If possible, try another DV on the same PC& firewire, just to make sure if prob is on the DV or the card.

I can't speak out of my experience to root cause, bcoz so far I only used 2 sony & 1 pana. Though the pana firewire port did spoiled after a few years while the sony still works. This can be an individual case, just for reference.

If the cd didn't come with the driver, check with the website. Some old model camcorder cannot be detect by winxp. I ve this problem before on my friend JVC camcorder. I get the driver from website and install. Than my adobe premiere can detect the camcorder. The premiere have some camcorder selection in the preference if the winxp cannot detect your camcorder model.
One more is, install those software to your pc. Maybe it bundle together with the driver.

C-Fu, where can i get the semi pro camera yah? below rm8K like that.

I think $20k cameras are semi pro

Honestly dude, I have absolutely no idea about sub $20k cameras, save for some outstanding ones. not sombong or anything ok I dunno how much is a sony pd-150, but if you can get that one then great!

With a budget of 8k, I'd say get a 5-6k camera, and 2-3k worth of capture card + software (like pinnacle ones, although I personally would never touch pinnacle cards la hehe), batteries, tapes, LIGHTS, and those cone-shaped long mike. With a good bag please

then you can call yourself semi-pro heheh

If i want to make a high end movie ofcourse la i will buy 20K ++ cameras..

i think i want to buy this Panasonic AG-DVC30 camera..for a short film and advertising use.

The AG-DVC30 like you mentioned is a good choice. I have the color brochure of this specific model in my hands right now & looking through it. Pretty impressive. It's the lesser brother of the widely acclaimed DVX102A & can also record infra-red images. It also records true progressive frames. If you want the movie look as close to a film camera, then go with a camcorder that records true progressive frames. That's what the AG-DVC30 does. And the price of this model I inquired sometime back is RM8100.

What I like about small, compact handheld cams like the DVC30, DVX102A/B, Sony FX1, Sony PD170 is that they are unobtrusive, extremely manuevable in tight places & like the DVX102 have a wide angle lens, so that you can get real close up to the subject without the subject going out of focus & still capture a wide angle shot of the surroundings. But the drawback to handhelds are that special care needs to be taken to reduce jerky, shaky images as much as possible. Ofcourse that's where the SteadiCam comes in real handy. Shoulder-mounted cameras are much more steady in this regard.

I also inquired about the Sony PD170, which a Sony representative told me sells for RM17,400. This, however can't record true progressive frames, so it doesn't really qualify as a movie camera, though you can still interpolate (combine) the odd & even fields of the video footage in your NLE.

Sony FX1E, hyped up as much as it is, is still a consumer camera as it lacks any XLE 3-pin connectors for connecting an external microphone to the camera. Sony, Malaysia markets the FX1E under the Consumer Division.

Ofcourse if shooting extremely low-light footage is an important criteria for you then Sony cameras does this best. Other cameras like the Panasonic can also shoot low-light footage, but images will appear much more grainy than footage from a comparable Sony camera. That's why most wedding videographers here use Sony cameras like the VX2100, or PD170.

How does Sony & Panasonic process blown-out images?

When a scene you're shooting becomes too over exposed, Sony & Panasonic processes the image differently.

For Sony, the images retain their colors as much as possible, but sharpness of the images are lost (blurry edges). For a Panasonic, the images remain in sharp focus, but the colors get blown-out to white. Also, Sony cameras tend to render images in a warmer tone, whereas, Panasonic cameras tend to render colors as close to the original subjects as possible if white-balanced properly.

This post has been edited by andybiz_2005: Oct 9 2006, 10:58 PM

I want to ask, how long does it take before your miniDV camcorder head becomes dirty?
My brother shot for about 2hrs++, then the recording got some horizontal lines. After using the cleaning tape ok already. Then after another 2hrs again the head get dirty.
Is this normal? Should I send my camera in for servicing?

2 hours?! crazy. What sorta DV tape is he using? and under what condition, like shooting at the beaches ke, etc?

Does anyone know the difference between Optical Image Stabiliser and Electronic Image Stabiliser ? I was looking at the Panasonic PV GS180 and it seems to have the latter, although I have no clue what the difference is.

Thanks in advance ..

Optical means it stabilize via Lens and Electronic is through the CCD if not mistaken

HI all,

Im planning to get camcorder for my mom ...... prefer ultra compact camcorder..... my budget around 2.5-3k ...... would like to ask for some advise.

Thx you for any comments and advise ya

just bought a 2k cam, canon mvx1si. just a bit over 2000, with a sony tripod, extra battery, tapes, bag. wanted to get one originally because i need a dv tape drive asap, but the cam seems quite good lah, was quite surprised on how cheap cams progressed nowadays. 2k can get almost tv quality. got it from boeing sg wang, excellent hamsap boeing guy helped me to pick one

the cam comes with a built in flash (for still) and light (for video). nothing fancy, but good to have one IMO. can be used for insert shots i think.

Would u Mind to tell me how much exactly does it cost?.... because i check canon malaysia website and mvx1si's price is abt RM2799.

Thank you very much.....

yea i'm also thinking of buying the gs300. i had a digicam ixus v3 before this and it conked out on me. so it's a good opportunity for me to get a camcorder since i've been wanting to get one since forever. any comments on the gs300? read alot abt it online esp on camcorderinfo.com and it seems to be the best option for me since it has a wider range of manual functions as compared to the sony hc96e.

c-fu wat model did u get? so far i've looked at only sony and pana but decided against sony as it's more towards ppl who prefer auto mode as pana has more manual functions. i did have a look at the canon mvx4i however that model is way beyond my budget since the gs300 is already pushing out of my budget but i'm willing to go for the gs300 if it's worth it as the reviews i've read point out.

any comments would be appreciated... thanks.

20something. like less than 2100 lah. goto boeing for more info, they're having lots of promotions right now.

but don't ask me about these cheap2 cams, as i've no idea about how great this cam is compared to other cams. i bought it because it fits my requirements lah:

- no need for great quality lcd
- good list of manual functions
- easy to control
- fast tape loading, rewinding
- got lampu built in, or at least cheap lampu
- 3ccd or almost 3ccd, if i want to use this cam, it will only be used for insert shots only, and so far it's been wonderful at that
- able to view and transfer footages on miniDV tape captured from my big big big sony cam (IMPORTANT! some cheap cams cannot view or use different branded tapes, or cannot view tapes with contents recorded from different cams, beware!)

the original promo price was 19xx, comes with a stupid 50 bucks tripod. i managed to ask him to change that to a proper sony tripod, and oh yeah i managed to haggle the price to just 2000, not 20-something just remembered.

This post has been edited by C-Fu: Nov 6 2006, 08:23 AM

I have a DV cam. Siao saio already. The LCD is giving up as well as the battery. I cant find the batt. So, I guess it is time for a new one. Saw this

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=358497

The Everio is using HDD. Eyeing MG22AG with 20GB. Sld be suffice.

Thanks 1133. Based on the revieews I've read, bottomline, OIC is much better than EIC.

Thank you for all info

If want to get good quality video, first and the most important thing is the light source. Second is the media used for capture. On medium-low budget(rm1.5k~10k) MiniDV will give the best quality. HDD and DVD won't give good quality when compare to MiniDV. 54minutes of MiniDV will eat up around 12gig of HD space. DVD only needs 1~2gig for that time, so which will give better quality?

Thanks a lot for the info, jojo.