Camera choices

bw wrote on 10/6/2005, 4:57 PM
Have been asked to advise on either Panasonic NV-GS150 or JVC GZM-G50 for a friend.
He particularly likes the hard drive idea but are there any issues in editing this footage in Vegas?A previous thread intimated that it would. Is its format mpeg or what?
It seems also that the G50 doesnt have provision for an external mic???

TIA, Brian

Comments

filmy wrote on 10/6/2005, 9:33 PM
Mini-Dv is the format for the Pani - and FWIW I would go with the NV-GS400 if I had a choice.

As for the JVC - don't know that much about it but it seems to only allow for analog dub to tape (RCA/S-VHS connectors) or direct burning to a DVD via a computer and it sounds like all it is doing is recording an Mpg2 "DVD Quality" stream to the hard drive. I think that if all your friend is doing is home movies it might be ok, but if your friend is going to be shooting and editing and would need to send out the material to anyone this would not be the best option. But that is just my opinion.

if it is really MPG 2 than you can bring that into Vegas without any issue.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/7/2005, 9:11 AM
> Have been asked to advise on either Panasonic NV-GS150 or JVC GZM-G50 for a friend. He particularly likes the hard drive idea but are there any issues in editing this footage in Vegas?

Wow a $500 or a $1000 camera. That’s a big spread. I have a Panasonic GS200 and I’m very happy with it. I think I picked it up for around $700. The JVC GZM-G50 is out of the question if he wants to use Vegas. It records MPEG2 which is great for delivering on DVD but lousy (and lossy) for editing in Vegas. This is NOT a camera for people who want to edit their footage.

If we wants to say under $1000, I’d recommend the GS200 (or GS250 or whatever the new model is) It has a manual focus ring, you can connect an external mic (in fact I have a Beachtek on mine with XLR inputs). It’s a great little 3CCD camera that’s not too expensive.

> and FWIW I would go with the NV-GS400 if I had a choice.

Not me. The GS400 is $1400 and for $1700 you could get a Sony HDR-HC1 HDV camcorder and have HiDef! The only reason I can see to get the GS400 is if your absolutely required the manual controls that it offers. Since this friend is considering two point-and-shoot consumer cameras, he probably doesn’t need the manual control of the GS400. Like I said, for that price I feel that the Sony HDR-HC1 would be a better choice for the money. But that’s just me.

~jr
winrockpost wrote on 10/7/2005, 4:21 PM
.....................It records MPEG2 which is great for delivering on DVD but lousy (and lossy) for editing in Vegas. This is NOT a camera for people who want to edit their footage.


Excuse my ignorance but isn't HDV mpeg 2 ?
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/7/2005, 4:37 PM
> Excuse my ignorance but isn't HDV mpeg 2 ?

HDV uses MPEG2-TS (Transport Stream or M2T) which is still MPEG2 compression but at a much higher 13GB/hr bitrate (and much higher resolution) than DVD MPEG2. You can’t edit M2T on the Vegas timeline very well either because it suffers from the same GOP structure that makes frame-accurate editing very inefficient. That’s why people use CineForm or GearShift with HDV.

At the lower bitrates of the SD cameras, it looses quality from re-rendering whereas the higher bitrates of HDV hold up much better. So you are right to point out that my statement was too general. And as long as we are being specific, there is also an MPEG stream that is all I-Frames (no GOP or a GOP of 1) which is fine for editing just like AVI’s. Good question though.

~jr
winrockpost wrote on 10/7/2005, 4:42 PM
Thanks John. I am still a little confused with the whole HDV thing,,
I am still taking baby steps, but will be making the Canon plunge soon.

winrockpost wrote on 10/8/2005, 1:22 PM
Bump


Since i kinda hijacked it.
bw wrote on 10/9/2005, 6:46 PM
Interesting nevertheless, friend, son in law actually, went for Panasonic. Top pics, now I'm jealous.
Strangely both cams were same price at discount retail outlet here in OZ.
I still regard a camera purchase, even a sub $1k US as a major one but it's remarkable how little sales people at these places know about their product!
dmakogon wrote on 10/10/2005, 4:23 AM
Aside from DV vs. HDV, consider low light performance. I have the GS400 (and paid ~1100 through onecall) and I think the source quality is great, even with regular indoor lighting (I'm more of the home-movie type... I'm not a pro video guy). I've gone through several video cameras that have been much cheaper, but with smaller apertures and very grainy low light performance.

If I were considering the HD route, I'd look at some independent reviews in varying conditions.

My next vid cam purchase may be a while off... I'm waiting for a flash-storage DV-based vidcam (ruling out the JVCs) for under $2K. Christmas 2007?
trock wrote on 10/10/2005, 7:00 AM
The point about lower lighting conditions is a very good one. Looking at the same footage shot in good lighting outside conditions by a sub-$500 and a couple of thousand dollar camera, it can sometimes be difficult to tell a great deal of difference.

But when you go indoors or the lighting goes down, the difference in the quality of the footage can become very dramatic.