JVC VS Canon « Videomaker Community Forums

TheLukaMan
Member

I am a television student, and looking to buy my first prosumer style camera with 3CCDs. Because I am a college kid I dont have much money, A buddy of mine is selling his Canon XL 1 for $1500. Which is a good deal, but its not HD, and I know theses days everything is going to be in HD. But I really want the new JVC HD Gy 250, those are about 10,000, very expensive. Do you think it would be better for me to save for the JVC, or just buy the Canon, or are there other quality HD cameras out there that are more in my price range?

Posted 5 years ago #
Ken
Member

Luka,
A lot of people are struggling with that question right now. Remember, if you're going to do HD, you'll need a powerful computer for the post production. Of course, you could get an HDV camcorder and just shoot SD for now, switching to HD in a year or 2.

Having been a Television and Film student (many years ago), I understand you want to get a good professional unit as soon as you can. I suspect the best course of action at this time would be to shop for a "make-do" HD camcorder. Then in a couple years get your "dream" camcorder, and use the other as a backup camcorder. After all, in a couple years there may be an even better "dream" camcorder. ;-)

If I were to jump into HD right now, and get a "make-do" HD camcorder, I'd be taking a hard look at the Sony HVR-AU1, or for a smaller budget, the Canon HV20. Or if you're willing to gamble on a used camcorder, something like a Sony FX1 or JVC GY-HD100U.

Hope this helped, :)
Ken Hull

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Ken has a lot of experience and has given plenty of excellent advice on these boards. I'm sure the above advice is also good - however...

HD is not here. Not yet, not today, not next month. At least, not to the degree that you probably need to be concerned with. The XL1 is an excellent camera. Being able to buy from a friend, means you know the history of the camera and can buy in relative confidence.

Rather than getting an inferior HD camera and not being able to do much with it due to the higher costs of computer, software and delivery, I would think the XL-1 would be a great deal for you. After all, you could even shoot some event gigs for pay to help you earn the next camera.

Might it be a good idea to grab this deal and start doing a ton of shooting?

Posted 5 years ago #
mmontgomery
Inactive

Just to cover all angles here, have you considered renting as a solution? You may be able to save a lot of money or spend it elsewhere (e.g., lights). Also, as a student, I went down the middle ($450 each--Sony D8, 1999) on my first camcorder with a good friend. I know what you thinking, that decision could end up really ugly. It worked for us over four years until I decided to buy a higher end camcorder that fit my needs better. I wouldn't suggest this strategy for everyone, you've got to have a trust worthy friend and a commitment of several years of sharing and caring for equipment. I think camcorders are easy enough to share as far as video equipment goes-- their not always in use and their fairly portable.

Mark

Posted 5 years ago #
Ken
Member

compusolver Wrote:
After all, you could even shoot some event gigs for pay to help you earn the next camera.

Well Luka, I guess I should have asked what you planned to do with the XL-1. :-// If you would use to to make money doing event videography (or local TV commercials?) then yeah, go for it. It has pro features and would look very impressive to your clients. :D

But if you just want to get the feel of a pro camcorder, and maybe try a few HD experiments, the Sony HVR-AU1 would let you do that. Otherwise, it's a loooong wait saving up money for the JVC GY-HD250.

Just my 3 cents worth, :)
Ken Hull

Posted 5 years ago #
TheLukaMan
Member

My father is a Wedding Minister, and me and 2 other kids from school were thinking about shooting weddings for real cheap this summer for a few reasons, Practice/extra cash/its fun...So you still say get the XL-1 and use the revenues from that to upgrade?

Posted 5 years ago #
TheLukaMan
Member

I am not worried about the powerful computer part....My brother is a computer programing major (wants to do video games) him and I build my PC for video editing....

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

I do not recommend doing weddings unless you are using 1-Lux cameras (note I used the plural version of "camera"), have multiple wireless lav mics, good tripods and other gear and intend to stay in the business.

A wedding is a once in a lifetime (hopefully) event and it's a tremendous responsibility to produce someone's wedding video. You should apprentice under an experienced videographer or take a course, then do several free weddings before you go "pro".

You could shoot rodeos, car races, festivals, etc. and sell orders for the videos while shooting the events. In a worst-case scenario, you only have to refund and no one has lost anything.

Posted 5 years ago #
TheLukaMan
Member

yeah, after I posted our wedding idea, I went to they production tips forum, and was looking at weddings, and did not realise how much work really gos into it.

Posted 5 years ago #
nader3890
Member

I guess I have a question on the computer part of this. Two of my friends and I are going to buy a Canon XL-H1 soon and I was just wondering if a brand new MacBook Pro could handle the high def.? This is not going to be our main editing computer but I would just like to know if I could do some of the editing. The rest of it will be done in the studio.

Thanks for the help,
Nate

O and to Luka, I would be very careful with weddings. We were thinking about doing some of them this summer with a couple GL2's but we are going to wait until we are seniors to do it (2 years :D) . I think you should really practice a lot and do your first few for really cheap. Then you can really start making the big bucks! ;)

Posted 5 years ago #
pigeo000
Member

the only thing with the h1 stuff is gonna be your hard drive space so i would suggest an external of coarse and for hd stuff you should have two gigs of memory. Of coarse it wont perform as well as a work station but with those two things basic editing should be easy enough.

Posted 5 years ago #