On Fri, 01 Feb 2002 14:43:28 GMT, "Charlie Burnham" wrote:

>I am designing a small public access cable studio with a three camera setup
>switched by a Video Toaster II. The Toaster seems to have enough individual
>channel color processing to correct for major differences in the cameras.
>
>Due to budget constraints, we can't afford regular studio cameras with
>component outputs, big viewfinders, CCU's and the like.
>
>Instead, we thought we'd try to make three PD-150's work as studio cameras
>by furnishing them with custom cables containing tally, intercom, DC power,
>and zoom controllers. When we got to that stage, we wondered if we could
>save even more money by going with the VX-2000 instead of the PD-150. We
>don't care about DVCAM or the balanced audio features of the PD-150. We
>have, however, heard something about there needing to be tape loaded into
>the VX-2000 in order to prevent the camera from going into sleep mode.
>Obviously, it's important to have a picture coming out of the camera as long
>as it is powered up. There also seems to be some kind of general
>"ruggedness" bias out there in favor of the PD-150.

Since the VX2000 and PD150 are virtually identical
(except for features you don't care about...), it
seems unlikely they would be different in "ruggedness",
except possibly for the built-in mic of the VX2000...
As for the camera shutting off - all do this *with
tape loaded* to protect heads and tape (remove tape,
and they stay on as long as you power them properly).