GS 400 vs GL2 color
 

This is a bit of an old thread, but I have to comment on some observations made by Neil:
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but having looked recently at the panasonic GS400, which comes in at under $1600-- the imaging and color of the of the GL2 just takes a back seat now. I cannot see why anyone would buy this camera in Summer of 2005 if image quality is the greatest concern.
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Well, I just bought a GL2 in the summer of 2005. For the $1,680 US I paid, it is an amazing camera. Especially after testing it against the PV GS 400. I shot with the GS 400 thoroughly last week, and it made my decision to buy the GL2 so easy. I own a Panasonic consumer 3 chip with Leica lens, and I love it for its size - a good bang for the price. But, in my opinion the GS 400 has the same sort of Panasonic video look as the lower-end Panasonic consumer models. No matter how I adjusted the manual settings in the GS 400, it had this very saturated, over-sharpened video quality, with colors that often just look electric and unnatural. It tends to shift towards a very bluish-green cast as well.

The GL2 test footage I have shot over the last couple of days has been quite impressive for a camera that has been out for a few years. I configured a custom preset with the color gain up, the sharpness down quite a bit, and I shoot in Frame mode - and that overly "video-look" goes away. The color accuracy and quality from the Canon GL2 lens to me just smokes the Panasonic PV GS400.

If I had around $1500 more, sure the DVX 100A would be great. But, that's a considerable price jump, and for that reason alone, an unfair comparision.

Do you all find the standard preset on the camera has to have the gain reduced on them all, mine brings out the greens very in-your-face and I always use the custom preset settings I fixed myself.
But the picture is great on them.
Paul

GL2 Years later
 

Well, the GL2 remains a very good camera, and a better camera in many respects than the GS400, which a friend of mine owns. I never did a one to one direct comparison- so maybe we'll heed your observations.

There are some newer features in the 400 that outshine the GL2, but other departments, the GL2 is better. If one is shooting standard video, that looks like video, I would be tempted to go with the 400 if I had the choice. If I was going to spend the extra money for the GL2, I would borrow money from my grandmother if I had to to get a DVX.

For normal video, and a compact camera, I recently acquired a Sony HL90- admittedly the ONLY Sony camera I would buy in this years model line up. It is an exceptionally fine camera with a huge chip and great detail and color, and you can actually intercut footage (with some reservation) from it and the DVX100-- this is saying a lot.

It has to be said that the GL2 IS less expensive than the DVX100, so if one is on a tighter budget, and one does not care about "film look" so much, but just needs a very good video camera, the GL2 works exceptionally well.

HOWEVER, if one does have that bit of extra money, and quality and flexibility is of great importance, as well as cinematic look, the two cameras are really at two distinct levels of performance, the DVX is a big big leap, and the DVX100 is clearly on another level- a better machine for more serious work- no doubt about it whatsoever.

I have used a GL-2 for about three years and have shot some excellent video with this camera. That said, the tape transport mechanism on my unit is now unreliable in the rewind mode. The camera "loses" the time code and then auto-stops. On one occasion it ate a DV tape while rewinding. If you are in the "Play" mode and use the rewind button there doesn't seem to be a problem, but from "Stop" and using the fast rewind is dangerous on my unit. Does anyone know the cost of having a new tape unit installed ? Also, I recently bought a DVX-100A and have been using it for about six months. I find manual focussing to be much easier on the DVX compared to the GL-2, and would already recommend the DVX to someone considering a new purchase.