Opinion on the Jvc hdgy200u?Is this a good camera and r there any suggestions for a camera in that price range

Question

I'm looking for a professional grade camera. I'm looking for one around the 4 to 5 thousand dollar range and am thinking about the jvc. I'd love to hear from any owners of this camera or any jvc hdgy 100 series owners. Also if anyone can give me suggestions on any other kind of camera in this price range. Thanks!

Answer 1

Wow, great budget! The JVC GY-HD200U is one of my fave cameras, and despite talk otherwise, JVC makes a lot of excellent models in that price range. The HD110U, the predecessor of the HD200U, was used on several indie movies. I've read that it was used on the film "Gabriel" which was released internationally. The HD200U has excellent picture quality, a true 24p mode, and can record in 60p (60fps progressive) in 720HD. It also has an interchangeable lens mounts, which is very useful, if you are willing to buy thousands of dollars in lenses, of course.

One thing that turns people away from the HD200U is that it does NOT record in 1080HD. 1080HD is the highest resolution HD format, and the HD200U and HD110U do NOT have it. Instead, they only have a 720HD mode, which doesn't have as many pixels. It's 720p mode is excellent though, and still great HD picture quality. If this is a problem for you, you could get the newer model, the HD200UB, which is about $5,800 though. It has a 1080i and 720p mode.

Other great cameras in your price range:

(1) RED Scarlet  $3,000

(2) Panasonic HVX200A  ($5,200)

The HVX200A has a bit better picture than the HD200U due to the lower compression ratio with P2 card format. It also has a true 24p mode, and 1080i as well as 720p modes. The HVX does not have interchangeable lenses though.

Next, is the RED Scarlet, which may be THE best camera under $17,000. It's also one of the cheapest. How is this possible? Well, I don't know, but RED has been known to do some revolutionary things. The biggest feature is its ability to record in 3K RAW, a technology pioneered by RED similar to RAW shooting modes on photo cameras, but on a video camera. 3K RAW is the least compressed format you'll ever find on a camera. Now, 3K isn't HD. In fact, it's better than HD. Remember when I said 1080 was the highest resolution for HD? Well, I lied. 1080HD at its highest is 1920x1080, which is about 2 Megapixels. Now the RED Scarlet will shoot in about 3,000x1700 (just an estimate), which is about 6 Megapixels! That's called Ultra High Definition.

Scarlet will also shoot up to 120 frames per second! The most any other camera can do is 60. Scarlet also has a 2/3" CMOS sensor, not seen on any other camera under $10,000, giving you a much nicer, narrower DOF.

The only problem with Scarlet in is post production. Being a new Codec, it'll take some learning (It's nothing like miniDV). It will also require a powerful computer (like a Mac Pro) and a powerful editing system (Final Cut Studio, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro). You'll probably want a nice External Hard Drive with RAID protection too. Still 3K for under $3K is pretty amazing.  

The worst thing of all about Scarlet? You have to wait 'til 2009 to get your hands on it....it's not available yet.

Hope that helps. Good luck!!! I'm sure you'll be happy with whatever camera you get. You can't go wrong with the HD200U!