After a couple of years Panasonic DVX100 (& other 3CCDs) Sony PC101 HC90, GL2, more..
 

I've now had my DVX100 for a couple of years. It continues to amaze me.
I am just finishing up a short feature "film" that I will be releasing on DVD, and everyone who sees this footage remarks how mind blowing good the quality is.

Just the other day I went into a local store and tried out the GL2, of which I once owned and sold for my DVX. Although its a bit less money than the DVX, and less quality of some performance can fairly be expected, this difference in quality was very apparent to me after using nothing but the DVX for a couple of years. The first thing I was reminded of was the lack of accuracy in color rendition. Of course the GL2 is good compaired to many cameras, but now its not even as good as the sub$1000 Panasonics 3CCD consumer cameras such as the GS200 and GS150.

The steady shot capabilities of the GL2 are clearly wonderful and is much better than these cheaper Panasonics when zoomed, as are many other features of the camera-- 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.

As for the DVX100 versus the DVX100A- not enough difference to warrant an upgrade if you've already got the original.

An absolutely fabulous camera.
Some pages I have devoted to DIY projects for this camera can be found here, including a very affordable .3X super wide angle lens for under $100 that works perfectly with no vignetting:
http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/DVXlens.html

A GL2 Wide angle lens for under $50
http://www.neilslade.com/lens.html (could be adapted for other cameras too!)

As for editing, I am now using Vegas 6 and DVD Architect 3, and couldn't imagine using anything else-- just amazing software. My setup allows me to burn 3 DVDs at 16X SIMULTANEOUSLY on my computer (3 Plextor DVD-RW drives). Instructions on how to do this available soon on my web site www.NeilSlade.com

I have used footage from a Sony PC101 intercut with the DVX previously, which says something amazing about this little camera. Alas, Sony has backpeddled in its model designs for the last couple of years. Recently the firewire- my stupid carelessness- broke on the PC101, and insurance required me to replace the camera with a new model as repair is too expensive (stupid, eh?) After much agonizing over camera selection from all available options, I chose the Sony HC90 as my second sub compact mini-cam. It is the cheapest Sony now made that will offer the same quality (and a little bit better) than the PC101, at the same size and weight. The discontinued PC109 and 105 would offer the same clarity and resolution, alas, Sony- as they love to do- removed some features from the HC90, 109- obviously to save production costs. The 109 imaging is exactly the same as the 101, but this camera lacks headphone and manual focus ring. This is progress??? So stupid. The HC90 also lacks these two things, but makes up for it with a little lighter weight, and better CCD resolution and fully manual light balance adjustment. I will miss my PC101 however, and chances are, I'll pick up another on ebay sometime. I did look at the Sony HC42, bleech....... not even the same class as the PC101, though Sony would want you to believe it from the 690K resolution figures-Totally misleading in regards to this camera's imaging quality.

I am a noob!
 

Hey all,

Im like a super noob here you could say, first post. But i will get straight to it.
I purchased a GL2 about, o, say a month and a half ago. I am hooked. I love the quality of the picture, and just everything about the camcorder.

I have a few questions for anyone who can help me.

1) I shoot outdoors, and i shoot Motocross. For those of you who dont know motocross, its where dirtbikes race around on laid out tracks, with jumps, dust, and all that cool stuff. I've been playing with the frame rate, and everytime i adjust it, the picture gets darker, which then i had to choose F8.0 and 0db settings to get the picture where i wanted it.

I really have no clue as to what F means or 0db. ive played with it and noticed that it changes the exposure it seems. just brightens up the picture. but ive also noticed that sometimes the auto focus likes to go crazy in this mode, where it would go in and out of focus sometimes.

I guess my real question is do anyone of you know any good settings that i should use for outdoor days where i have to use a high frame rate to capture the rider as he goes flying by me, without having him blurred.

I appreciate anyone who takes the time to answer my question.

O and here is a sample of what i threw together just yesterday:
http://www.tsrmxvideos.com/videos/portlandmxbuddy.wmv

The GL2 is a good 3CCD 1.3 megapixel still shot camera!

Ben-

quickly let me try to explain the fstop--shutter speed thing...

Exposure is controlled on the gl2 by these two variables --shutter and fstop (or aperture) and also by a built in ND (neutral Density filter). First off, for bright sunlight on the gl2 you should always have the neutral density turned on.

As you increase the shutter speed on the camera, you will need to decrease the "f-number" or fstop (or vice versa). Each full fstop ---F2, F2.8, F4, F5.6, F8, F11 varies the exposure by half (or double) from the adjacent fstop (f4 lets in 1/2 as much light as f2.8, f8 lets in twice as much as f11). Correspondingly the shutter speed does the same thing (halves the light) when you go from 1/60 to 1/125.

For the gl2, I like to keep the f-stop around f4 or f 5.6...which in full sunlight usually will require more neutral density (add on filter) or a polarizing filter (great to darken skys and control reflections. At f8 the gl2 will start to lose some sharpness(this might be the cause of the focus issue), and also makes your depth of field excessively deep....this shouldn't really be the cause of your focus issues (I think you are just shooting with a long lens accross many layers of action..like the begining of your film...which is challenging for autofocus systems in general). Try a circular polarizer to see if you can get your f stop around 4...I think you will see increased image quality, and perhaps a little less depth of field which will allow you to isolate the riders a little more. Play around with rotating the axis of the polarizer to richen up your colors.

Good luck.

Barry

Thanks a bunch Barry! I'll mess around with that and keep that in mind.

GS 400 vs GL2 color
 

This is a bit of an old thread, but I have to comment on some observations made by Neil:
___________________________________________________________
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.
____________________________________________________________

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.