I wonder if the cam's firmware needs to be replaced. Remember the MX300's firmware glitch? Pana came out with a new update, and then another new one to update that. Oh, Vey. :-((

Firmware? I'm not familiar with that. Is this driver related or something? Can I download it, or do I have to contact Panasonic?

You have to contact Panasonic and get them to do it.

Thought some of you might like to take a look at my no-budget red neck case for my dv852.

It is from my Montgomery ward full size vhs camcorder I bought in 1991.

I figured the hard plastic would protect it a little better than a cloth bag, plus I had it laying around.

A little foam and tada!

http://www.geocities.com/freakyfamil...ts/shorts.html

Thanks, Adam!

I've got a Lowepro Vidcam 2, with extra foam inside which I use when I just want to carry around my camcorder or SLR---works great. If the bag drops, it just bounces! I'm not kidding. The trick is with the 1" packaging foam inside. For all other times, when I have to work (oops, there's that 4-letter word again), I use my handy Lowepro Nova 5 bag---she's a beaut! :-))

Now thats a zero budget case!

If you can move your budget up to $20 then head to your local hardware meagstore (Home Depot, Lowes, etc..) and pick up this aluminum hard case with customizeable interior.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-12/74415/Case1.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-12/74415/Case3.jpg

Here is what my case looked like when I customized it for my old cams (MX1000 and Sony F717).

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...Cam%20Case.jpg

These days I'm using the Lowepro Micro Trekker 200 backpack (from B&H of course) which is enough room for my D-SLR, Black Mamba, and all the gear for each (including a full size flash).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=199518&is=REG

Tommy, thanks for the links. I really like the looks of the aluminum cases, and they're very inexpensive to boot!

I wanted to let everyone know that I solved the problem I've been having. I installed my capture card in my parents computer and captured some video and it looked perfect. So at least I know that my Panasonic is innocent! Now I just need to figure out what to do to my computer to straighten things out.

I did stumble across a web site linked off of the home built stabilizer page, that mentioned a problem someone had with a 1GHZ AMD Athlon with via133 chipset. Which just happens to be exactly what I have. There were some remedies to try, so I will look into that next.

New dv852 owner
 

Thanks to all the info gleaned from this forum, I decided to try to find an 852 to purchase. It's my first digital video cam ( I shoot digital stills with a Fuji 602Z) and I got one off Ebay for $499. Looks like it was a Frys returned unit, but so far it checks out aok...with what limited checking I could do this evening. Of course I was caught without a tape and since I declined to pay $25 for a 3 pack at CC, I'll pick up some tapes tomorrow at Pro-Tape (I believe they are a sponsor)... for a more reasonable price I trust.

First project will be some oral family history work with my 87 year old mom. I'm still not sure what mic setup to get for that and my head is spinning from all the info in these forums.

Thanks again to all who post here for such a great resource!

Tommy G. Kendrick
Round Rock, Texas

The mic on board the 852 should be good enough to give you clear sounds of your grandma talking if she speaks clearly and within 1 meter of the camera.

Use a tripod or place the cam on a table to make sure that you don't get shaky footage of the interview.

For long interviews, plug in the AV.

Lastly, I am also a S602 user! I owned the MX8 (PAL of the 852) before changing to the MX350.

Happy shooting.

DV852 and Final Cut Express?
 

Hi Folks -

I was curious if anyone who owns (or has owned) a DV852 has used it with Final Cut Express (the more affordable version of Final Cut Pro). The list of approved devices on Apple's website does not include the DV852 (nor the DV953 for that matter).

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/qualification.html

Is their list just not up to date? Will my PowerBook recognize the DV852 and will the program work when I hook it up via firewire? Thanks for any tips, stories, etc.

I assume it will, as my DV852 does work with iMovie and the list of devices for that is the same as Final Cut Express...