Great buy for someone in need of side loading camera
Written: Oct 02 '03 (Updated Oct 08 '03)
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Durability:
Movie Quality:
Pros: Portable, Affordable, Side Tape Loading lets you reload while still mounted on a tripod.
Cons: non-standard lens threads (27mm), camera auto-shuts down when tape is loaded.
The Bottom Line: Great price, Good image, Good controls. Amazing how small it is! Great for family vacations, sneaking into concerts (kidding!!) etc. Good for Motion Capture reference footage.
motioncapture's Full Review: Panasonic Palmcorder® PV-DV203 Mini DV Camcor...
I spent well over two days researching MiniDV cameras, and finally bought the PV-DV 203.
Since I operate an optical motion capture studio, I have very specific needs that others may not have. But I hope this info is some help for you!
My studio has lower light conditions, and additional lights can throw off my Mocap system
It handled this OK. There was a fair amount of grain, even after I did a manual white balance. I have read other cameras have even poorer low light capability.
It's built in light works well for close up subjects, but my subjects are about 14' to 30' away. They also tout a "MagicPix" format to enable "color recording even in low light." While this could potentially beat out other low light solutions, such as cameras with near infra-red emitters, This doesn't help in my motion capture studio. What it essentially does is lower the frame rate, and keeps the shutter open for longer periods of time. This can cause blurry images if the subject is moving, even somewhat slowly. I must admit, it looks really cool, and makes a very nice graphic effect. However, my clients need non-blurry images, so this doesn't work in my studio.
Combining this feature with manual gain settings enables you to get this artful look even during daylight. It's somewhat surreal. I believe this feature is also available on the Sony TRV-33. The TRV-33 has the advantage of also offering an infra red mode.
Firewire in/out
It has it, and it works well (I'm using the maximum length of 15'). I made sure to wrap the firewire cable on the tripod in such a way so it isn't pulling on the camera. I think this will reduce wear and tear on it.
I transferred a video that was professionally edited, from a Mac to a MiniDV tape on my camera with no problem. After years of being surrounded by professional equipment, I was astounded at how easy it was, and how great it looked. Remember, it is digital information on the DV tape, so there is NO loss of quality during a dub (unlike vhs and hi-8, or even betaCam tapes) Transferring video to my PC computer via Adobe Premiere worked well once I upgraded it from version 6 to version 6.2. I was able to capture directly from the camera or from a tape in the camera.
The quality of the mini-DV format
OK, the video footage that was transferred from Final Cut Pro was originally shot on a 3 CCD high end MiniDV camera. BUT, since I was using firewire to transfer, there was NO loss in quality at all.
So, how does my SINGLE CCD PV-DV203 compare? Indoor lower light situations look grainy, or blurry depending on how you set the camera up. Indoor with a fair amount of daylight look good, but they are not as clean, colorful or crisp as a 3CCD camera. But, this camera is less than 1/6 of a professional 3CCD camera, so it is still a great value.
My camera is mounted on a tripod all the time, so I need to be able to load tapes while it is still mounted
This need eliminated all of the Sony cameras in this price range. Otherwise, they look like great cameras.
Although I primarily use firewire (IEEE 1394) to transfer footage to my hard drive directly, I always like a back-up. Who knows, my hard might drive drop a couple of frames when it tries to record from the firewire, and that would throw off the synch of my mocap data and the video data. So I was glad to see that it loads from the side easily while still mounted on my tripod. BUT, when a tape is loaded, it will auto shut-down after 5 minutes even if I have the camera connected to the AC adapter. I found no way to over-ride this in the manual, so I called Panasonic (wait time of about 15 minutes) They said there is no way to keep the camera on idle for more than 5 minutes. (obviously, if you are recording, it will not shut down... but if you are fussing with the settings it will shut down on you if a tape is inserted... So play with the settings BEFORE putting in a tape) The good news is most if not all cameras in this price range have this "feature" which is designed to protect the tapes and camera from wear and tear. Also, once it is off, it turns on again very fast by moving the power switch to the off then on position.
4) Decent audio, even at long distances.
I bought this camera because it has a 'zoom microphone' option. So, when you zoom in on your scene, the mic focuses only on the things that are in frame. At any rate, the mic is decent for this size of camera and price range. The motor does not add a significant amount of noise to the audio track.
Well, that's it for my motion capture studio Digital Video camera needs. Please refer to briandalsmom's review for a much more complete review of this camera. She goes into a lot more details that I'm sure you'll want to know!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $480 Recommended for: Home and Families - Keep Memories of Family Vacations
Web Camera Function MPEG4 Movie Messenger? System Built-in SD Drive 680k pixel CCD with Mega Still? (1280 x 960 Interpolated) Digital Still Images ...More at Beach Camera.com
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