HVX 200?

Is this a good camera?
My son just bought one from a guy on a cragslist ad. Paid $3,000.00. My son says it "smells" brand new and only has 53 hours on the hard drive, and came with pelican case. Is this a good deal? I know nothing about this stuff, and hope he didn't get ripped off.

Yes. Great camera. 3K???? He stole it.

Thanks Steve, guess I should have more confidence in him, I did raise him!
He just sold his old Panasonic (non HD) with 400 hours on it, on craigslist for $1250...
What did we do before Craigslist??

It's worth 10 times that much if it's one of the rare models with a hard drive!

Seriously though the HVX is a great cam, still the baseline that all other HD cams are measured against.

Like I said, I know nothing about this stuff, hard drive/soft drive/ direct drive lol
Thanks again guys, your info helps me realize he knows what he's doing!
He just picked it up last night, and has taken it today on a shoot, when I hear back from him, it should be all good news.

The HVX is a professional level camera. Lots of the non-studio TV shows you see (ie The Amazing Race, etc) are shot with an HVX-200 and, as a filmmaker, I love using it. Great, great camera and, as was said, $3k is a great deal.

Thanks Sly Park, I see you're a student at the Art Institute. Good luck with your career!
My son graduated last year from Brooks Institute in Ventura. He has been doing freelance work, staying fairly busy, and has saved enough to upgrade his camera. His shoot yesterday went great, and the camera performed perfectly!

Thanks, Chris! Brooks was one of the schools I was heavily considering as well as the Art Institute. They've got great program. Glad to hear your son's shoot went well. I've shot a couple of short films, a longer (not-quite feature length) film and a documentary on the HVX (as well as numerous smaller school projects) and have always been very happy with it.