Wow what a Camera

MY EXPERIENCE: I am a military videographer and have used a bunch of different small format 3 CCD cameras. This one has got to be the best. I have used the Canon XL-1S, Sony VX-2000, VX1000, and a few others and I know what I am talking about.

FEATURES:

This camera has just about as many features as an ENG (news style) camera. You have 2 pro XLR jacks in the front of the camera. The menu settings allow you to switch from the camera mic to the XLR jacks. This is great for me as I am starting up a Wedding Videography gig. Now I can hook up 2 wireless microphones, one to the groom and one to the singer for quality sound. This is the only camera at a $2000 price tag that offers this. You can hook up an XLR adaptor to cameras but you have to pay for it separately and they can be a pain at times. We gave up using adaptors on the Sony VX-1000. It also comes with 1/3 inch CCD's instead of the popular 1/4 inch. What does this mean for you? Better resolution and picture quality. The biggest kick on this camera is its quality under low light. You can give this camera a 1db at a time gain in low light to achieve a better picture. Now gain is light amplification and too much will make your picture grainy. Most cameras only have 3 settings for this and once you get to the second setting the noise in the picture is horrible. This camera can go up to about 5db without noise being noticed. It comes with SMPTE bars for professional setup and zebra pattern so that you will know when your iris is opened up too much. It also has a built in ND (neutral density) switch for bright outdoor light.

WEB STREAMING:

This camera has an available adaptor that can turn it in to a webstreaming camera. I have never used this and doubt I will. I guess you could record a wedding and broadcast it to anyone that wanted to see it on the internet. Very cool, I just do not need it and have not tried it.

PICTURE QUALITY:

This camera is the best prosumer camera that I have used for picture quality. You can read other reviews and see that even people that have had problems with this camera say that the picture was great. The colors are bright and lifelike even under gas lights (a nightmare for videographers). The large lens provides nice depth of field and no noticeable lens aberrations.

CONSTRUCTION:

I have read a few things on this cameras construction and it did make me nervous before I bought mine. I found out it was not true. It has one area that I thought was cheap and that is the latch on the LCD screen. It looks and feels very unprofessional. The other odd thing is the noise when you rock the camera back and forth. It has something moving in it till you turn the camera on. Then it locks on and no more noise. I thought this was odd but it did nothing to the cameras operation. This camera has a solid metal skeleton inside just like the other brands. I think maybe the plain non-metallic color on the cassette door makes this camera appear cheap.

OPERATION:

Like all Prosumer cameras this one is easy to operate. The auto modes are fast and responsive but I suggest full manual to really accomplish something with this camera. If you are running manual and need a quick focus the camera has a one touch focus button on the left side. All buttons are very user friendly to include the large focus ring on the lens. I love the in the eyepiece VU meters (audio volume levels). They are very detailed and you never have to take your eye out of the viewfinder to check youre audio. The levels are adjusted with 2 separate channel knobs on the left near the handle. You can use 2 different controls for the zoom and camera start. There is one on the handle and one near the tape eject. This comes in very handy because you can set one for slow zooms and the other for faster zooms. Again this camera is a feature packed machine. After the tape is loaded this camera responds very fast when starting to shoot. No lag at all.

BATTERY LIFE:

I have used this camera a few times and I find the battery life to be average. This camera was designed and launched in 2002 and battery life has gone up in most machines since then. The only time I found the battery to drain quickly was when using the LCD. That is the same with every camera though. If you plan on running on one battery with this camera in a day it would likely not work is all I am saying.

MY CONCLUSION:

If you are trying to impress people by the looks of your camera and not the quality, I would purchase an XL-1 or the updated XL-2. If you only care about features and picture quality, you need to buy this camera. I have never achieved the clear colorful picture I have gotten already from this camera with a Canon. Sony was close, and I really like there cameras too. Just not as many features for the money. Panasonics are out with me because 2 of my friends had tape transport problems with them. In short
THIS CAMERA ROCKS!