $800 PV-GS70 is 12 LUX (3 X 1/6" CCD, 460,000 pixels/each).

The $1200 AG-EZ50 and the $1250 PV-DV953 are both at 15 LUX (3 X 1/6" CCD, 800,000 pixels/each). It seems like: the more pixels, the worse the low-light reach.

I've actually seen the low light images of the DV53 compared to the GS-70. The 53 was noticably brighter and more colorful.

<<<-- Originally posted by Dave Largent : Yes, Wang, it's a mono mic.
-->>>

I assume that was a typo on my name?

The DV53 has better low-light mainly because it had a larger CCD chip.

Probably a typo (fixed). They're easy to make. I tend to agree with what Dave has concluded about the pixel count/low light. The older miniDV cams had either 1/4" or 1/3" CCDs with low pixel counts, and these cams were usually much better shooting in lower light. However, being older mini-DV cams, they lacked some features and had lower resolution---but then again, some of these had handy features not found in today's consumer miniDV cams.

I wanna get a wide angle for my 53. I have choice of two, both of which claim to be zoom through. One's a Canon 0.7X and the other's a Raynox 0.66X. Both about the same price. My concern with the Raynox is that one of its claimed "features" is that it resolves 350 lines at the center. Shouldn't that be more like 500+? And wouldn't it most likely resolve even less near the edges?

no, it's 350

And, Yang, regarding CCD size versus pixel count and the effect on low light, consider the following. The new Sony PC330 (1/3" CCD & 2,000,000 pixels) is rated at 7 LUX. The Sony TRV33 (1/5" CCD & 690,000 pixels) is also rated at 7 LUX. And the Sony TRV19 (1/4" CCD & 680,000 pixels) is rated at 5 LUX.

That make sense Dave,

It may not be exactly linear with number of pixels and the ccd size. I mean 1/3(bigger size) has lux 7 and 1/5 smaller size also has lux 7

So there is no direct mathematical formula regarding low light performance.

Yang,

What cheapo model of JVC did you get that has stereo outs? I have heard the JVCs suck, but I need to get a "deck" camera, so the cheaper, the better. Thanks.

Clay...

Sony Japan
PC300 15 lux
TRV80/70/50/33 15 lux
TRV22 11 lux

Sony US
PC330 7 lux
TRV80/70/33 7 lux
TRV22 5 lux

The language may be different but these cams should be identical in optics and CCD...probably programmed by the same engineers as well... Misinformation, BS, or plain marketing? "Rating conversion" seems to follow a simple formula though. Anybody working for Sony US?

I got the JVC GR-D30U. It's got SVideo OUT and stereo out. I'm using it as a playback deck for my DVX100. Interesting though is that the camera doesn't have a "REC" button on the body. But I can record to it through software. It doesn't come with a remote but there is a sensor on the front and I would think it will work with GRD70U remote. Since I've programmed my Universal remote to work with it. I hope the D70 remote's REC button will work with it. It works rather well as a playback deck, It supports the 24P flag. Oh BTW, this cam sucks sooo bad in low light. Much worser than my 1/4CCD Sony Digital 8 cam. when the light gets low, the image turns B&W and looks like an MPEG-1 video. the DV53 was not at all like this.

Wow! Just had to let you guys know. Being busy, I still haven't gotten to take much footage with the DV53. One of the main reasons I got this cam is that I plan to use it indoors a lot and I'm
well aware that most any of these lower-priced cams can take pictures okay outdoors during the day but indoors is a whole nother story. I saw from the tests over at camcorderinfo.com that this camera was better in low light than the others tested
(which included GS70, Optura 10 & 20, PC105, TRV250 & 350, TRV19, 33 & 39, ZR60 & 65, Elura 50, DV203 and others) and also was less expensive. I have the Sony TR101 with 1/3" CCD that hunts pretty bad in low light and Frank Granovski has a JVC with 1/3" CCD which he said is good in low light but hunts terribly in auto focus in low light and he added that the 1ccd cams are all that way. So I checked out the DV53 to see how bad it was by pointing it into dark corners of a room at night. This was a medium-sized room lit only by two 25 watt bulbs. This would be light that few would shoot in. Man! Put it this way: the DV53 is *disinclined* to hunt. And it was quick to lock on focus.
I have a VX2000 which as most know is good in low light. I didn't test side-by-side (though I plan to) and the DV53 seemed no more inclined to hunt than the VX! I said *seemed*. Like I said, I haven't done a direct comparison -- yet.

I can't recall exactly what I had said, but over the years I've noticed that most 1 chips do hunt around crazily in low light (while in auto mode). My DVL9500 cams are no exception. Yup. They're hunters. I also recall that some 1 chip cams didn't seem to do this. The TRV30 never did this, or so I did notice. Some of the other newer Sony mid-range and higher-end 1 chips also seemed okay in auto and low light. The best way to determine if the cam hunts is to try it. I guess that some cams have better sensors, while others are poor. My MX300 doesn't hunt, whereas I recall that the PV-DV601 hunted like hell---though I thought it was a pretty good cam for its day. Oh, and I should mention that I've noticed on several occasions that the XL1 is quite the hunter too. :)

P.S. Thanks, Frank, for the quick fix on the typo. I took a semester of typing in school and the best I could do was 23 words per minute with a lot of errors. My ma was a secretary and she could type 70+ with no errors.

I do have to chime in here on the thought of getting the *very cheapest* cam as a dub deck. The JVCs are not that good.
Canons in low light really tend to get grainy. If you are interested in getting a low-cost cam for home use, stick with either Sony or Pan. The TRV33 makes nice footage. Plan to put my DV53 through some low light hurdles soon. Wish I had a place to post the resultant footage for you all to see. I do have a website but I'm new so don't know exactly how to put it up. Would love to share. Perhaps when I know better. Initial thoughts after using this cam around home is: it rocks. If anyone is thinking about getting this cam let me know what type of test situations you'd like to see. Gotta say, if the captured footage looks as good as it seems on the flip-out screen ....

I'm a 2-finger man myself. I learned to type in high school, typed in university, but didn't go back to it until I got my 1st 386; and when I did get back to it, I discovered I couldn't remember how. :)

The TRV33 seemed like an okay cam for the buck. I played with one a few times side by side with the DV52 or 53 (can't recall). They both looked similar. with a similar price (locally), that I can recall.

Is "typing" still offered as a class in high school? Make more use of that than my 4 years of German my parents made me take. Can't recall the last time someone came up to me and started talking in German. For y'all in school yet (?Alex): What is typing class called now? Or is there no specific class for that? "Keyboarding"? Oh ya, about the DV53 ... Thinking of taking it with me tonight to the local pub to watch the Green Bay Packers play. Raining pretty good though. Want to try shooting at night. Have plans to get a wide angle and a telephoto for it but not an underwater housing.
Not really related here but can't resist passing this along. On another forum that I frequent, the subject came up of transferring
8mm film to digital. One person gave away their age by inquiring how the transfer is done. They wanted to know what type of connector the projector had on it to connect with the computer!
Had to laugh. Oh ya, about the DV 53 ...

First trouble I've encountered with the DV53. First, it's minorly annoying that the unit powers down after 5 minutes on "pause".
No stopping it. (Maybe if I left the tape door open, but haven't tried it.) You bring it out by turning it to "off" and than back to "camera". The bigger issue is this. Everytime it powers down it forgets the manual presets (which are set by use of the scroll menu) such as iris setting and white balance and it reverts to auto mode. Also, it goes out of manual focus mode and reverts to auto focus. Anyone know some 1CCD cams on the market that don't lose manual settings upon powering down. Can you
stop some from powering down? Are all the cams which have their settings done by menu this way?

Anyway, I had this project due in my humanities class. Normally everybody does a powerpoint presentation or a research paper. I decided to make a documentary style short.
I left myself plenty of time (4days) lined up my best friend to help me out. Wrote the script and shot list. About five minuntes before I'm going to leave for my buddy's place to get started, the stomach flu comes to my house. My two year old son starts throwing up first. My wife is next, then me and then our four month old son.
Oh yeah and the situation was further improved by freezing rain.

I managed to make the short anyway. I have a little bit of an obsessive cumpulsive problem when it comes to turning schoolwork in on time. I didn't want anyone else to get sick, so I shot it alone.

It was an experiance. Feverish delusion, coupled with heartbreaking desperation, can really add an enitirely new dimesnion to your work.I am amazed at what one motivated person with a cam and a tripod can accomplish.

The Dv53 performed fairly well throughout. Audio was a real problem, and I had to loop the dialouge in a couple of shots.

By far the coolest thing was when i got to class and found out the room had a digital projector! I have never seen anything of mine that large! It rocked!

The second coolest thing: There's this guy, Tim, in my class. We have had several classes together and he's a filmmaker- emphasis on FILM. He owns a sixteen mm but it's broken and he can't afford to get it fixed. He also thinks that a razor blade is an adequate NLE. Anyway he saw what I could do with my little consumer cam and imovie and was blown away. He asked all kinds of questions about my camera. Wanted to know where to buy one, and what to buy, and how much a mac would cost him ect... I have been talking to this guy for almost a year about DV and he just wouldn't listen. He's listening now.

Well that's my story.
What's yours?
MG

Found out that if the tape drawer is left open, the cam doesn't power down and holds it's manual settings. Unfortunately,
seeing as the tape is loaded by opening the LCD screen, if you
want to leave the tape drawer open the LCD screen will not close.
When the LCD screen is open it is illuminated and I've found that
powering the LCD screen takes about twice the battery juice as
compared to purely recording. With the tape drawer closed, the cam will record for 1 hour 50 minutes with the included battery.
If I leave the tape drawer open for 30 minutes to hold the manual setting, I can get 50 minutes of recording out of it. I suppose I could go into the menu and turn the LCD screen's illumination off.
Another thing I noticed is that, in manual, if you start setting
video gain-up (e.g. "open + 3dB", "open + 18dB") each "dB" is not
a single notched step. Rather, each dB setting has from 5 to 8 steps of lightening for more detailed adjustment. Therefore, if a person were shooting manual and using gain-up, if the cam powers down, in order to match your previous setting, you need to remember not only the gain setting, but also which "step" you
were at *within* each dB gain setting. Each *step* makes a noticable change in image brightness and degree of grain.
In auto exposure mode the max gain the cam will go to is "open + 15dB". I suppose this is done to keep image quality up. In manual you can go about 7 to 8 steps of +18dB above the auto limit. The cam also has a "low light" setting which brightens the
picture beyond the +18dB level. The low light settings aren't
elaborated on in the manual. It appears through casual observation that, rather than slowing the shutter speed from the
cam's apparent max of 1/60th, the low light mode adds gain
beyond the +18dB level.

First trouble I've encountered with the DV53. First, it's minorly annoying that the unit powers down after 5 minutes on "pause"Once you get into the manual, you will most likely come across that this cam will auto shut down. If you haven't noticed, your VCR will also do this, in fact, ALL consumer miniDV cams will do this. If you don't want the cam to shut down, then take the tape out of the cam.