I'm finally thinking about moving from my existing pair of min-DV camcorders (XL1s and TR950) to a DVCam PD170 or 250. waddaya think - and comments welcome.

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DVcam is the same as mini DV.

Huh?

Yep, the quality of DVCam, DVCPro25 and Mini DV are all the same, the only difference is that the tape travels faster and the "tracks" are a bit wider to lessen the chance of drop-out. Quality-wise all the sytems are identical. (DVCPro50 is an improvement on mini-dv)

The PD170 is now quite old-fashioned and the current trend is to get HDV camcorders. Apparently the Z1 in SD mode is still better than the PD170.

I'm not a fan of the 250 at all. It is a shoulder-cam but the lens is the same as that on the PD150 but with a bit of flash plastic around it. If you want a shoulder-camcorder I would suggest that you look at the "pro" JVC GY-DV range before splashing out on a Sony 250.

http://www.planetdv.net/Content/By_M...Camcorders.asp

They are coming up on ebay now that a lot of wedding videographers are moving to HDV.

Personally, I wouldn't go for the Sony PD lot. I would either go for the HDV or (If you're only going to need SD and would like an impressive looking shoulder-cam) the JVC GY-DV range. Having use the PD170 a lot, I'm not at all a fan and think it's quite over-rated. In the same way, I find the Sony "pro" DVcam shoulder-cams are overpriced compared to the JVC and Panasonic competition.

Thanks, Rob; I know about the formats thing, but am essentially after getting more control over the sound recording aspects, which is where I suffer most in production. A large part of what worries me is that I now seem to be getting a lot of interest from smaller-budget broadcasters alongside the Caravan Channel series of half-hour shows on Sky 181, and these like the style and visual content of what I do, but have problems with sound, which my analysis indicates is more about what I'm recording than what I'm getting out of the edit.

I'd been meaning to write to you about this aspect anyway, as in the Sock - what's the best way of putting together on-location sound on a very mean budget? Essentially, I presently need to take in a couple of mikes and spread them as mono over the two tracks . . . for camera reasons with the XL1s, I just need to result in two mixed channels!

Ta in anticipation!

(pm follows)!

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I try to make someone happy every day - but it may not be your turn today . . .