Lotsa shop at Lowyat and Sungei Wang selling it. Will be around RM2k now..

Just came back from PC Fair KL. Bought myself a Sony Handycam HDR-XR350E. Got lots of freebies like external DVD Writer, umbrella, towel, Sony Vegas Studio 9, extra battery & bag for the handycam.

Yeah..still expensive cause this is only model left in consumer lines as HD video recorded in MPEG-2 version. Or you can go for Canon HV30 which performs much better at low light.
As i know AVCHD is recorded in H.264, so when u transcode to other format such as MPEG-2 you'll see some artifacts on the converted video. I put it as my terms of 'digital lossness'. So I will as much as possible try to avoid this format. Since I still have machine running on PowerPC G4 and I don't want format taxing much on the editing.
I'm not sure about it but mostly Panny CMOS camera brightness sometime too saturated, looks like almost to 3CCD effects.

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Added on April 18, 2010, 2:28 pmHow much you brought for it?

This post has been edited by b48753: Apr 18 2010, 02:28 PM

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Added on April 18, 2010, 2:28 pm
How much you brought for it?

[/quote]

U mean bought? The original price is rm3999. Manage to haggle until final price rm3799 + everthing

Last week I saw Best Denki in KLCC selling the HD2000 for RM1899, damn good price. Used to see also in Boeing, Sungai Wang for RM2500+ but don't know now.

[quote=Cheapodude,Apr 18 2010, 03:59 PM]

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Added on April 18, 2010, 2:28 pm
How much you brought for it?

[/quote]

U mean bought? The original price is rm3999. Manage to haggle until final price rm3799 + everthing

[/quote]
I see..then how about other gears eg. external mic, flood light, telemacro lens? Do they sell it at PC Fair now?

I get zero artifacts converting my footage to MPEG2 tho, but only for delivery. Of course, the filesize ends up being 3 times the size. But to edit with, it's either Canopus HQ or Prores.

I have the HV20 actually. I moved on to buying my Panny cuz I needed better lowlight performance with zero gain. Damn was I a happy boy to see the difference, beats the HV20 by miles but of course, the price otherwise. Brightness being saturated? I'm sorry, i don't mean to correct you.. But I thought saturation applies to colour? I'm happy with 3CCD although it's not sharp as CMOS and without any rolling shutter. Colour controls are nice to be played around with especially when storing them into presets are possible!

Sorry for the terms...is suppose to be colour saturation. Any video when recording it in 3CCD camera will tend with too much saturation, and most of times makes the light exposed colour turns to burn keys. So that's why now i'm switching to CMOS-based cams cause of the video will look abeit grainy, at most like film looks. CMOS colour also can be preset, using the white balance.
Canon HV30 is much better than HV20, as Canon already address the low-light performance through HV30 model..

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Added on April 19, 2010, 2:34 pmSome of the pictures to show the difference of MPEG2 video vs. AVCHD video.


MPEG-2 TS in FHD quality


AVCHD in XP quality


AVCHD in EP quality

You can see the artifact clearly visible at right hand side.

Pics Source: camcorderinfo.com

This post has been edited by b48753: Apr 19 2010, 02:34 PM

[quote=b48753,Apr 18 2010, 05:42 PM]
U mean bought? The original price is rm3999. Manage to haggle until final price rm3799 + everthing

[/quote]
I see..then how about other gears eg. external mic, flood light, telemacro lens? Do they sell it at PC Fair now?

[/quote]

So far none. But I guess those accessories are way better & cheaper if u got it online

Light exposed colour to burn keys.. are you referring to too saturated or simply overexposed? i'm sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm okay with clean non grain looks, since that can always be done in post or by adding gain during shoot. As for colour settings and stored presets, sorry to confuse you but i didn't mean white balance. I meant adjustments on detail, chroma, master pedestrial, gamma, knee, color matrix, etc. I would agree that CMOS is able to produce a much flatter contrast for better dynamic range compared to 3CCD cams, lovin the colour reproduction. I guess i ditched CMOS for the kind of shoots i have. Switched to CMOS for the reason of grain? I know opinions may differ but i get almost no grain shooting at no gain with HV20. Mind to share on the grainy side?

HV20 vs HV30, i'm sure you can find that both cameras use the same exact image sensor. Compare side by side at zero gain, you'll get the same results. Find out more from the fellas in the HV20/HV30 forums. It's even mentioned in camcorderinfo's review on the HV30 - "The 60i and 24P results are statistically identical with last year’s Canon HV20".

As for the AVCHD vs MPEG2 shot on the JVC HD40, the scenario seems to be 17mbps AVCHD vs 26.6mbps MPEG-2 which only applies to that camera. And it's no surprise, it was already mentioned that recording in MPEG-2 is the highest quality setting on this camera. Given a TM700 or HF S 21 which records in AVCHD VS the HD40 in MPEG-2, it's obvious which is the winner in terms of vertical resolution. In the end of the day, it really comes down to what the camera could do at its best settings. As much as head to head goes with cameras, small differences aren't noticeable to the general viewing audience unless you're doing some hardcore keying. Oooh gotta love 4:2:2..

In the end of my day, i want a second cam; a better CMOS camera!!

On another different note, i might wanna let go of my XLR-JR™ Single channel XLR adapter since it's just being idle in the house. Any takers? Allows the use of XLR mics, long XLR cables eg. for boom application. Previously used on my HV20, perfect working condition.

Old picture with the adapter attached

FuGZ: nice cam u got there... u attached a wideangle lens on it?

juz curious that let say the filter diameter is 43mm, and u attach a wide angle lens on it, is the lens hood still be able to attach on it?

cuz i saw the diameter of the wide angle lens seems different/larger than 43mm...

Fugz, I'll post the grain pics later..

Nway nice lens. Is it universal type, and mountable using adaptor? N how's the shoot range is now using it?

Thanks saru88 and b48753.
the hv20 is 43mm, lens 52mm so a step up ring is used. lens outer ring is 72mm which is fitted with the XH-A1 lens hood. I rarely use this camera now tho.
It's actually the Raynox HD-6600, you get 0.66X wider shots.

huh? the raynox HD-6600 is 52mm or 43mm? the one u posted is 43mm only, still need a step up ring?

i wanna get this for my HS300
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Professional...70838927&sr=8-9

but duno the lens outer ring is how big... so duno how to get the lens hood for it..

saru88, mine's the 52mm version. The link i quickly picked is 43mm. I bought the 52mm version as it does better in the corners of the frame compared to the 43mm. You can check that out here, tested with the HV20.

I can give you a little tip about cheap wide angle lens converters tho. Most of the cheap ones aren't as wide as they claim. I have this Merkury 0.45X Wide Angle Lens but my Raynox HD-6600 (0.66X) appeared to be alot wider than the claimed "0.45X".

This post has been edited by FuGZ: Apr 20 2010, 05:33 PM

whoa thanks for enlightening me... i think i will go for a bigger filter size lens... can i try the 58mm wide angle lens? would it be better? that's for DSLR 1... lolx...

btw, i'm still experimenting everything cuz i juz started... so start off with cheap lenses 1st...
planning to build a prosumer rig with my HS300...

getting DoF adapter n other stuff... cost alot of money tho... sigh...

I'm not trying to say bigger is better, it could be otherwise you know. I'm just saying i bought the 52mm HD6600 because it has been compared and tested with the 43mm on the HV20. Results may differ with a different camera or even different thread size lens. Starting off cheap isn't always a good idea, cuz you're gonna spend on something better soon after that. But we start somewhere with the cheapest things anyways. If you could afford it, save up for good lens Chromatic abbreviation can be very ugly, you'd wonder where the HD quality you paid for went!

A 550D with kit lens will kick the ass out of most consumer video cameras with an adapter. And of course, i'm comparing for the reason why people buy 35mm adapters in the first place, not the general aimless Video Cameras VS HD DLSRs debate. If it doesn't kick much ass in terms of performance in the proline, i'm sure it will price wise. Chances you'd have 2 cameras to work with, lovely!

@saru88

yes thats why the raynox cost so much. i tried those cheap ass WA converter too (mine is .45x). lol it just for fun.....

FuGZ: i think i will go for the cheaper 1 1st... Raynox costs 8x more expensive... lack of budget since i wanna build a prosumer rig... lolx...

how was the quality then? decent or very poor?

just decent quality, i took out the macro optic so it can go wider view.
if u can deal with that distortion and CA, can get 1 to try since its low price.