I use a sony hvr-dr60 in combination with my xh-a1, as it's a Sony the battery usage is very good, i can shoot all day on one battery. And I don't have that "camera wrong recognized" thing that many HVR-MRC1K users have experienced, the dr60 has a switch to force it into the right mode. Been using it for almost 2 years now and been very satisfied with it.

Noa,

Tx for the info. This Sony unit doesn't seem to be available anymore?

The DR60 is already a few years old and from what I read it was never that popular because of its' high price, I also think dealers are preferring to sell newer technology like the HVR-MRC1K. In Europe though you can still get it easily, I bought mine 2 years ago for 1000 euro while I found dealers also selling at 1700 euro. Now I see the price has dropped everywhere with prizes around 1100 euro.

The only disadvantage it has is the slow startup time, it takes about 12-14 seconds before it's recording ready but I hardly found that an issue on my shoots, big advantage is also if I run out of tape I can still continue recording to the DR60 without any stops and even though it is a fat32 system longer files are stitched together with a free software util sony provides and without any framedrops.

Thanks Noa,

The unit doesn't seem to be available here in the states.

Hey guys,

In answering the other Roger's questions about the DN-60, you answered most of mine too. One thing left, how about batteries and battery life. Any problems with running out of juice on a long shoot with a 32G card?

Any other gotcha's I should be concerned about? I'm shooting seminars and they usually fit on an 80 minute tape, but not always. Would be great to have the longer recording times from a 32G card.

i get 4+ hours with eneloop rechargeables, about the same with energizer rechargeables; i think they are 2300mAh

Lots of good info here.

I'm usually the first to jump on the newest and latest technology...

In the case of the DN-60 though, I think I'd like to know many or most of the bugs are worked out with the DN-60, Adobe Primiere(latest version) and the XH A1 in combo.

I'm going to talk to a few more folks but I'm thinking the DN-60 is as there for me as any of the newer technologies I've worked with.

If there are other thoughts, I'd love to hear them before I pull the trigger.

Tx

Follow up:

I spoke with folks at Datavideo and they said the DN-60's that have shipped within the last 30 days have the newest firmware.

I also spoke with a reseller and they think that the DN-60 shows promise but was too new to evaluate for them.

That said, that retailer said that they had more experience with and liked the Focus Enhancements FS-H200.

Re: XH A1 recording to compact flash...a how to?
 

Might sound like a silly question but, if I have a Canon XH-A1 NTSC model, can I use the DN-60 to record in PAL framerates 25p/50i? Guess I'm asking if the DN-60 will do the conversion for me or is it dependent on the camcorder's original recording mode?

It costs about S$800 to convert XH-A1 NTSC to PAL as quoted by Canon here and I'm looking for ways to avoid that. I bought a used NTSC XH-A1 since the price was decent, but if I have to fork out additional S$800 to shoot PAL, it makes the deal really bitter.

Re: XH A1 recording to compact flash...a how to?
 

The DN-60 will only record the format you feed it. You'll need to upgrade the XH-A1 to PAL to output PAL to the DN-60.

From the DN-60 manual:
Set the Signal Type
Select between DV+DVC 60Hz, DV+DVC 50Hz or HDV 50/60Hz. If the standard chosen is DV+DVC 60Hz, then the NTSC IRE LEVEL is dictated by the source equipment or camera.

Re: XH A1 recording to compact flash...a how to?
 

Bummer.

What do you guys think? Should I spend that extra S$800 for a PAL upgrade to XH-A1 or use that money towards a new camera, 60D / 600D?

Thanks for the info by the way, Ken.