Xixax Film Forum

I've got the dough..now i'm thinking of purchasing a GL2...is this the best choice for the price? any suggestions? anything better within that price range? this will be my first camera..please help squints

I had a GL2 for my first camera. I bought it coming up for three years ago and it has served me extremely well. It has all the right manual controls in pretty much the same format as an XL1 (plus a bit more pixel resolution on the chips than the XL1). I'm sure the price is great these days. It may not be the top of the prosumer range now (I guess it never really was) but that markets pretty unsteady at the moment with HDV. And if you're using it to learn with - once you're more accomplished you can always rent a much higher quality camera for projects that need it.

It also depends on what you plan on shooting.

If you plan on shooting short/feature films I'd try to track down an older xl2 or dvx-100.

Is spending $1200 on a GL2 going to be a good investment for you? It depends how far you intend to go with it. For all intents and purposes, it's a dated camera at this point. You've got cameras that do 24p or HD, or in some cases both. If you intend to use this for anything professional, or grow into professional with it -- this isn't the camera, and you'd be better off saving up a little more for something higher end. If this is just for learning, it'll do the trick.

I generally consider any piece of technology good for 2 years. By then, either you've outgrown it, or it's been usurped. Buy the camera if you think its price is a worthy investment for the next 2 years of your filmmaking development.

thanks guys...i decided to go with it and we'll see what happens, i'm definitely just learning so i think this'll be a good place to start...any advice for beginner's editing software? Adobe?

PC: Adobe
Mac: Final Cut Express

Quote from: mutinyco on November 26, 2005, 03:17:44 PM
PC: Adobe Avid
Mac: Final Cut Express Pro

jump right in. you'll be glad you did.