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That's probably one of the better cameras in that price range.  the biggest problem is that HDV is inexpensive in the acquisition stage (good DV tapes are cheap) but way too compressed compared to something like HD-PRO. 

I use the HVX200 from Panasonic and love it, but you can pretty much double the price when you take acquisition into account (Firestore or a handful of P2 cards and a P2 Store).

What are you shooting?

I find the footage from our HVR-A1 is generally acceptable until there is a lot of fast motion in the frame, and then aliasing and compression artifacts start creeping in, so HDV isnt all that bad.  Thus why I asked what you'd be shooting.  Dialogue driven talking head sort of stuff... HDV works really well.

I would say you totally cant go wrong with that camera.  I wish it had been available back when we bought the A1... would have been worth the extra thousand bucks or so.

I own it.  I broke the camera mic on the 3rd day of ownership 'kuz it's kinda flimsy.  Other than that, the HDV format is good for me as I don't shoot a ton of fast motion stuff; mostly tourism shots.

Yep, MiniDV tapes work just fine.  I recommend using the Panasonic AMQ (Advanced Master Quality) tapes.  No need to get specifically-branded HDV tapes.  And those particular Panasonics are awesome.  Non-shattering case, dry lubricant system, excellent quality (I've never had a drop-out)

My work has the big brother, the XL-H1, 1080f is usable, helluva lot better than 1080i, so there's no point ever to shoot in 1080i. If the lens is the same as, the kit lens (or the non-removable in your case) is rather brutal when it comes to focuses. As I recall Redrock makes a lens adapter for the A1s that costs only a few hundred which sorta negates the H1s main benefit for a fraction of the cost.

As mentioned HDV, DVC-Pro it is not. The XL- 1s feature a SDI port on both models that let the camera bypass the internal circuitry for true uncompressed 1080p 10 bit making it sorta a bargain for studio use, but you need an SDI capture setup so you won't be going far with it. However now that the Red Scarlet 3k is out, I doubt there'll be a lot of studios buying Canon XLs when you can get a 3k rez camera now for $3000.

Anyhow the camera scales 1080f down to 720p rather nicely. 4:2:0 color sub sampling is rather shoddy (Not really a big improvement on DV's 4:1:1 sub sampling) so Chroma will be a workout.

Really all said and done, at the price the XL-A1 is hard to beat, but the HVX-200 looms right around the price corner which shoots DVC-Pro, 1080p (not 1080f) and can use P2 cards and portable HDs which let you bypass digitizing.

If you can at all afford the HVX-200, get it instead but other wise the XL-A1 should treat you right.

Last edited by Greg Grant (2008-06-08 10:14 pm)

See above post over yours... Redrock makes a lens adapter for it.