www.supervideo.com
M2 -
Owner's Feed Back!
Chicago's MXSource
Camcorder
Think About This For A
Minute... you buy a once in a lifetime three chip
camcorder and for serious coins... don't you Deserve or shouldn't you
Demand to have Full an "Unfettered Access !" to English
manuals, Tips,
Guides, Cheat sheets, Templates, Instructions, Diagrams, Explanations
of All Controls, Switches and Buttons to say nothing of
All Menus? Well?
So, to answer many of you why do I support & recommend this
package
over all others...
Because every day I am inundated with trying to bail out those that
got
suckered into the Cheap & Easy eBayers and
others of that ilk ! Sorry !!
English Mamba Welcome Guide
Mamba Factory Sealed/Fresh/New Box
Mamba 3CCD Leica Camcorder System
Mamba Lens Adapter Combo Shade/Hood/Protector/Wide Angle
Mamba Wide Angle Leather Pouch and Instructions
Mamba Kit: Battery/A-C Adapter/Charger/Power Cord
Mamba Factory Warranty Documents
Mamba English Quick Start Guide
Mamba English Cheat Sheets
Mamba Japanese Owner's Manual
Mamba English USA Owner's Manual
Mamba English CD Manual Chapters & Adobe Acrobat Software
Japanese & USA Video Editing CD
Special Mamba USB Cables
Special Mamba Analog Stereo Audio & Video Cable
Mamba Lens Cap & Tether
Mamba Pana Hand-Strap
Mamba 'Wired' Pen / Mic Remote Control
Mamba Full Size Wireless Remote Control
View Screen Lens Cloth
Various Pana Japan & English Promotional Materials
&
One English Remote Control Unit
Owners Reporting In...
*****************************************************************
At 02:02 PM, you wrote about the Silver Mamba2 Above:
Hi meister,
We Got Big time 'Houston' Problems!
Images from our new Mamba are worse than our old Pana MX
and to tell you the truth some of our Hi8 old analog stuff looks
a heck of a lot better...something has to be wrong here.... help.
We do have some Master High End Pana DV tapes and we will
give them a try out this weekend.
I have been dealing with some complaints from my cameraman.
He says that the Mamba does not look as good as a friend's last
years's
MX.... honest ! We just finished a side by side
demo, going
through all the menus. The Mamba looks VERY grainy and appears
to have a fair amount of video noise. The resulting picture is muddy,
lacking in contrast and color compared to the MX. We did an
A/B switch comparison. Both guys I have working are broadcast
professionals and we went over all the menu settings. There is no
filter on Each the Mamba and the MX. We have the Iris open and
zero db gain set, the shutter speed is 1/60.
Any suggestions. The differences on all monitors is VERY prominent.
Thanks meister
Tom-meister
Hello my meister,
Well, I just finished editing the most recent Hot and Cold TV program
and news clip for the masses f eastern and central Maine.
N O W It Looks Great...
The big setting screw-up was in Digital Effects, someone, (I think
with
my matter of fact blessing --"Yeah, try that, see if it works!") and
THAT
seemed to have Turned
On The Gain Up Setting!!
Everything else was the same. I did bump up the color a little, but
that
was it. Sheeesh... I am back in the saddle
again. Whew... !
I really appreciate the determined effort that got us to this point.
I am
cozying up to the menus, since most of them are Never going
to be touched
........ now!
The only problem I now have is not directly Mamba related. We deliver
our segments to the TV station on DVD-R or DVD-Ram to help maintain
the image quality and because the DVD player is the only
new piece of
equipment that the TV station has that isn't worn out. The TV show looks
great since it runs directly from DVD. The news clip is run from DVD-Ram
onto BETA, but the settings of their TBC are never right and it looks
awful...almost sub VHS, with blooming & muddy colors. The kicker was
yesterday, when the news director tells me that the Idiot (yes, this
should
be capitalized) chief engineer told her that the poor news clip quality is
because I do not have a very good camera..........
It was better than anything they had before the settings were reconciled.
I am going to tape a VHS off the air this week and go in for bear next
Monday. It will be fun. This is the same person who stated that non-linear
editing is not good because it cost $15,000 and is slower than linear
editing.
(June, statement!!) (Their non-linear editor is a Mac 9500 with
a
Media 100 card and the last person who knew how to use it quit last week)!!
Anyway, THANKS again. I am ready to do an endorsement now and will let
you know the outcome. Very Sincerely
Your
tom-meister :-)
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom-meister
Sent: Tuesday, 1:19 PM
Hope your holiday vacation was OK meister and the gang over at MXSource
as well.....
Just a quick update on my experiences with the new Mamba. As you may
recall, I produce a local TV program for broadcast on a local ABC
affiliate.
I have been using the Mamba now for everything. This week, I am planning
to run a program which we produced for the Governor's office earlier this year
using HC1000 borrowed. It was well produced (better than our usual
standards) and was well lit. Well, I keep wishing that we could re-shoot
it with the Mamba. Better color saturation, great in HD re-broadcast and
holds
sharpness better than 5 or 7 grand units... really!
The Mamba by Pana Japan is so much sharper and has much better flesh
tones.
It is a fantastic stopping off point until we have that non-tape HD
camcorder for
under $200,000.
I am even beginning to understand Japanese I am liking this Mamba so well.
Wishing all of you at MXSource guys a Sucessful and Prosperous New Year
Thanks
your Tom-meister
------Open Letter To All---------
At 05:39 PM, you wrote:
Wishing you all the Best... your Tom-meister
I am glad the Mamba is working out for you NOW and for so many others
as
well....
Let me say this...
your chuckmeister is not getting paid by Pana, Sony or from
any camera manufacturer to say anything... I'm just a clearing
house of info and what I do best is to alert people to opportunities.
Opportunities of a camcorder, or a monitor or a Laptop or any
piece of A/V gear that might otherwise get over looked or
not be placed before the shopping public for consideration.
The Mamba and all SEVEN of it's predecessors for the past SEVEN
years... falls into that category... it is neither PERFECT, NOR
the Ultimate Cam or even THE Nirvana of Video-dom Cam...
BUT IT IS THE CLOSEST WE HAVE SEEN TO DATE !
It is a Great Camcorder, a Nice Cam for the price, weight & astounding
to say the least for it's size as it IS the world's smallest full featured
3CCD
mini DV cam and by a familiar company (Panasonic) and a
world class optic house (Leica) and for what I believe is a really
truly Good and Fair Price. Can other camcorders seemingly shoot
in the dark, under crummy lighting conditions or with bad visibility
better than the MambaX... maybe! and for Twenty Thousand Dollars
some can probably go down and crawl along the ocean floor over a mile
deep where as this dumb Mamba can only go 30 to 70 feet
down with
it's INCLUDED Crystal Clear Housing... Rain or Shine, Hot or Cold...
everything has it's limitations and it's design functions. The Leica
Lens Mamba DOES take excellent images and it Does love light and it
loves lots of color, outdoor scenery, indoor well lit rooms and facial
tones... and in my humble opinion it does this better than any of it's
contemporaries... that is no small achievement and is a great credit
to Pana and their Japan based designed team whom have heard us complain.
It is deservingly an Award Winning Camcorder and IS a Flagship
Panasonic!
I believe that the owners will come to Love this cam and to take beatiful
Clear movies, images and video stories with it and justifiably be very...
proud. Congratulations to All Black Mamba2 and Super / Extreme owners.
Mahalo nui Aloha THANKS
*****************************************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg-meister
Sent: Tuesday, 4:47 PM
To: chuckmeister@supervideo.com
Subject: Mamba2 replaces my Mamba1
chuckmeister here greg-meister...
I will struggle to stay awake to get some e-mails
out... Greg... your Chicago Starbuck's pictures
are up on the Mamba XLR option web page.
just hit the top left picture for the LINK.
Great meeting with you... Good Luck
http://www.supervideo.com/MXmouse.htm
Let me know what kind
of hits you get on eBay
for your old Mamaba1 Greg as well...
cm
*****************************
Oh chuckmeister!
Glad to hear you made it back to the land of sunshine.
Thanks for taking the time to meet and show me Mamaba2.
There was a button some company was giving away for one
gadget or the other at CES, a few years ago and it said....
, "I've seen it, I've tried it, I want it!".
Well, I've seen the Pana Black Mamba2, I've held the M2, I
want it, I need it and I JUST Have To Have It... great cam !
The all weather
housing is unbelievable and with the 9+ waist
Hour Battery attached and the built-in flash deployed the
camera still slid in and sealed in the housing. "Luved" the
larger view
screen and top loading capabilities. No more
unscrewing the quick Release Tripod Mount shoe to change
the video tape and the SD Reader / Writer... Wow !
Also dug the larger 4 Meg still shot and I use the pop up flash.
I have
always thought a built in flash should've been on my JVC.
Pain in the butt to fumble in the camera bag for the flash unit in
the middle of kids opening presents.
"Wait just a second before you guys rip into all your new
toys, honey." Yeah right, like that's gonna work.
Anyway Meister monster, if you
know of anyone interested
in an old JVC with the original box, a PDF of the British manual
on CD-ROM and less than 50 HOURS USE!!! let me know.
I'm looking to get ~$3,000 for it. I'll keep you up to
date
if I get any hits on E-Bay.
Take it easy and talk to you
soon, Thanks again
your Chicago greg-meister !
*******************************************************************************************************************
Sent: Friday, 4:55 PM
To: chuckmeister@supervideo.com
Subject: Black Mamba2 arrives from Chicago
I have decided to purchase the Black Mamba2
instead of the Pana 24P and have contacted Walt
and Warren out in Illinois. Before I send payment
for this machine, could you please help me with
one question? Since the CCD size is somewhat
smaller than the 1/3" size of the old Sony VX,
can I expect the image quality to be less?
I`ll be shooting video almost exclusively, not stills
to be as good as the Sony?
Sincerely... Tim-ster
Aloha Tim and thanks for your e-mail.
You raise a question that believe it or not...
was asked when we went from TWO inch
video pick-up device to a lousy One Inch!
That was not meant to be funny but actually
quite illustrative.. what we have is a ratcheting
of technology that with each succeeding
break through the product at hand gets smaller...
better... cheaper, cooler, more efficient and
YES it IS an improvement... and you can see
this when you step back for a moment... the
MX1000 had a certain quality that was not
beaten until the MX2000 arrived with 3 chips
and the be guy on the block in 1999 became
the MX3000. That model ceased production
because it's replacement needed that assembly
line as the famous MX5000. Even though it
still continued to sell and be popular... it ran
its course when the Mamba1 last year was born...
Hence we now have a Mamba2. True to form
any variance or de-featured side model became
a PV953 in USA to everyone's disappointment.
Too many good features were again stripped off
like models before it when it got to the USA belatedly.
YES the Black Mamba2 will do circles around all
the models before it.
My Mamba1 can not hold a
candle to my new Mamba2
as good as the Mamba1
was or still is... it was just it's time had passed.
I will address this issue but with Videographers
that will report on a "borrowed" Mamba2 and
their own Mamba1 they have loved and trusted
for so many months... that way you will get a good
sense and feel as to just what all the talk and Buzz
is all about. Between you and me...
it is as if Pana
was listening and taking notes to all the gripes and
complaints people had or would like to see changed
with their Mamba1 to make it even better and did
Exactly that to bring about this Mamba2.
You WILL love it... really!!
Thanks for this opportunity and Please keep
me posted as to the ordering, the shipping
time and the first impressions and even your
first shoots with this puppy. I can also get you
paired up with another Mamba new cam
owner that is a few weeks ahead of you
for e-mail chatting and tips and feed back.
Thanks and Aloha
chuckmeister
----- Original Message -----
From: chuckmeister
Sent: Tuesday, 8:41 PM
To: carlos
Subject: RE: My meister who walk's on Sony and Pana waters, please be
so kind as to
direct me to the mother load of all DV camcorders and Thank
YOU
Aloha
I seem
to be a lonely voice in the middle of the ocean here
with my
pleading for MORE giving and LESS taking (selling,
pushing...
buy THIS or buy THAT)... I am not so sure if there
really
is another and many that come by this huge site of
mine
swear I am an original. You have a camcorder... so
Welcome
to a club... a SONY camcorder, Welcome to a
somewhat smaller club and a DV one at that and you are
now in
an exclusive club. Many of the things I say and
describe are applicable to you and your cam... Many of the
techniques
I go into great detail at the Color Spheres @
are
great for beginners. The Studio in a SuitCase works for
everyone
and that includes you and your new Mamba2.
You have some specific questions... shoot them by me. By
going to
my Rumor pages for the past many years... you will
find
links to a lot of what is going on and how to use and
how even to make better videos... for yourself and others.
Thanks
and I do want to hear from you and
how
things are down there. Do you use PAL
or NTSC
equipment. Is it a problem to order
from
America or other places and import them
to your
country....
Thanks
your
chuckmeister
-----Original
Message-----
From: carlos
Sent: Tuesday, 1:34 PM
To: dvmesiter@supervideo.com
Subject: My meister who walk's on Sony and Pana waters, please be so
kind
as to direct me to the mother load of all DV camcorders and Thank YOU
IHELLO
I really like your site and actually it gave
information for my new camcorder. I bought a Sony VX2100 and I was wondering
if you could direct me to any site, publication or info to get the best out
of it. This is my first camcorder so as you already guessed. I'm green
behind the ears.
Thank You for your time and if you can't help...
don't worry. My main idea was to congratulate you and encourage you
regarding your effort.
It is greatly appreciated
Carlos-meister
Tegucigalpa, Honduras Central America
Hola my meister!
Wow, I'm impressed. You do answer e-mail (clap,clap,clap,clap...). You honor
me greatly for taking the time to write back. The info is great and for the
time being I have no big questions. Just opened the the box of my DV yesterday
and made a short recording to get to know some of the features and a
couple of stills in the memory sticks.
Buying from the US is relatively easy. I purchased the camera through our
freight forwarder in Miami and my boss bought it back as he was in vacation in
Florida. I purchased from Goodbuys.com. They had good reviews from the clients
and the price seemed ok in comparison to other dealers. The bad thing is
that they don't take credit cards issued outside the US and No English
anything like MXSource or that protector lens option three in one combo which
is really neat. I bought a cam bag and tapes plus a cheap tripod from Best Buy all for $200 and a friend
traveling here brought them home in her suitcase. The exchange rate is really
to our disadvantage but I had a few dollars saved for this 16.9082 lempiras
for $1 (a Whopper combo costs around 70 lempiras and a Coke 17 for a
liter). You have a terrible Inflation rate down
there...!
I have a Pentium 4 3GHz 512 in RAM alone. I also have a ATI card with
256MB dedicated video plus 80GB in hard disk. I also have a SoundBlaster Live
card and I'm getting soon a small 8 channel mixer. My applications are set for
audio production (mainly for church). We use NTSC equipment here, same as the
US I believe. That is Correct... and this system is
just fine. How many FireWire ports do you have?
I do have two questions for you at this time:
1.-I read the part about the tape preparation and I got the pink noise stuff
right immediately. I do not understand the part regarding the black or gray
screen. How do I accomplish that? Does your cam have a device to do this? By
the way great advice.
BTW... Thank You ! This suggestion is from my
Home Page SuperVideo.com at the color spheres. The statement there was
"A new Tape is a Used Tape and a Used Tape is actually a New Tape!
Look... http://www.supervideo.com
2.- What is a meister?
Old European term for Master and for Mayor... sometimes it is used derogatory
but many times an affectionate designation
Your friend & fellow Carlos-meister
P.S. If I can do anything for you, please let me know meister
***********************************************************************************
my chuckmeister:
Thanks for the reply.
Please remember that the item in question was purchased from Canada rather
than from Chicago....
The package contained:
1) Camera, 2 straps, instruction book (in English & Japanese), assorted cables, wired
and wireless remotes
2) A separate kit with battery, charger, AC adapter, and separate
manual
Everything that was pictured in the manuals was present.
The English manual was supplied as a PDF file. This is Great. I can down
load to print, to HDD and even to myself as an e-mail... Thanks. How
clever and I have already made dupes of the CD-ROM. So clear and concise.
I was also given a the English manual from England which covers many of the
same but seemed easier to follow.
In its current configuration, it works beautifully.
S
---
A thousand pardons, Chuckmeister.
It was sheer, unadulterated stupidity on my part. You wrote to me
clearly, but I wasn't really paying close enough attention. That there was in fact an English
Language CD-ROM, Cheat Sheets and other materials for this Black Mamba2 version of
the Pana cam. That was the fatal error. I thought it
was stripped like the USA version.
I did not think that I needed the Pana Mamba2 wide angle device, I had a huge PayPal
balance. I found someone who claimed to be selling the same unit, with a one
year guarantee, and with an English manual, and who accepted Paypal. So I
figured I could save myself $200 by ordering from that person, as I wrote to
you. This was just plain wrong.
I think there is a community of very educated camcorder users out there, with
you at or near the center. For those users, it was already obvious that the
GS100 and the gs400 in the NTSC versions would be for Japanese market only. If
one was willing to go the extra distance in learning the controls and menus,
one would get a superb unit. I didn't realize this until I actually received
the camera and tried to work with it. Had I known this, I would have
appreciated the business about the English cheat sheets, manuals, etc. etc.
You may recall that I wrote you about this, and you said there was a
problem--English. I assumed this meant that there was an export version, and that I had to be sure to get this.
Anyway, I have learned a hard lesson--pay close attention to the
chuckmeister
and do as he says. I'm not being facetious here.
I appreciate all your help and support, and I think I am now on the right
track.
My only suggestion would be to underline, on one of the Mamba pages, that it is
important to get ALL the proper manuals, CD-ROM, down load all your wonderful
technical specs and web information pages as well as the the version you call
the Super Black mamba2 complete system.... And this is why your
friend Walt is the right man for that job.
S
Aloha
S
NO...
you did nothing wrong... you did exactly as many others
would
& HAVE... BUT, by writing me back I was STILL able
to assist you. I have directed you be allowed to get all the items
you specified that are translated into English & be shipped ASAP
to you.
You are most welcome BTW. Not everyone is this lucky!
Now...
to move along...
You
will soon have these necessary tools to cope, understand
AND get very professional...
with this wonderful 3CCD
'Powerful'
camcorder. I like to tell everyone that what you
are
dealing here with is no different if I told you we could
get
Mercedes Convertibles that are NOT available to anyone
in North America. But, they would come all written in German.
How
many times would one have to be shown or taught to
find an ignition switch, insert the key and turn only clockwise.
How
are you going to manage to understand all those
controls
and indicators...? "you mean the speedometer is
no sweat? fuel gauge can be guessed at pretty close?
You
see where I am going with all of this...?
As
long as you know how to drive one car... you pretty
much
have most others figured out already I would think...
In the world of camcorders... most of the numeric settings
are
understandable... 'f' settings, WB settings, W-T for the
zoom
switch... a lot is NOT rocket science but simple. Just
step back a second and think. With the translations in
hand
you may want to go over the settings... but once
set
you really do not have to go back and reset or re-configure
16 by 9 or 4 by 5 screen width. Do you want Monaural or
Stereo
audio recording...? Duh ! Some of these are no
brainer's and once set you just leave them and forget them.
No...
turning off the cam does Not reset them. Neither does
removing
the battery ! Most photographers and videographers
will
clean their cam and inspect their cam prior to a shoot,
usually
the night before... charging batteries, going through
check
lists... well, a quick look at the new Mamba Quick Start
12 page guide will pretty much tell you about all controls, dials
and switch settings and customizing the cam for anything out of
the ordinary for that particular shoot. You will also get to put in
your wallet a Credit Card size CHEAT sheet for any field
issues
arising when you are away from your manual on location.
Now this is important... I have asked that the MXSource people
to include an USA English master wireless 31 button remote
control. There is also now a secondary WIRED Remote included.
So now you can operate the Mamba via Wired Remote with
any brand or any model camcorder Tripod... you can Velcro the
'Pencil' shaped second remote with built in narration microphone
to the tripod control arm and you are IN without any shake and
perfect pans and all controls of the
shoot such as On / Record,
Pause, Off as well as Zoom In & Out are now at your finger tips.
I have now asked MXSource to include the D/C adapter cord
which will be worth from $150 to $189 extra from Pana USA to
be at no additional costs along with Pana Mamba Wide Angle lens.
I do
hope this helps you to become one of the fast growing
Mamba families here in North America that just past the 2500
Owner mark and the over 5000 owners that have a domestic
Japanese NTSC unit in operation in the states. I would like
every
potential Mamba owner to be part of a MX - Mamba
association some of which are Hot Linked MX Directory Page @...
http://www.supervideo.com/M2.htm
Sincerely with Aloha
your
chuckmeister
Hope Some Of This Helped...
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