Great ideas here with all of this. Personally the HVX gets a lot of good looks and a lot of attention. People calling it pro.. more so than I got with my XL1 even back then. The Matte box and rods and all that are a nice touch.


The other MAJOR thing that I would recommend would be a nice HD monitor. Tha'ts how I justified the small form factor by just point at the image it produces and say.. look at that. The LCD just doesn't do the footage justice at ALL... A good image that a client can see ifs a big one..


As far as also having a pelican case.. that does bolster the ego and looks all pro.. But so darn not functional. WHen I had my HVX in one... one that I still own and don't use much except if it gets shipped... well it just stayed in that. Keeping it in the pelican case keeps it all wrapped up and becomes a chore to carry and lug around. Now my backpack.. that's an easy load and comfortable.. and it also doesn't SCREAM expensive gear inside like a pelican case does.. or even a portabrace case does, for that matter. Go for functionality, and a backpack is awesome and the cam comes with me a lot. In a pelican.. I'd be knocking people flying ..

My work speaks for itself and I always BUDGET a camera even if I own it. Even if I am doing a $20K commercial, there will be a line for a camera ($200 per day for XL2 kit, $500 for HVX kit, $1000 for Vari Kit, etc.) This ends all confusion as I give the client OPTIONS for what camera they want. If you have to screw on a matte box to stay out of trouble you have not managed the clients expectations properly and this is THE biggest mistake I see from freelancers and small production houses.



ash =o)

Good point Ash!
I simply would do both: accurate info for the client on what to expect for the pricetag AND some pimping.
Especially with smaller projects: the client won´t know the difference between DV and DigiBeta, but he will feel more secure if he sees a "big" camera , sth he doesn´t see at RadioShack.
Hehehe - I guess its the old Siegmund Freud thing, big camera, big ...

I still shoot some live events on my old XL1's when I don't need HD. Other events I shoot on the HVX200 with a matte box. I get about 5x as many requests for business cards when using the XL1.


Take that for what it is worth.

quite a range of answers here. Let me throw this question out there as well....

Again, keeping in mind that I am "interested" in buying one of these, I am hoping that I can rent the camera out to help subsidize the cost.

What is a typical day rate for these cameras?

I noticed a "brand new and upcoming" rental house here in Vancouver renting it out for $250.00 and that sort of ticked me off.

Your thoughts?

I'd say $250 is a little high, but they can get that now because it's pretty new.

$250 with no P2 cards is pretty standard... remember the rental places charge you for everything...


ash =o)

Mattebox Bling
 

Just to add to this bling bling thing, 16x9 is selling a nice little cover for the front of your mattebox. A little extra protection, nice little bling. Don't know if it only fits on the Chrosziel or if it fits on others.

HVX Rental
 

The prevailing rate here for an HVX with four 4GB P2 cards is $300+ a day.
Hope that helps.

Professional Video and Tape in Portland quoted me $300/day for the HVX alone. $450 with the kit, including P2 cards and P2 store.

Ouch!

I assume that means no sticks or heads?

Probably not. As they say, "if you have to ask, you can't afford it." After hearing $450 a day, I stopped asking questions...

That's way overpriced for that camera--probably because it's still new and fairly rare. The rates will come down and be in line with everything else in a few months, I bet.