( 5 reviews )
-
Posted: 10-29-2008
I bought this camera (almost) when it first came out a few years ago. I paid 5 grand for it on amazon and now that it has dropped to 3500, you should definitely buy it. Like all the other reviews state, it's an incredibly great camera. It shoots native 720p HD and in 24 fps so it's great for up and coming young filmmakers that want to produce movies that "look" like film. The lens is amazing and probably the reason why you should get this camera. The zoom ring is smooth and can zoom in and out much much quicker than most other cameras as well as focus quicker. It's really filmmaker friendly in that sense and you can detach the lens if you wanted to sub it with another. the picture quality is almost exactly that of film (depending on how you set it) as well. The only negatives would be that I wished that the camera would also display the f-stop reading on the monitor but they seem to be different elements unlike cameras built by Canon and Panasonic. Also, it doesn't do so well in low light so make sure you are in a well lit area especially if you set the gamma settings for film-like output. Overall, 5 stars for me. The positives totally out-weigh the negatives. Just get it now.
-
Posted: 06-16-2008
I bought one of these for an indie film that I am working on. I bought it one month early so that I would have enough time to learn everything about it. At the end of the month the right side of the screen started appearing a shade darker than the left side when viewing on an external monitor / TV (recorded to tape). I returned it to amazon and purchased a second camera... which also had the same defect (only this time it was much worse and visible on the LCD display). I spoke with a friend of mine who had the same camera and he had the same problem after his warranty had expired which cost him $1800 to fix. After the warranty for that work had expired it started doing the exact same thing again and now he doesn't even use that camera. Needless to say, I did not purchase a third camera but bought a Sony HVR-Z7U instead. It's a little more expensive but well worth the money. I noticed a significant increase in picture quality right away and it has many other features that I like much more. Recording direct to compact flash cuts my editing time in half. I really wanted this camera to work because it has some pretty great features for the price, but it wasn't worth the hassle for me.
