Camera round up.

The big news on the 'net at the moment seems to be the New Sony HVR V1. These are being touted by Sony as a new line and NOT a replacement for the Z1 *(which will continue).

I have decided to sum up the current crop of HD capable cameras that I think could be used in low budget video production, not consumer. (my cut off point is anything which does NOT have XLR sockets on it)

1 Sony A1
single CMOS sensor,
not so great low light performance but a high quality image.
1080i HDV but with Cineframe for pseudo progressive scan. Smallest prosumer HDV cam.

2 Sony Z1. Still the flagship for the Sony HDV range. 3CCDs, 1080i HDV but with Cineframe for pseudo progressive scan. Big selling point: both 50i and 60i modes. The 60i mode has Cineframe 24 but it's pretty heinous, the worst 24p mode on any HDV camera. Limited by a relatively wide lens.

3 Sony V1. 3 CMOS sensors. separate 50i/60i models. 24p, 30p and 60i on the V1U (North American/60hz) 25p and 50i on the E (European 50hz model) Scans at a true progressive mode. However the 24p scans in a pull-down. At the time off writing I don't know if it's 2:3:2:3 (which would be bad) or 2:3:3:2, but whatever, it's compromised by being recorded in a 60i GOP stream. The 25p/30p modes on the other hand should be fantastic, without any compromises. The controversy centres on the small 1/4" CMOS sensors, which make a more "cinematic" shallow depth of field hard to achieve, put a bigger strain on the quality of the lens, but allow a longer telephoto range. It seems that the 1/4" sensors are 4:3, so that means the 16:9 HD capture area is REALLY small. (the Z1 and A1 feature 16:9 1/3" CCDs/CMOS sensors.

4 JVC HD100/101/110 3CCD Interchangeable lens, and the stock lens is said to be adequate but not great. However you could rent much better lenses. 720p rather than 1080, but true progressive. Early models plagued with a split screen effect in low light conditions which seems to have been rectified. Only 25p/30p in HD mode. for 60p (there is not interlace for HD on these cameras) you have to drop down to 576/1024 resolution as the MPEG encoding chips couldn't keep up with 720/60p. Offers true 24p (i.e. 24p scan and 24p encoded. (HD100 & 101 are now discontinued)

5 JVC HD250. 3CCD HDV. The next generation. Now 720-50/60p capable. Also offers a few enhancements such as viewfinder flip (also in the HD110) for those using 35mm ground glass adaptors. Like the 100+ models, offers true 24p and progressive scan/encoding.

5 Canon XL H1. The HDV version of the legendary XL1. Features pseudo 24p/25p, though it's an improvement on Sony's cineframe mode in that in 24f mode, the CCDs do scan at 24hz. However like the Sonys, the "progressive" is derived from interlace capture, hence certain aliasing artefacts and a drop in resolution. However the interpolation in achieving the progressive frame seems better than the rather crude Sony field duplication. It should be pointed out that the camera outputs a true 24fps MPEG stream, rather than the Sonys' 24/60i modes, but this has, in the past, cause compatibility problems with some NLEs, FCP, Avid's lines, Vegas Premiere (vie the Cineform codec) and even the glacially late FCP all seem to have caught up. The stock lens, like the JVCs is adequate. However the Canon's seem rather more wedded to their stock lens than the JVCs, where the stock lens almost seems designed be thrown away. Big features are BNC connectors for HD SDI out, genlock and Time Code link.

6 Canon XH A1 and G1. I'll lump these cameras together as they are almost identical apart from the G1 also features the HD SDI/genlock and TC outs of the XL H1. In many ways they are similar to the XL H1 but featuring a fixed lens compared to the H1s interchangeable lens. the "Progressive" HDV recording modes (24f 25f & 30f) seem to be identical the the XL H1.

7, Panasonic HVX200. Odd man out here as it isn't an HDV camera but uses the professional DVCproHD codec (as found on Panasonic's high end HD cameras, including the Varicam) Offers the lowest resolution (720*960 px). It also features 1080p @ 24p, however this seems to be an up-sampling from the three lower res' CCDs, on the other hand, the DVCproHD codec is 4:2:2 rather than HDV 4:2:0 (i.e. better colour rendition) and uncompressed PCM audio (HDV features compressed MP2 audio). One tricky area which caused a great deal of sturm und drang on the web was the P2 recording format. DVCproHD requires much higher bit rates than HDV (because is is an I-frame codec) and therefore cannot be recorded on miniDV cassettes. Rather than come out with a proprietary cassette format and triple the cost of the camera, Panasonic chose the P2 solid state recording. P2 is expensive and limited in size (largest cards are at present 8GB which holds about 10 minutes and cost $1500-2000) and require another storage medium.