Can't go wrong with a DVX

Excellent prosumer camera. There should be a class like "Almost Pro" for this cam. Have been using it for a couple of months now. Total control of the image you get, full auto works very well also. Am surprised how light and balanced it feels for hand-held shooting. 60i is definately broadcast quality. 24p looks great with soooooo much image control. Best bang-for-buck standard definition camera you can get.

Only two negatives so far. 1) 10x zoom is a little short, but you might not need more for your projects. Add on lenses don't do much for it either. 2) Little knob-type-control-thingy for the VCR and menu navigation has to go. Really bad. But, then again, I've yet to see this type of control done well and ANY camera.

All-in-all, if you're in this price-range and can't afford the step up to HDV, like me, buy this camera. You WILL NOT be disappointed. Cheers!

Panasonic professional Camcorder.

I haven't had a chance to really use it, but it seems to be in good shape. Only 175 hours appealed to me, and the price seemed right. The auto focus seems to be slow, but I truly haven't given it a good test. I also like the black and white viewfinder. You get a large picture, and I need a clear picture doing game films for high school football. I might be able to see where the quarterback is throwing the ball now since we shoot passes in a wide angle. Doing sports, I would probabley shoot on manual focus, so if the auto focus is slow during zooming, it won't matter.

This Camera Gets it Done

This is an awesome versatile pro camera. There a switches, dials, knobs galore making for easy manual operation on the fly, no need to get lost searching through menus to make simple changes. Its 24 frame progressive mode is oft likened to 16mm film. This camera is used for reality series, "its always sunny in Philadelphia, and many Indy films.

The Best MiniDV Camcorder In Its Class

This camera is about $1000 less than a Canon XL-2, but it betters that camera in picture quality, picture quality controls, viewfinder, connectability - in fact, the only thing that the XL-2 has better is interchangeable lenses. How often will you need that? Probably never. This camera has an excellent picture, XLR audio inputs, actual controls on the camera body, not buried in menu screens. It has a responsive manual zoom, variable zoom speed control, well-placed control knobs.

It's designed like a pro camera with white balance, audio levels, color bars, even a time date stamp optional. It has a Leica lens! I use mine for legal video, depositions and field inspections; it goes anywhere. Check out this three-way match-up between the three cameras in this price class at DVX User: http://www.dvxuser.com/article​s/shoot3/

I almost passed this camera up due to too many amateurs raving too loudly about the XL-2 , but I'm glad I read the articles and got the DVX-100B. Anyone who uses it will tell you its better than the others by a long shot. Why pay the extra money only to have the ability to change lenses?

This is NOT a high-def camera, but there's not much absolute need for that quite yet. High-def becomes very expensive very quickly, and my clients frankly don't want to pay for that. This camera should serve well for many years.

Panasonic DVX-100B SD VideoCamera

About the only thing which Canon can say about the XL2 v, the DVX-100, is that the Canon has a 20X v 10X zoom. In every other way important to me the Panasonic is a steal. Professional mic adapters, XLRs. Great flip out, large, LCD. Canon has none! For eyeglasses wearers this is a must, but the EVF is excellent too if you prefer. It is about as clumsy as the XL2, I still like my SVHS cams! Very easy to move control functions into manual. I feel that the DVX is much more easily fine tuned than the XL2.

Well, I guess it is not as funky and cool looking as the Canon. But if that was all I really wanted I still would be shooting with my old Eclair! I do miss 16mm, but with a DOF adapter SD video can come very close. What will be the best buy when I change to HD in 2-3 years? Lord knows, but in SD the best Pro bang for the buck is the DVX I believe (I do some TV work with 3 DVX's synched together, try that Canon!)