Advice Needed - please ...

E

Enlighten

Guest
Hello all,

I've been a digi-camcorder user for around 4 years now, so imagine my horror when my old Panasonic NVDS55B went on the blink. No problem I thought, I'll buy a new one. After reading several reviews I bought a JVC GRDVP9E - neat little thing I thought, and the reviews ranted and raved about it. Erm, not so. It was the most pathetic piece of kit I've bought - £900 at the time (this was 3 months ago)! I tested it in a number of different lighting conditions ... outside it was 'ok', but inside the home it produced the grainest piece of footage ever imaginable. I couldn't believe it - my old panasonic costed £1,200, and was a palmcorder - fit into my pocket .. I took it everywhere - it visited 14 different countries and didn't have a problem - low light conditions were never a problem - 'out-of-focus' - what's that I thought?! Never happened. People were arguing over numbers of CCDs and CCD size not to mention the megapizel malarchy ... I was completely naive 4 years ago when I bought my Panasonic with only 1/6" CCD ... but the footage was pristine DVD (night or day). Anyway, I gave back the JVC and tested the Canon MV6i effort and the Panasonic GS50 ... the Canon was better than the JVC even though it was cheaper ... and the Panasonic was cheaper still and even better. No probs - Panasonic it is then ... until I got it home and tried it under low light conditions ... much better than the JVC but completely pants compared to the 4 year old model! What's going on?!?!? Is camcorder technology really getting worse!?!?! The flip out screen had a viewing angle - a rather narrow one at that - something the old one did not! I'm now seriously considering changing the GS50 for the Sony TRV33, but to my horror, the Sony model doesn't even have a wind block!?! What good is that when you're taking shots on top of the Andes. My requirement was simple ... something that fit in my palm (as I do a lot of travelling, and small is best) but something that produces DVD quality footage. I don't care about the price, but it seems all the £1,000+ camcorders are big, or in the caes of the JVC, just plain naff!!!!

I just want something that is exactly like my old Camcorder! :(

Yes, I'm frustrated ... very frustrated! I feel as if manufacturers and reviewers are taking us for a ride. Do manufacturers pay these magazines to have their merchandise reviewed ?! I know this use to happen a lot in the 80s as a friend of mine use to be a reviewer for a computer magazine - does this happen now though? It just seems the magazines rant and rave about someting that is clearly naff - it's strange.

Anyway, what do you think ? Is the Sony TRV33 worth a swap ? How well does it perform under in-house conditions ?

Hope someone out there can help - or am I the only one who thinks DV camcorders are getting worse with time.

Thanks in advance and apologies for the anger injected into this post.

Enlighten.
 
I don't own a TRV33, but there are several happy users of it on these forums. They all tend to agree that it is about the best cam in its pricerange for low light use, as well as many other features and quality.
Many others have bought JVC/Panasonic cams etc and been very unhappy with indoor performance. Some have then swapped to the TRV33 and been much happier.

HTH,
Mark.
 
your post deserves a reply . the only imput i can give you albeit as a amateur is i went for a cannon when going from an to dv very dissapointed with indoor footage from cannon my old an cam much better so i felt i little dissapointed like you to put it in a nutshell iwas limited to what i could spend and took the advice of people on this forum and purchased a sony (after taking cannon back to jessops ) and what a great dv cam i now have i will be honest everthing is bang on apart from the optical zoom , no brilliant but unless you are into extreme long shots . these chaps on this forum no what they are talking about and if i were you take a look at some of the previous threads it is worth it .
 
I think the Panasonic NVDS55B has 1/4 CCD where as the Gs50 has 1/6 CCD, therefore its not too surpising that your old cam is better in low light situation.
 
Thanks very much for your replies. El Indio - you're right, the CCD of the older model is larger than this newer version :( I'm holding the older manual in front of me now - how it brings back happy memories ....

I think I'm going to swap it for a Sony TRV33 or equivalent - but hey, in keeping to the "newer camcorder, crummy technology" philosophy that these manufacturers have kept to, the CCD of the newer Sony camcorders (the ones which are supposedly replacing the TRV33) are slightly smaller at 1/5" ... do these manufacturers want us to buy quality products from them or not?!?!
 
No, they just want to be able to sell more, cheaper. That means useing cheaper components in them.

Mark.
 

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