A friend is coming over today to borrow my Panasonic AG-DVX100a. I bought it just at the time when more people were recording HD, but HD was still not especially widespread. Good camera, but eventually I’d like to get something more modern.
I know there are people who swear by Canon, Sony, Panasonic, and others. I’ve used a Canon XL-1, but I recall not caring for its controls. ISTM Canon’s big selling point was interchangeable lenses. I don’t really need that. Of course, that’s a really old camera. I like Sony for consumer electronics, but I can’t remember if I’ve actually used a prosumer camcorder. I do admit that I like my Panasonic with its 24p mode and Leica lens.
So you professional and quasi-professional shooters: Which brand and model do you like in an HD prosumer camcorder, and why? Please mention the cons as well as the pros, and if possible tell me what you like about competing models.
I loves me my Canon XH-A1, but it is comparatively old technology. If I were in the market today, I’d get something with dual SD card slots, because of the ubiquity of the medium and readers. 24 fps is totally unimportant to me, as are interchangeable lenses. XLR inputs and manual level controls are.
If I were in the market today, I’d probably buy a Canon XA10. They look like they did a severe pruning of their model line recently.
But one cam doesn’t fill all bills. The GoPro series (cheap at $250) is useful for athletic shots (on helmets, mounted on cars, etc.). Even if you trash it, you haven’t lost much.
I think one of my cams is a little brother of that model. It is missing the XLR inputs and handle, but I can get around the inputs with the Beachtek add-on gadget, 2 XLRs and one mini-phone, all with (passive) pots, mic/line switches and stereo/mono.
The Canon is really good for handheld shots for two reasons. First, it has an incredible dynamic stabilizer, and it is lightweight (compared to shoulder-mounts). I’ve done away with the tripod on some occasions where the Canon’s handheld mode is good enough and a tripod is a real hassle to carry around and set up.
OTOH, I really hate the touch screen and many functions cannot be changed without stopping the recording first. So it’s not the best for all occasions. It does record to dual SD cards, a plus.
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If I could afford it, I’d like the Panasonic AF-HPX250. It’s about $6K.
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I would have to rule that one out because of the P2 card thing. 32 gig SD Class 10 cards are cheap and ubiquitous and virtually every computer has a reader for them built in. I can’t see the speed and capacity advantage of the P2 format being worth the hassle.
I just bought a pair of them to supplement my regular cameras (1 Canon XH-A1, 3 Canon HFS-100s, 1 Canon HF-200) in my concert video business. The hardest part of my shoots is getting decent shots of the drums and keyboard. I recently edited and mixed footage shot by a crew from VEVO who had five Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLRs and three GoPro HD Hero 2s. Shocking how good these cheap little cameras looked.
You could be right. I haven’t looked at that cam much more, since I can’t afford it anyway!
Yes, the image is surprisingly good, but if you examine each frame or JPG, you can see that they sacrificed quality for high resolution. The JPG compression is extreme. I wish they hadn’t done that, or made it a user option. I would gladly sacrifice storage space for better image quality to allow enlargement.
Really? I can’t find my raw footage at the moment (it’s on an external drive), but looking at the 1080 version of my YouTube link, still frames look surprisingly good. The GoPros are positioned at the end of the keyboard, at the drummer from between the toms and at the other drummer from above.
Maybe I’m being too picky, but download this single frame and enlarge it in a graphic viewer (I used 450%). Zoom in to the sky, and I think you’ll see a lot of JPG junk.
It’s possible that different specs on the cam would improve the image. I don’t recall what they were on this one, but I don’t think it has a JPG compression level setting. This is 4K and 2592x1944 pixels. It was a time lapse series, not a video.
You can get by with video noise or JPG artifacts under some conditions that you can’t for stills, so my guess is they wanted to concentrate on motion and video at the expense of single frame quality.
Semi-professional. A prosumer camcorder is more capable than your $300 ‘home video’ camera, but has smaller chips and fewer professional attributes than a $10,000+ professional cameras. A prosumer camera is often used commercially or for independent productions, and typical ones cost around $5,000.
They’ll also usually have more manual controls to over-ride the automatic controls of consumer camcorders. For instance, my Canon XH-A1 has three rings around the lens that allow me to manually adjust focus, zoom and the iris. Also, most prosumer cameras have professional XLR audio inputs and manual controls for them.
If you’re just shooting your family picnic, a prosumer model would be massive overkill. But if you’re making a living with your camera, these models have what you need. For instance, my camera has a three position toggle switch on the side that allows me to switch the white balance settings between presets. So if you’re moving around between areas with different lighting, like from an area lit by florescent lights to one lit by high pressure sodium ones, pre-set the white balance to each area, then flip the switch. Same thing for a feature like a neutral density filter that you can flip on when you go out into sunlight.
