Need new camcorder

S

scottfs

My venerable Canon GL-2 is not working well, and Canon wants $1,000 to fix it. I've decided to upgrade rather than fix it, because they will only replace the main board, and I'll still have a used camcorder.

My budget is about $3500. I'm thinking of switching to a tapeless format, but I want the best quality video I can get.

I'm not interested in a DSLR. I shoot corporate videos among other things, and these guys get a tingle when they see lots of sheetmetal, glass, and plastic. They don't when I show up with a consumer camcorder or a DSLR.

The P2 Panasonic cameras are appealing, but $800 for a 64 gig card is awfully steep. Any ideas?
 
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Not saying you should do this, but just tossing it out there as a possibility. There have been a few people on this forum who've tricked out their DSLR, for the sole purpose of making it look like a fancy video camera. A matte-box, an external monitor, and a mounted shotgun mic should grab people's attention the way you want.
 
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I kind of like the Sony Z1 or, more ideally, the Sony EX3.

I have literally no idea what they cost, but I suspect that the EX3 at least will be too expensive. Used Z1s? Not so sure.
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Not saying you should do this, but just tossing it out there as a possibility. There have been a few people on this forum who've tricked out their DSLR, for the sole purpose of making it look like a fancy video camera. A matte-box, an external monitor, and a mounted shotgun mic should grab people's attention the way you want.
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That was what I was going to say.

Go nuts on your rig, and it will be ust as impresing (or more impressing) that a camcorder.
 
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But then again you'll end up spending so much money pimping your DSLR that you might as well just go for one of the other options in the first place.

The biggest advantage of DSLRs is their price, at a certain point you've got to decide whether spending a bunch accesorizing a very good but ultimately cheap camera is worth it...
 
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Concerns about DSLR

I have a friend who shot his short film on a 7D. He had it configured to show on the big screen.

The quality was poor! There were lots of artifacts, weird colors, and so on. I don't know what went wrong, but it was terrible. The close-ups of the actors were OK, but the sky in the background was so off-putting as to make the film almost unwatchable.

That's the other reason I want to get a traditional camcorder.
 
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Tricking out

one of the topics here is making a small camera look bigger. I have a story about this.

When I went out shooting my first feature, we were going a lot of places with no clearance. When we started out, we were shooting with small, unmodified Cannon cameras. People seemed annoyed and threatened by our prescence, and many shots ended with a security guard or landowner chasing us off with a broom.

As the project evolved, we were able to get longer lenses, a matte box, arm extensions, etc. Our cameras started to look a lot bigger, similar to the one in the picture above.

The bigger our cameras got, the less resistance we encountered. By the time the camera was 3x as big as it started out, people started taking us seriously by default.

I think basically that when you have a small DSLR and your are walking around filming with it, street reaction is somewhere between "peeping tom" and "corporate spy" (god people are paranoid) One lady cought me filming in front of her clothing store and thought I was trying to steal her fashion designs.

Once I geared up, a much higher percentage of people reacted positively, and with respect instead of suspicion. When they see a still camera they think "paparatzi" and when they see a movie camera they think filmmaker.

sorry for the sidetrack
 
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Thanks for the advice!

Another reason not to go the DSLR route is that I also shoot a lot of interviews. I worked on a film over the summer where the DP had a 7d. The stills looked fantastic, and the film turned out with a great look (a lot of creativity on his part). But we had to stop often, as the chip overheated. Admittedly, it was an outdoor shoot and it was warm, but I just don't want to have any such problems. I also shoot a lot of concert footage.

I've been shopping for a camcorder, and I've decided I like the Panasonic HVX 200, although the JVC-HM100 looks good as well, and is a bit cheaper. B&H has the 200 at $3300 after rebates. However, I would also have to spring for a P2 card.
 
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