What is the best camcorder for buying?

What is the best option: Buying a 24P camcorder or buying a software that converts video to 24P.(factor $$$)?

• I'm thinking about buying a Panasonic AG DVX-100A camcorder or a cheaper one that I can convert the footage to 24p. I'm trying to use my money wisely.

• Answer:

  Man I had the same problem myself (not that I had the money to get a 24p camera, but deciding which one was better). This is what I think. If you have a superfast computer, then go with software that converts 60i to 24p, because you'll have more flexibility in post this way. I have magic bullet for after effects, and I have a single core 2.67 ghz, 80 gig (76.5 actually) hard drive, 512 ram, windows xp home computer. It took me about 8 minutes to render a 3 sec. 60i-24p uncompressed clip. However, that was with look suite (film-look), opticals, and deinterlace and deartifactor applied. For most things, 30p looks almost as good as 24p, takes less time, and if all you're doing is just converting 60i-30p or 24p, then it shouldn't take that long, especially if you have a faster computer than I do (dual cores, obviously, decrease render time). On the other hand, you could go with a DVX100A. This would remove all the processing time needed later in post, which is great if you're on a tight schedule, or just dont want to wait 3-4 days for your movie to render. However, the only limitation to this is you will have less options/control over the look (in Magic bullet, if you dont like the look, adjust it, whereas you can't adjust your already "rendered" footage). Also, consider the price of magic bullet suite 2.1, which is $799, $129 for an upgrade. If you're just looking for a filmic look, (not motion-wise), then often adjusting the brightness and contrast in an editing program will give it a nice filmic response (although lighting is still up to you!). And finally, I have a canon gl2, which doesn't have a true 24p recording option, but I often set the shutter to 1/30 or in some cases the "movie mode", and it looks pretty good after some look tweaks in magic bullet or brightness/contrast. Hope this helps!