Adventurasia Community

From the last time I changed jobs until now, I have had limited exposure to video / sound production. About a year ago, my friend and I had put together a relatively simple wedding video, shot with a Sony DVCam. However, even at that time, the mastering was done on a VHS tape with audio patched in from a CD, and still photos inserted from a digital camera. A few months later, I enrolled in a Multimedia course offered by Temple University in Tokyo. It was during this course that I was introduced to such software packages as: Soundforge (audio editing); ULead Videostudio; and Macromedia Director. Shortly after taking this course, I had my own project in which I got to work a bit more with these programs.

It was only a matter of time before I started thinking of purchasing my own DVCAM with the hopes of putting together my own mini-productions. I suppose I first seriously thought of getting my own DVCAM about four months ago. At that time, I knew almost nothing about digital video cameras (and I still don’t know too much about them). So I knew I had to do a fair bit of research into what was on the market. This turned out to be a bigger task than expected due to the sheer number of manufacturers, models, price points, and features to choose from.

I started by checking out the video cameras that were available on the market. I popped over to my favourite electronics superstore - Yodobashi Camera located near the West exit of Shinjuku station. (There are actually several branches of Yodobashi all within 100 metres of each other). Wow! There were so many models to choose from! All the major manufacturers had their own models - Sony, Panasonic, JVC/Victor, Sharp, Hitachi, Canon. I picked up as many brochures as I could find for further reading (on the plane). Around that time, I went back to Canada for a vacation. During my visit, I managed to pick up a couple of magazines that provided information about various models and what to look for, and best of all, these magazines were written in ENGLISH. The magazines I picked up were: Camcorder and Computer Video (http://www.candcv.com) and Computer Videomaker (http://www.videomaker.com). Both magazines offered some helpful tips and suggestions — the only problem being (for obvious reasons) that these magazines focused on US domestic models. In many cases, the manufacturers do not sell the same camera in different markets, or if they do, they usually change the model numbers around a bit to add to the confusion. Regardless, the magazines were helpful in order to get a better idea of what was available on the market.

After returning to Tokyo, I started to do some research on the internet. I came across a Web site called DVfreak.com which had an interesting page about the Panasonic MX5000 DVCAM. I checked out some of the links and the camera seemed to getting pretty good reviews. I then went to my favourite comparison shopping site: Kakaku.com and checked out the prices on that and other cameras. This site also takes in opinions from users to generate a ‘radar graph’ which rates the camera on 8 points from 0 to 100. I’m not exactly sure what all 8 factors are, but I look to see how much of the graph is coloured (ie. how close each factor is rated 100) and also take a look at the number of ‘happy’ and ’sad’ faces there are to the left of the graph.

A few weeks later, a friend of mine was visiting from Canada enroute to China, and was looking for a digital still camera. This gave me a good excuse to spend one weekend going to as many electronic stores as possible, looking at, and finding out more about the digital video cameras available. We went to Shinjuku, and checked out the major stores - Yodobashi (if you go to the ‘head store’ be sure to check out the very top floor which is the ‘outlet floor’ and sometimes has some really good deals), Bic Camera, Sakuraya and Sofmap. While walking in Shinjuku, I happened to see a Hitachi DVCAM being demonstrated. What was interesting about this camera was that rather than write the data to a DV Cassette, it wrote the data to a small DVD disc. I asked the salesperson a bit more about this camera, and he suggested I go to the Yodobashi Video Camera shop to find out more. That was probably a bit of a mistake on his part as once I entered that shop, my eyes started wandering to the other video cameras on display. There must have been almost 100 different models to look at! I found the Panasonic MX5000 and was trying to get a sense of the types of features it had. One of the salespeople asked me what I thought, and then pointed out the Sharp Viewcam Z-7 to me. I had seen this camera before, and didn’t understand what was so special about it. However, after the demonstration, I could see why this camera was one of the best sellers (in Japan).

Needless to say, I wasn’t quite ready to buy a camera at that point in time. About a week later, I had also come across the Panasonic Press Release site announcing the yet to be released GS70K for under 1000 USD! This is a 3CCD camera that fits in the palm of your hand.

As I had to make an emergency trip back to Canada, I decided to delay my dvcam purchase as I didn’t really want to rush into it, and I was curious to see what the GS70K model would be like. During my trip back, I did manage to go to some of the electronics stores in Canada (Future Shop, A&B Sound, London Drugs) to see how what sorts of video cameras were being sold.

Earlier this month, and after returning back to Tokyo, I attended the monthly Tokyo PC meeting in Harajuku/Omotesando with the main presentation about Digital Video. The presenter runs the Web site Tokyo DV and gave a very good presentation. He also demonstrated how relatively easy it is to use the built in video editing software that comes with Apple Mac OSX - iMovie - to edit your own videos. This was definitely one of the more useful and interesting presentations that the club has put together in recent memory.

With renewed vigour, I did even more research. On several occasions I went to the Bic Camera electronics store in Ikebukuro (there are several of them scattered near the East and West exits of the station) and to the Bic Camera in Yurakucho. Both these locations are convenient as they are either close to my work place or close to where I live. By now I was getting a better sense of the sort of features I wanted, and I was able to narrow my choice of models down to a handful, although no one model stood out as the one I wanted to purchase.

The following is an expansion of my criteria with approximate weighting:

A.) [25%]Lenses/Optics: Is it 1 CCD or 3 CCD? How big are the CCDs? What is the pixel rating - for video and for still shots? Can it serve as a suitable substitute for my digital camera? Does it have a progressive mode? What is the optical zoom? What is the digital zoom? Does it have a night mode? Who makes the lenses?

B.) [25%]Portability: What are the overall dimensions? How much does the unit weight? Can it fit in my coat pocket? What is the battery life? How long does it take to charge the battery? How big is the battery charger? Does the charger have a built in transformer that can work worldwide? Does the warranty work outside Japan? How long is the warranty?

C.) [15%]Value for Money: What is the price (including membership discounts)? How much are additional memory cards (there was a slight bias as I already have the memory sticks, and would not need to purchase any additional memory)? What is the cost of the basic accessory kit (if it isn’t included)? What sort of discount am I able to get from the store (ie. most stores follow a standard price, but some stores will offer a deeper discount, which to me, all other things being equal, represents better value for money)?

D.) [10%]User Interface: What is the grip like? Can I hold the camera at different angles (the Sharp Z-7 with it’s revolving base has a slight bias here, although the Panasonic cameras feature a ‘Magic Strap’ which works okay). How large is the LCD screen? How cluttered are the various buttons? Are the buttons level with the unit, actual buttons, or on the LCD screen itself? Is it easy to figure out how the various buttons are used? Are the menus available in English?

E.) [10%]Compatibility/Expandability: Does it include both USB and Firewire (iLink / DV / IEEE 1394) ports? A/V ports? S-Video port? External microphone port? Infrared? Bluetooth? Type of memory card - memory stick, smart media, etc… Does it include Mac & Windows drivers? Does the software work on Mac and Windows? Does the software work on English operating systems? (Be careful of the microcassette models offered by Sony as the video format is different and it does not work with Macintosh)

F.) [10%]Extra Features: infrared remote control; remote control with built-in microphone (eg. Panasonic models); quick start; steady shot / optical image stabilizer

G.) [5%]Fudge Factor: general impressions

Based in part on the above criteria, I developed a shortlist of camera models to choose from. The choices in no particular order are as follows, with some general notes.

I.) Panasonic MX5000
- got good reviews by various websites + different salespeople
- best value for the money
- Leica lenses / 3CCD / great stills
- larger than other ‘consumer’ models
- This is the camera that I would have bought if it was a bit smaller
- price at Yodobashi/Bic (with discount and tax) : 110,208 Yen

II.) Panasonic GS70K
- 3 CCD
- Leica lenses
- smaller than Panasonic MX5000 but larger than other models under consideration
- mixed overseas reviews, good reviews in Japan and quite good kakaku.com rating
- At this point in time, this is the camera I would go for, except that it was a bit too expensive
- price at Yodobashi/Bic (with discount and tax) : 130,410 Yen

III.) Sharp Z-7
- best grip / button layout / rotating base
- 200X Zoom
- large LCD screen
- not sure if paying a premium for the ‘rotating base’
- not sure about lenses / 1 CCD
- price at Yodobashi/Bic (with discount and tax) : 98,280 Yen

IV.) Sony (was considering a couple of models)
- Carl Zeiss Lens
- already have memory sticks
- I’ve owned a Sony Cybershot for just over 3 years and haven’t had a problem with it

So even at this point (yesterday to be exact), the choice was still fairly wide open. In some respects, I suppose I was trying to wait a bit longer - waiting for a new model to come out, that would clearly stand out over the other models.

Out of the three, he said the Sony TRV-33K was the most popular model for his store because:
a.) the images displayed were more ‘true to life’
b.) the image stabilizer feature on the Panasonic behaved strangely (he shook his hand in front of the lenses rapidly, and the background got out of focus) - although I wasn’t able to recreate this on my own
c.) the viewfinder could be pulled out at an angle, unlike the Sharp Z-7 which could only be pulled straight out. He then compared this to other, more expensive cameras, and said that the Sharp model is a cheaper camera.
d.) he said that all the LCD screens don’t work too well under bright sunlight, and therefore you need to use the viewfinder (according to the Sharp literature, their LCD screen works well in bright sunlight)
e.) Sony includes software that works in English as well as Japanese, unlike the other manufacturers
f.) Sony’s camera has a touchscreen where you can make adjustments easily and on the fly
g.) Finally, it was lower cost than the Panasonic
h.) He offered me a 15% discount, which up until that point in time, was the best price for the Sony TRV-33K that I had come across
i.) It has a resolution of 1.07 mega pixels.
j.) The plus for me was that I could use my memory sticks

I thanked him for the time, asked him for his business card, and went to another store to check to see whether or not the price he offered really was that good. After wandering around for another couple hours, I started to make my way back to the store to see if I can bargain him down a bit more - (I had brought with me printouts of the prices of all the DVCAMS listed on kakaku.com as of March 2003). On my way back, I bumped into a guy who was passing out flyers. Out of curiousity, I asked him if he had any video cameras listed to which he replied ‘yes’ - but whether or not there was stock was another question. He showed me the price list, and they were listing the Sony TRV-33K for about 9000 Yen less than what the guy at Sato Musen had quoted me! I also quickly glanced at the other models and noticed the Panasonic MX5000 for 115,800 Yen. I had to check this store out! The leafletter patiently explained to me how to get to the store - about a 10 minute walk along the train tracks. The name of the store is: AOC which I believe is an acronym for Akihabara Oroshiuri Center (I’m not too sure about the word in the middle). The video cameras were kept on the second floor. I took a quick look and couldn’t believe the prices. I asked the salesperson there (who turned out to be the boss) why the prices seemed to be so much lower than all the other places. He replied by saying that this shop actually acts as a distributor to all these other stores. OK. (Note that if something goes wrong with the product, you have to go straight to the manufacturer … This is quite common with many stores in Akihabara. If you make a purchase at a big electronics store ie. Yodobashi, then usually you can return the product to the store.)

I started asking him about the Sony TRV-33K. The price was 85,800 Yen including accessory kit. I then asked him how it compared to the Sharp Z-7. He said that Sony was better. I then asked him about the Panasonic GS70K as well as the Panasonic MX5000. He said that the Panasonics were better because they had 3CCDs whereas the Sony only had 1. He also said that if I only used the video camera and attached to a video screen, the output would be about the same, but if I was to do some video editting on a computer, the 3CCD would produce better results. In total, I must have spent about an hour at the store, asking him various questions and testing his patience - I learned that the store has been around for 10 years (I was worried it might be a fly by night). In the end, I picked up the Panasonic GS70K for 110,000 Yen tax inclusive. He threw in a free tripod. (Just before paying, he started to pull a box from the shelf by the cash register, but I insisted I get the box that was in the glass cabinet. I was also a bit hesitant to pass him my bank card to initiate a debit payment because I had never used debit in Japan, and was worried he might somehow store my number. In the back of mind, I couldn’t help but think the workers were all Yakuza members. He seemed a bit upset at that point.)
After making the purchase I asked him for a business card and said that I’d introduce other people to the store - he seemed happier at that point.

In case you’re interested, these are some other models of cameras this store has for sale (all include the accessory kit):
Sony IP220K : 129,800 Yen + tax
Sony PC101K : 83,000 Yen + tax
Sony TRV22K : 72,800 Yen + tax
Sony TRV33K : 85,800 Yen + tax
Panasonic MX5000 : 115,800 Yen + tax
Panasonic GS50K : 70,800 Yen + tax
Victor GR-DV900K : 97,000 Yen + tax
Victor GR-D90K : 65,800 Yen + tax
Victor GR-DVP9 : 115,800 Yen + tax
Victor GR-DVX9 : 59,800 Yen + tax
Sharp VL-Z5 : 69,800 Yen + tax