hi everyone!
i've been lurking here for a while and now i finally registered so i can be a part of it... WHOPPEEE!
i'm a total newbie to all this. i literally woke up one day about a month and a half ago and all the sudden knew i wanted to make a low budget movie. i've been playing, engineering, and producing music pretty seriously for over ten years, so this came out of left field, but i know i can do it. i'm totally excited!

so my question is this: i've been thinking about getting a GL1 or a GL2, and today i met a guy that seems real trustworthy who has a used GL1. he showed me the camera and it looked like he had taken VERY good care of it. he said there was about 250 hours of use on it. is this a lot? how much use is too much to be investing in? he wants about $1200 for the camera and he said he would probably throw in the five hour battery for free. it sounds like a pretty good deal, but i don't know how many hours are too many for this camera. should i just bite the bullet and spend another $800 or so for a new GL2? is the difference between these cameras that great?

any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
(i'll just continue to lurk now, since i'm not even making movies yet....)

cheers,
ryan

If I was to sell you a car and only tell you how many miles it had would you buy it even if it looked good?

I would take it to a local camera shop and normally if you find a cool technician, he will check the camera for free.
Most importantly, the head and lens of the camera.
Also, take some sample video and make sure alot of pixels have not burned out.

A GL1 is a nice camera though.

good advice monodynamic -
thanks