ooooh. my only question is will it have XLR inputs for audio. cuz if not, its useless.

Oh yea, it has 2 xlr inputs , and a 10K or so sticker price

It does have XLRs with phantom power. It has 4 input channels of audio.
jimmy

ewww no. i have $5000. thats it.

If your only choices are between the Sony and the JVC it's a no brainer, buy the Sony, even buy the HVX 200 if you can stand the cost of the 'extras', buy anything but the JVC.
I really had high hopes for the JVC but even the crew who JVC were using in their ads down here finished the shoot with most of the cameras 'smoked'.
Bob.

JVC's are filled with all sorts of problems. Sexy looking camera tho'!

JVC just can't get their camera division together. They've NEVER had a first release success that I'm aware of. The 500 finally ended up being a decent cam after a while...

Just search DVInfo.net for complaints (literally thousands of them) about the JVC.
If you have 5k, I'd be for buying a Z1.

I think one of the classic posts of all times was about the poor glass on the JVC. The comment was something along the lines of "Don't worry JVC know what they're doing, there'll be a firmware update out soon to fix the problem".
All I can say about the 500 is, well, after a very long while and numerous trips to the doctor ours records really nice images onto a tape that you cannot get out of the camera without a hammer.
The latest story about their HDV camera, due to some marvel of engineering excellence it's possible to get the battery in backwards, I still cannot work out how you could design a camera so that you could do that, I've got to have another look at one of these things, clearly their engineers are smarter than the Sony ones.
Bob.

well then. i've never really strayed from a Sony camera, but the progressive scan thing kinda got me cuz I thought I would want to do some special effects work and I heard that that could be impeded by lack of true progressive scan....

Without knowing just what special FX work your planning on doing it's hard to say, I think most CGI software will render to both "p" or "i".
But I do agree, given that all new display devices are progressive scan it's certainly the way of the future however most of them do a pretty decent job of de-interlacing and there's plenty of good code available to do the job as well, some of it's even free and it runs in Vegas.
The CF 25 and 30 modes in the Z1 seem to be OK, not as good as true progressive but certainly useable and at least you've got the choice and more res than the JVC, of course if you have the cash, the Canon is sure looking very attractive.
Bob.

having just spent a couple of weeks with a Z1, I have to say it's a stellar camera. Well worth the price. I'm not a proponent of JVC and Canon so my suggestion would be to stear clear. Neither company has had the sucess of first releases like Panasonic and Sony have. I am truly waiting for the HDX200 though, can't wait to put it and the Sony through the paces.

Another suggestion would be to rent each cam and make an informed decision. I do that prior to buying any camera. Gives me a chance to really see what it's capable of doing before plunking down the cash.

cheno

On a recent shoot i decided to go with DVX100 instead of the Sony camera -- too many hand held shots. Still i have to test the Sony camera more so i can find all its strenghts and weknesses.

--Patryk

I've used the Z1 a lot hand held - mainly around waist height using the LCD, and have had some fabulous results. For shoulder shooting you'd need an extra mount to avoid tiredness but holding the big top handle is fine for maybe half an hour. Don't often have to do non-tripod shots that long.

My shoulders still ache from hand holding the Z1 from yesterdays anniversery party. I guess it will be even worse when I add a new decent mic to it. That built in mic is the pitts.

JJK

One expects to use a shoulder mount or other brace for a camera such as the Z1. I expected very little of the built in mike, so have been surprised by the audio it has given under suitable conditions. Obviously a separate mike is the usual thing, particularly when needing a wind shield.

i actually went out and tested the Z1 and the one thing i was really looking forward to was the 24fps abilities which on Panasonic's camera were terrific. However, on the Z1 it really looked less like 24fps and more like a cheap shutter effect. So now, I'm at an impasse cuz Panasonic doesn't have an HD cam yet in that arena...

Well you could shoot 60i and let Vegas do the conversion. Or shoot 50i and convert to 25p. Actually Cineframe 25 looks very good, but has less vertical resolution than 50i.

Actually, it doesn't look like a cheap shutter effect if you process the pulldown.
Cineframe processing with CineForm

Looks pretty good. John Rofrano was testing this the other day and was extremely impressed, so don't just take my word for it.