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Questions on DVX100A design – Jan (or anyone else) can you explain?
Jan –
I just finished reading the thread on the dead headphone. I have not had a problem with the headphones but as a new DVX100A owner coming from a Sony Digital 8 camcorder, I do have a couple of questions for Panasonic. It seems you are the one with the answers and I am sure others have ideas as well :-).
In my Sony, the speaker was loud enough to easily hear in a 3′ radius without having to crank up the volume. I can barely hear the Panasonic speaker with the volume cranked up. It seems like a strange design that I would have to open the LCD display to hear the speaker and even then I can barely hear it. Why was the speaker designed in this way and so whimpy in sound? I understand that most of the time one is monitoring with headphones but sometimes you need a loud speaker. While on this subject, I would also make the suggestion that any redesign of the camera include volume bars going from green to yellow (good sound level) to red (clipping) for easier visual monitoring of sound.
Another issue. In my Sony, I could have a battery in place being charged and have the camera hooked up to AC power at the same time. I could then operate from power and quickly remove the camera from AC power for a gun and shoot. With the Panasonic, I have to make a choice – it is either AC power or battery. To make it worse, the charger will not charge the battery and run the camera at the same time. Another flaw is you have to actually disconnect the power from the camera in order to charge the battery even if the camera is off. There must be a reason for this design. Could you tell me what it is? I really miss not having the ability to have the camera attached to AC power and a battery attached as well. My spouse is an electrical design engineer and highly experienced in designing these type of chargers. He would be happy to consult on a design change :-).
As usual, I appreciate you taking the time to read this and offer your thoughts.
Grasshopper
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4 Replies
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Why does my car door unlock every time I put it into park? What if I am pulling into an unsafe neighborhood and I don’t want the doors to unlock immediately? Engineers make these choices and for most folks they work fine but there’s always going to be quibbles.
I can say for my tastes I find this cam to have more design and ergonomic plusses over negatives than any other prosumer camera I’ve owned. Is it perfect- no. Is it closer to perfection than anything else I’ve shot with- you betcha.
You want annoying- how about a Sony VX1000? Every time you want to access the user menu, you have to open the battery compartment- weird… And the cable connecting the color viewfinder can be easily blown out simply by flipping the viewfinder up enough times. Bottom line- you can’t please everyone with every aspect of every camera.
Noah
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Noah –
As always, I appreciate the time you take to respond to my postings. I certainly agree with you that this is a great camera. I am enjoying exploring its capabilities and for the money, it is awesome.
That said, my point was I see areas of improvement that I personally feel would make the camera even more attractive to purchasers. Though I don’t like the speaker situation, I can live with it. Like you said, you can’t please everyone and I understand that. I do feel the powering options should be changed and it was my hope to point this out so Jan could pass on a consumer comment to the right people in Panasonic. With the current design, if I am operating on AC power and shooting an event, if I lose power I am down until I can put the battery in place. Is there a way around this? Sure, in my case I take along a UPS and plug my camera into that but it is another piece of equipment to lug along and keep track of. Why not allow the camera to have a battery in place and be hooked up to external power at the same time. It becomes a true run and gun camera at that point and will be attractive to a whole new group of purchasers.
Again, Noah, thank you for taking the time to respond. I was hoping to hear from Jan as well.
Grasshopper
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To be honest yours are the first complaints I’ve ever heard along these lines. Not to say you don’t have valid points but at the same time it seems like a vast majority of users have no problems with these issues.
The DVX100a is doing very well and I would imagine has reached the end of its development cycle for now. That said Jan and other folks from Panasonic do read these boards and improvements suggested here and elsewhere on the net are often implemented wherever feasible and realistic.
-Noah
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Noah –
I would say if one is use to cameras where one makes a choice between AC and battery they would, of course, have no problem with the camera. In my case, I did not have to make that choice with my Digital 8 so I was use to having that ability in my camcorder. I thought long and hard before making my post on the subject because I did not want to have people think I was trying to stir up trouble. I merely wanted to communicate to Panasonic my thoughts on improving the camera to both make it even more cool and stimulate more sales.
I am glad to hear that insiders from Panasonic read these posts. I would like to thank you for letting me use this forum to provide them with my input.
Grasshopper
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