Cost of life

[VideJo]

This Forum is awsome!
And so are the DIY projects of some members!
Most members of the Forum only buy their HV20 after reading the Forum for at least 3 weeks. So they could have read, that the price of the HV20 alone is not all you will spend . . . The standard phrase of the recomendations looks like: "Tripod, external microphone, stand alone charger, extra batteries, tapes and a WA lens".
Obviously, some of the members did not read that carefuly, because in the pics of their DIY contraptions, you can clearly see, that they could not afford to buy the item from the shop.
But regardless of that, some members always respond on another crappy contraption with cries like: "AAWWSSOOMMEE!!"
Now is that:
1) Ment as a complement, regardless of the quality of the effort?
2) An expression of somebody who is even more clumsy that the entrepeneur?
3) Another try to confuse me more?
4) Proof of the fact, that I do not have a proper taste?

[ForwardLooker]

I guess when you say "crappy contraption" what do you meen by that?

[VideJo]

Bad English maybe? I ment to say a badlooking DIY thingy.

[jackinthebox]

If a crappy looking DIY thingy does what it does half as well as the pretty, expensive commercial version, I'm all for the most sincere cries of awesomeness. It doesn't surprise me that most people here would consider the HV20 a necessity without getting the whole kit-and-kaboodle to go along with it. A brilliant CCD capable of full 1080 is hard to come by and Cannon has apparently outdone themselves with this camcorder and put it in a surprisingly affordable pricerange.

[Mats]

The low (in the eyes of the beholder...) price I think attracts many with a limited budget and thus DIY add-ons appear instead of the state-of-the-art accessories after the HV20 have been purchased. It's not that bad - the most important item is the HV20 so start spending money there and add good extras with time (and money). But don't take excellent footage for granted with DIY stuff. Quality usually comes with price (although I have been told otherwise here...)

On this topic it's also interesting that guys with (almost) unlimited funds buy the HV20 and then add many times the value of the unit on extras. I don't say it's wrong, just that it's interesting.

Well, as long as one is happy - that's the most important thing. It's a toy for most of us anyhow. And a quite fun toy I might add.

As for "Awesome dude" comments I would myself think "hmm... that looks professional and interesting" if I saw some old crappy camcorder loaded with stuff. Look at the usual images of the JVC or Pannys. The real recording unit is 15 cm or so, then they hang on 25 cm tele lens, matte box, extra display, batt. packs. Soon it's big as a building, and looks "great" and attracts attention. Awesome dude!