DV2000 or TRV25

Ayrton

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I have been researching this but can't make up my mind. I can get a DV2000 for £600 or a TRV25 for £649 with 3 tapes, can anyone help me decide?

The DV2000 is discontinued but heavily discounted. Its reviews when new were very good describing it as a good semi-pro choice (although my needs are strictly amateur this sort of description does inspire confidence).

Technology moves quickly and whilst the TRV is nearer entry level its spec is in some ways better than the DV2000.

Any thoughts on how to decide? If anyone has any ideas about other cameras please feel free to discuss. £700 including a spare battery is pretty much the top line on price.

Cheers,
Ayrton.
 
I have just ordered a JVC2000 as a magazine was doing a special promotion where it was half price as it had all the features I needed. Even though it's discontinued, I decided to get it because accessories can be quite standard for a lot of cameras.

I had also read excellent reviews on this camera, although it doesn't bear up very well in low light conditions as I understand it!

The Sony TVR25 is a very nice camcorder but doesn't have dv-in which isn't important if you don't want to do a huge amount of editing. At the moment, I'm not planning on doing editing r, but I will probably want to in the near future.

What I can't understand was why the JVC3000 is being sold at around the £800-900 price mark when the JVC2000 is still being sold at over £1,000 on some sites?? Strange!

Louise
 
You can't get the DV2000 any more in the UK can you? Hasn't it been replaced by the 3000? Anyway, I got mine in Singapore and I'd say;

Pros;
Very good, large, clear LCD
fast autofocus
Auto-power off when you close LCD or viewfinder
Nice balance & zoom button falls to hand perfectly
Excellent picture quality although I haven't seen output from TRV25 to compare
Battery life seems pretty good.
Automatic lens cap
Dual shooting mode where you can write stills to the SD card at the same time as video to the tape.

Cons;
1.limited performance in low light although the "Slow 1" AutoAE helps
2. loads underneath but so does TRV25
3. Some controls like Fade (if you use that) are hidden behind LCD so you have to have it open when using viewfinder. For that reason, the LCD doesn't light up unless you close the viewfinder which at least saves the battery.
4. Menu button is on the wrong side
5. Focus button / ring combo is a pain
6. viewfinder is a little "grainy"
7. Progressive Scan is bloody useless imho

What Camcorder had a review of the TRV25 last month which was very positive. having not used it I can't really compare, and the RRP for the JVC is about 300 quid more than the Sony, so I think given my time again I'd probably get the Sony cos I'm not gonna use most of the features on the JVC, I'll do all my clever editing on the PC.

C
 
How low is low in terms of poor low light performance? I don't expect to be filming outside in the dark but I would need it to give a good picture in, say, a living room lit with just a table lamp or two...
 
Choddo

Yes it's still available but has been replaced by the JVC3000 model.

What Camcorder had such a good deal going that I ordered the camera on Monday from Hispek - they've now sold out.

Ayrton - to find out how much light you would need, check out the technical specifications. The lower the lux, the leaset amount of light the camcorder needs - 0 or 1 is best (1 is about the light provided from one candle).

Louise
 
That's where it starts to screw up. I have a bunch of stuff recorded in that type of lighting which is just plain not good enough - also the autofocus starts to strain at that point, BUT there are two things that I didn't know about when I was recording it. The Slow1 AE mode I mentioned above, and a mode called twilight which is designed I think for outdoor evening work which fixes the focus at 10m-infinity to solve the focussing problem. I haven't tried to record any footage in those modes but the difference on the LCD looks pretty significant. I could try it tonight if you want (my lounge is lit with two standing lamps) as I have a new firewire card to try out and welcome any excuse... Let me know if you'd like to see the results in an AVI and I'll see if I can work out how to do it ;)

Chods

P.S. I think the 2000 was overloaded on features (like prog scan and the pixel shift stuff) which noone wanted which is why it was more expensive than the 3000, while the 3000 has a larger aperture lens (F1.2 vs f1.8) to let in 2x more light and has a better CCD, which I have to say must be impressive cos the CCD on the 2000 gives a very good picture. And if you can get the 2000 for that price, then I still got scammed at about 730 vs original RRP of 1400. F*** it, I always get scammed when I buy on impulse abroad :)
 
Choddo

I would appreciate it if you could post a short AVI, it would be good to see how good the picture is.

BTW If Hispek are sold out my mind may have been made up for me :(
 
Lol Choddo!! Still a good saving though.

I recently got back from the Canaries where I was originally planning to buy a Mini DV camcorder. There are so many scams going on out there it is absolutely ridiculous!! :)

They try all sorts of tricks on you and after wasting the week trawling round all the shops, I eventually settled on the Sony DCR TRV18 which they were selling at £140! After asking them to put it on hold so I could come back and pay the next day, when I did go back, they pretended they'd never seen me before and finally admitted they had sold the camcorder to someone else!!!

What a waste of time - needless to say, I didn't come back with a tan!! :(

Louise
 
No problem, I'll try to post tonight. Will let you know on here if successful.

By the way, I just read a review of the 3000 that also mentions low light performance was the main issue with the 2000 and it is impoved in the new model. It also says the 3000 still has a prog scan CCD though which surprised me cos I really can't see anyone bothering with it.
 
Originally posted by watl1
needless to say, I didn't come back with a tan!! :(

Louise

haha :) I was only in Singapore for one day so I kind of had to make a rush purchase. My biggest mistake was going without a copy of What Camcorder and I couldn't find an equivalent anywhere out there - bit of a vendor-focussed society I think they have.

But to be honest, I'm not unhappy with the camera, just would like to pay the minimum i can get away with :) As I said in another thread, I had planned to get the Sony DRV50 but preferred the feel & focussing speed of the JVC, and everyone I spoke to out there said the JVC picture quality was better (wonder if they were all trying to unload the discontinued model?).

It's so funny shopping there, they charge what the hell they feel like at the time. Nothing has a price label. First place I stopped at tried to charge me 1050, then the next place wanted about 950 - and the third one was the 730ish option, and what I didn't realise was they expect you to haggle, so I think the guy was astonished that I agreed :) Course, I thought he had the price so low cos he'd got the wrong model or something so I bit his arm off!

You live & learn...
 
I bought my first camcorder from Singapore on my honeymoon. I spent half a day trawling round the shops until I got the best deal I thought I could on a JVC SVHS model. I thought I had done really well until I got back to the hotel to discover the model I had been testing in the shop (avec LCD screen) differed from the one in the box (sans LCD).
 
ok it took me a while - the software I got with my firewire card is quite unlike anything I've seen before, but when you get used to it, it's good fun. Bit unstable though,

Anyway http://www.choddo.com/lowlight2.avi

17 Meg, and only a 256kb uplink so apologies for the time it will take to download.

It's using the divx 5.02 codec and for some reason on my machine it takes a few seconds for the colours to look right.

You'll notice the jerkiness on the Slow2 mode from the too slow shutter speed but I think slow1 is an ok compromise for indoor & evening shooting. The lighting here was a total of about 100W bulb in 2 uplighters, reflected off a wall & ceiling. it's definitely darker in the video than real life but I think still ok - further away in the room you can see how much darker it gets, For that reason, I couldn't really properly record the whole room away from the lights like this.

C
 
I would go with the TRV in my experience they have been more reliable in comparision to the JVC model's
 

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