It's about time (and time is running out).

Seven years ago, Canon rocked the prosumer videomaker's world with the introduction of their XL1 camcorder. While Sony and Panasonic and JVC all had attractively featured camcorders at the time, they ALL lacked important functions of their competition. If only one could find a SINGLE camcorder with ALL of the professional features, one would be set.

Enter the XL1. The first prosumer camcorder to offer a complete professional feature-set. From Interchangable lenses, zebra pattern, 3-CCD, Manual Iris, Shutter, Lens Filter ring, Frame-movie mode, anamorphic 16:9 (albeit at reduced res) and more (and a pretty sleek design to boot).

The XL1 enjoyed at least 3 years as the ONLY choice for a serious working prosumer videographer. Canon had left it's competition in the dust.

A little more than two years ago, Panasonic released their hot little number, the DVX-100. It seems while Canon was busy making minor modifications on their precious king-of-all camcorders, Panasonic snuck in the back door and stole Canon's crown. 24P and 24P Advanced were the weapon that won the war. Panasonic, however crummy their stock lens may be, has held the fort until now.

It's about time that Canon reclaimed it's former glory. Once again, we are at a point in history where every manufacturer has a great camcorder on the market. Panasonic has 24P, Sony has native wide chips and JVC was first to market with HDV.

Once again, Canon has swooped in to clean up, incorporating EVERY feature of it's competition in ONE camera—every feature, that is, except the one that could stop Canon's dynasty before it even begins—HDV!

The XL2 is NATIVE wide! Using the same size chip as it's prosumer competitors, Canon has reoriented the pixels to achieve a FULL resolution 16:9 native chip. The only drawback to this is GREATER depth of field in 4:3. If you LOVE doing 4:3 work, hang on to your DVX. If you only do 16:9 (as I do) the choice is a no-brainer. Canon's 16x9 and Panasonic's 16:9 use the same portion of the 4:3 chip (same depth of field). The major difference is that ALL of Canon's pixels are in that area, whereas Panasonic's resolution suffers 120 lines of resolution loss.

Moving on. The XL2 has a much greater range of lenses than it's competition. Starting with the stock lens which achieves some 800mm or more (I've also heard 1000mm, the crop factor is so huge on ANY 1/3" camera that I just don't even know what it is, it's gotta be somewhere between 5-10x). With the stock lens, you can go MUCH further than the DVX and with the additional wide lens you can go wider than the DVX.

The XL2 has the same 24p and 24p advanced modes that digital filmmakers love. Also for the digital filmmaker, the XL2 seems to have borrowed it's colorimetry directly from the DVX. So you won't miss anything there (of course the options are a little different).

In addition to the same color options as competitors, the XL2 has something new (and VERY useful). Not only can you crush the blacks, but you can get about a full stop more latitude in your image (bright sky won't blow out as easily) by lowering the bright end of the curve. This blew me away.

These are the most important features to the digital filmmaker (to whom this camera is squarely marketed).

Now, on to the cons. The biggest and most obvious (and the reason this camera will not last even 6 months as the champion of CAMalot): The XL2 lacks HDV as an option.

Sony has already announced the release date for the camera that will be everything this camera is and more. Sony lacks 24P Advanced Mode, calling their 3:2 pulldown-only option 24F. In addition to the XL2 feature-set, Sony's camcorder will be HDV. And JVC has announced the camera that will oust Sony from the hot-seat. JVC's camera will be everything the Sony is and it will be 2/3" (less depth of field).

The moral of the story is if you need a great MiniDV camcorder that can do 16:9 and 24p and gives more latitude than any other MiniDV, get the XL2. If you need HDV, you'd better wait. It's only a few short weeks away. I now own the XL2, with plans to love it now and sell it in the very near future.

I'm still waiting for the day that some manufacturer pulls a Canon '97 on us all and creates, once again, the CLEAR choice, the ONLY choice for a prosumer camcorder with a COMPLETE feature-set. Until then, have fun sorting through specs and weighing the pros and cons.