Deck Necessary?
 

Hi to all again. Almost have the money saved up for my Xl2 purchase. Still reading and reading these boards. Question though, is an external deck really necessary to save the heads on the Xl2? Does it wear out that fast if using the camera itself to transfer my footage over to my Mac?
I find it hard to swallow spending 4k on a camera only to have to spend another say 1700.00 on a deck ( Sony DSR-11 ).
Any comments very appreciated. Maybe there is an alternative way to get the footage out of the camera and into FCP. VCR minidv adapters or something?

Hi Ron,

My own opinion is that as long as you're not planning to use the camera as a deck for twelve hours a day, seven days a week, then there's nothing wrong with it. After all that's what the VCR mode is for. I think you're safe as long as you're playing back only the tapes that were shot in that camera. I wouldn't use an XL2 as a deck for just any old DV cassette, though. If you need to play back other tapes or if you plan to do a lot of DV playback, consider a $350 Canon ZR100 DV camcorder and use it as a deck.

Ron

i guess it is not nessecary if you dont use it a lot. I was in the same situation recently and opted to buy one of the less expensive JVC MiniDV/VHS combo VCR's.

I dont like having to plug in cables all the time and having the XL-2 sitting on a desk tethered to my PC seemed like a fall waiting to happen.

The VCR can be hooked up all the time and i can also use it while the camera is in use.

dell has the ZR100 on sale right now for a price under $300, which is a very good price. i paid $319 for mine, and it is pretty good for capturing. also, i use it for home video, saving on my pricier camcorder's heads and i have some plans to use it as a bike/kayak/parasail cam. worth it.

I use an XM2 as a deck and as a seperate camera when necessary. This seems to work well and saves the heads on the more expensive XL2. Also you can loop a live feed from most NLE software via firewire and then through the XM2 to a monitor ( if your NLE does not have a seperate live output , such as Liquid Edition 6 ). I have never had a problem with this set up.

I recommend a deck
 

If you plan on doing a substantial amount of filming and editing - I recommend a deck. I myself have the Sony DSR-11 and love it!

The reason I got a deck is because I was burning out my heads in my camcorders by using them for editing. Plus, most camcorder heads can not shuttle like a professional deck can. After replacing a few sets of heads, I made the decision to go with a good quality deck - and I'm glad I did.

If your only planning on doing some minimal editing (and not a large number of tapes per month) - then I guess the camcorder would be fine for importing, but anything thing more - your in risk of having your heads die and early death.

Also, a deck will save you time in the editing room, simply because it can FF and rewind very quickly, and you can also shuttle frame-by-frame a lot easier.

Ryan

DV is DV so it doesn't matter... I have a DHR-1000 and just got a DSR-11 and love it but I am dealing with probably 1000+ tapes a year so it makes more sense...



ash =o)