I am planning on taping a dance competition in February using my JVC DV300 camcorder. I would like to use two cameras and edit the two tapes for a more professional looking production.

My concern is finding a second camcorder that will match the JVC DV300 in terms of color, brightness, contrast, and overall picture quality. Am I limited to using another DV300, or are there other cameras that will provide a good match to mine. I would like to find a used camera at a low price.

I saw a DV300 on Ebay with the bid at $460. The bidding has since been closed, and I don't know what it actually sold for. The $460 was about 1 hour before the close.

I would like to find a used camcorder around $500 that would work well with my existing camera. I know the color on different makes can vary. Sony tends to have a cooler look than JVC. I don't know about Canon and Panasonic.

Kent McVety

The camera is hard to match for under $1500, which you could probably find a used one for.

But If I had to reccomend something it would be a used GL-1 sometimes going for $900.

Match is good in good lighting situations other than the GL would need to be bumped up 1 notch in sharpness (no more)The sharpness is not the save as JVC's detail feature. - and saturation pulled back in post to match JVC. Not to big a deal.

by the way in almost all cases I use the JVC without the color matrix feature as it is more true

In bad lighting (theather), the JVC is amazing! the GL is horrible at least far away stuff, weddings not to bad

GL is the best under $2000 other than a JVC.

To match in theather lighting - use the same as an outside shoot, but you will need to do post color correction in editing on the GL and can come close but still will not have the range in detail of JVC. Gets better if you fill the frame with a subject but forget wide shots to look the same. Which you do alot of unless you are taping just one child/actor

maybe you can find a GL for $700

or the Elura for $400-500 not as good as GL but better than any $400-$700 sony. Let me just say that a Elura is good but if you can pay $300 more for a GL... know that it is 3X better in picture. 2X better outside, but the whole game changes when inside were you will be

Elura is 1CCD you will see a big difference inside! so I would only reccomend as a backup 3rd cam or something

I still feel the JVC is the best sub $2000 cam I have ever seen

hope this helps

Kyle

Thank you for the information. I may have to consider the GL1 if I can't find a used JVC at a good price.

Kent McVety

This question is for you.
Or someone wh can answer...
Do you know if there is any minidv SD videocamera(around 1000-2000) which video quality could match o be closer to the new under 2000 dollars high def videocameras?
I`ve heard somewhere that there is a sd videocamera which quality surpasses or is so good like those high def videocameras.

If you know of a standard definition camcorder that is as good as a high def, I would like to know about it. I don't know of any SD that performs like an HD.

Kent McVety

No, yes, well: In dvxuser.com some user said that SD digibeta, or something like that, has so good image quality that rivals with some HD camcorder (around 1500 price). Of course, this might sound funny, but maybe it`s true.
I don`t know, but I read it.

did the site you read mean there are a few SD digibeta camcorders that come close to the HD $15,000 cams. Do you mean $15,000 not $1500. I think alot of cameras including the DV300 will beat out the consumer $700-1500 HD cams. Digibeta is in a whole new price league. That's got to be a mis-print right?

...personal note.....the best picture I have seen under $1800 is a dv300 with the sharpness all the way up. If you set this cam up right it is so sharp that it looks very close to HD on a good TV (I say close, not the same-and depends on HD source - certainly could be matched well with a HD downsampled to SD). Also play some sharp footage with this cam through an upscale DVD player and you will be impressed. Sharpness of course is a personal taste.

And true HD is just that ....but at a price.....Quality 3CCD HD is still very far out of reach of the $1200-$1800 cam users...at least for now