The Indy Workhorse...

Author's Rating:

Pros: Focus/Zoom controls via remote, 24P frame rate(Movie Like), Beefy construction, Cost, Many 3rd party upgrades

Cons: Not HD, no removable/upgradable lenses, only a few frame rates,

The Bottom Line: 
If you want to break into the market, or just make family movies more interesting, this is your camera!

Author's Review
The Panasonic DVX100 has been the workhorse of many video productions for almost 5 years now. With it's innovative 24P Cinema like qualities and it's ability to look and sound just like a multi-million dollar movie, this camera is what video producers the world around dream about at night. Now in it's 3rd revision, the DVX100B is getting better and better. With the addition of a separate Focus and Zoom control via a tethered remote, you can now use this camera in a studio setting. There are many manufacturers creating add-ons for this camera like: Matte Box, Follow Focus, Zoom controllers, and Focus controllers just to name a few. The overall feel of the camera is very comfortable in your hand and well balanced side-to-side and front-to-back.

There are some downsides to this camera, albeit only a few. First, this camera doesn't have a removable lens with limits the ability to change DOF, zoom, and even some wider angles. There are a few manufacturers that make screw on lenses but these have their own separate downfalls. Another major downfall is the inability to record in HD or even HDV. This lack of option put the camera behind some of the other video camera competition.

In all this camera is a work of art and really helps to make film making (or even family video footage), look and feel more like film. I would suggest anyone with amateur film maker tendencies to get this camera if you haven't already purchased it.