SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???

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kevinl
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Joined: Sep 17 2006
My Sony DSR-11 is now showing it's age and is now very tempramental when playing miniDV tapes (it's fine with DVCam tapes).  It was serviced not so long ago, but had not made that much difference. 
 
So it needs replacing - the question is with what???  Sony no longer do a similar model - can any one recommend any thing else?
tom hardwick
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Joined: Apr 8 1999
Re: SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???
You need full-size DVCAM rec/replay?  Then a second-hand DSR-11 might be a good idea as they're little used these days.  If you just need MiniDV SP rec/replay then practically any MiniDV camcorder would suit you fine, but check that it has Firewire in record.
 
tom.
mooblie
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Joined: Apr 27 2001
Re: SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???
Is the HVR-M15E deck out of production?  That was an "everything the DSR-11 does, but with HDV as well" product.
 
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Edit: No, just checked - it's still listed here at Prestons, for example.

Martin - DVdoctor in moderation. Everyone is entitled to my opinion.

paulears
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Re: SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???
The firewire died on mine so an ebay replacement worked fine , but I've only got a small number of tapes recorded in DVCAM, so I'm sticking those onto a hard drive, and then when the current DSR-11 fails, it won't be a problem. The price of a brand new one just for archive is a bit scary.
Barry Hunter
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Joined: Nov 30 2001
Re: SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???
Probably your best bet, given the fact that you have only a small number of DVCam tapes, is to get someone with an HVR-M15e deck (me for instance)smiley & supply them with a portable Hard Drive & pay for them to be encoded onto the drive.

Barry Hunter videos4all.org

tilski
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Joined: Sep 5 2000
Re: SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???
Good reply, Barry. And you're both in Devon it seems. The Sony DSR decks on Ebay range from sensible to silly money. I personally wouldn't risk it. So if it is only a few tapes then I'd go with archiving onto HD drive. Though do keep the tapes safe too.

What's to become of us.... What is to become of us?

MAGLINK
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Joined: Mar 8 2007
Re: SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???
As Tom said just buy a cheap DV camcorder if you need a mini DV deck, I just transferred 10 hours of DV material to FCP via firewire and used my late son's panasonic NV-GS60 which cost about £130 four years ago! 
 
On DVcam note I had to turn down a days work for ITV/ITN today as they are still on DVcam and still can't cope with tapeless as their AVID news cutters as so old, haven't used tape for three years now but just goes to show how some broadcasters are still on the format. 
tilski
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Re: SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???
News Cutters - old!!!!!!
 
Nooooooooooo.
 
It's a workflow and budget thing. Even when ITV Westcountry were uprooted and cut down and upgraded they still chose to keep the DVCAM tape format. I guess it's harder for a large organizations to embed a technology that is still in flux and is yet to be rolled out across the world. I know many cameramen who hated ditching their faithful Betacam SX units for DVCAM. But at the time DVCAM semed a good workhorse to replace Beta. A tried and tested technology that could still be used well across the network.
 
But DVCAM kit is now becoming harder to come by and replacements aren't always cheap. Especially the broadcast gear. 
 
 

What's to become of us.... What is to become of us?

tilski
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Joined: Sep 5 2000
Re: SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???
Speaking to a cameraman friend of mine who works in the regions.........solid state is on it's way. By next winter DVCAM could be phased out of mainstream news gathering.........so he says. 

What's to become of us.... What is to become of us?

MAGLINK
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Joined: Mar 8 2007
Re: SONY DSR-11 REPLACEMENT???
I meant the software on the ITV newscutters I have encountered was old and couldn't handle tapeless formats although last two times I have been to Tyne Tees there have been crews camped out in the foyer with their EX cameras and FCP macbook pro portable edit systems. 
 
As for ITV regtions I think you will see that tapless will come in the form of journalists with their own handcams based from home or the local newspaper offices and ITV closing down all of its regional centres. 
 
The journos will only be there anyway to feed any scoop story into ITV in London but no doubt in time that will also migrate towards the new regional broadcasters that the government is licencing so hat ITV can dump the regions and become London centric.
 
As for kit the Z7 seemed to be the camera being chosen but  some of the latest small canon or sony tapeless cameras will be the std for news operation in the future but with more people shooting mobile fone footage no doubt that will be a future source of moving picture content, facebook seems to be ITV's favorite call for media portal on a regional level.