On 6 Apr 2002 17:42:05 -0800, dballmer@nmu.edu (Dan) wrote:

>Fellow usenet members,
>
>Not long ago Chris Hurd published an article on why I chose the PD150
>to be my camcorder. You can read the article at:
>http://www.dvinfo.net/vx2000.htm
>
>After the article was published I figured I'd be hearing a lot of
>backlash from the Canon folks . . . but something odd has occured.
>Instead of the Canon people writing me, I have VX2000 people claiming
>that I've misrepresented the 'hiss' problem, and that in fact there is
>no hiss problem at all. Rather the VX2000 has no more hiss than any
>other camcorder in its price range would have.
>
>It is not my intention to misrepresent anyones favorite camcorder in
>the article. I've done many shoots with a VX2000, but I've never
>taken it off AGC and put it into manual to test it.
>
>Please read the article and let me know what you think. Is this
>'hiss' problem I've heard so much about merely hype? Have I treated
>it unfairly or blown it out of proportion? Let me know.
>
>Also, anyone with credible links to this 'hiss' issue please post
>them.
>
>Thanks!
>
>-Dan Ballmer
>http://imaginationvideo.com

I was one of those claiming that you misrepresented the
"problem" in your review on the PD150 on CH's web site...
In this brief review on the *PD150*, you mention three
times this *VX2000* "problem", without first-hand
experience with it, without qualifying it or putting it in context,
and without acknowledging that most users do not notice
this "problem". (Another reviewer on this same site does
do the above...) A recurrent "rumor" here has been of a
major VX2000 audio problem, but when it is pinned down
with good specific information, it is found that it does
exist, but it is no worse than that in other popular
consumer-level camcorders, is not noticed by most users
(including you...;-), is very moderate as "problems" go,
and there are ways around it (as pointed out in my review,
and in another review on the CH site). You describe it
as if it is important, with statements beginning with the
first (right up top in the review), "It also suffers from
the widely publicized "audio hiss" problem that will be
discussed later", then, "Upon its initial release, many
Sony users were terrified to find that the PD150 (and
VX2000) had an audible audio hiss problem", and,
"Unfortunately Sony considers the VX2000 a 'consumer'
model camera and therefore refused to fix the audio hiss
problem on this model". All this stated as if it were fact,
without more than rumors and inaccurate and inadequate
descriptions of it to support it... This is a disservice,
and now again I guess we must suffer the recurrent
threads beginning with, "I was going to buy the VX2000
until I heard about the 'hiss' problem...", and the
subsequent oft-repeated qualifiers, etc. needed to put
this "problem" in context, where it is generally regarded
as not being very important...