John Gnuechtel
EF3
With the technology getting ever-cheaper, it's only a matter of time before everybody has an HDTV in their home. As an HDTV owner, I can say with complete certainty that I wanted a camcorder to shoot HD almost as soon as I got my first TV. But that was over 3 years ago, when all HD cameras were in the $50-100K range. No normal person has that kind of bread, or the production facilities necessary to handle early HD implementation.
Fast forward to a year ago. JVC released the first mass market consumer HD video camera: the GR-HD1. It had one CCD chip, shot in 720p mode, and recorded to Mini-DV casettes. The single CCD design made the camera perform poorly at low light levels. But the biggest problem was that you couldn't really do anything with the video once it was on tape. It had a special codec that was not supported by most industry-leading video editing programs. Because of the limited nature of the system, and the fact that at $3K, it cost the same as SD (standard definition) cameras that could blow it away in terms of features and achievable color quality, the GR-HD1 was what I would call the "Early Adopters' Special".
Finally, we reach today. Sony has now released their HDR-FX1. It has 3 CCD chips, shoots in 1080i, and also uses Mini-DV tapes. Basically, the HDR-FX1 fixes all the stuff that that was wrong with the GR-HD1. It has all manual controls, and all the bells and whistles of a pro camera. And now that HD on Mini-DV tape is going more mainstream, Adobe and Apple have vowed to support it. About the only thing the Sony doesn't have is an XLR mic input. It also looks like it will initially list at $3,700, which is pretty high. However, I wouldn't doubt there are some among you willing to spend that much on a camcorder.
So with that all squared away, how many of you, if anybody just yet, are planning to make the move over to HD? Do any of you have plans for this in the future? Having seen the only two videos I know of that have weather chasing in HD (the latest NOVA weather special and a 30 minute segment that ran on INHD network's news magazine), I can't wait to try shooting for myself. The quality of storm chase video looks as good on my monitor (Samsung DLP) as untouched digital still photos I've shot myself, with the same amount of detail visible.
Fast forward to a year ago. JVC released the first mass market consumer HD video camera: the GR-HD1. It had one CCD chip, shot in 720p mode, and recorded to Mini-DV casettes. The single CCD design made the camera perform poorly at low light levels. But the biggest problem was that you couldn't really do anything with the video once it was on tape. It had a special codec that was not supported by most industry-leading video editing programs. Because of the limited nature of the system, and the fact that at $3K, it cost the same as SD (standard definition) cameras that could blow it away in terms of features and achievable color quality, the GR-HD1 was what I would call the "Early Adopters' Special".
Finally, we reach today. Sony has now released their HDR-FX1. It has 3 CCD chips, shoots in 1080i, and also uses Mini-DV tapes. Basically, the HDR-FX1 fixes all the stuff that that was wrong with the GR-HD1. It has all manual controls, and all the bells and whistles of a pro camera. And now that HD on Mini-DV tape is going more mainstream, Adobe and Apple have vowed to support it. About the only thing the Sony doesn't have is an XLR mic input. It also looks like it will initially list at $3,700, which is pretty high. However, I wouldn't doubt there are some among you willing to spend that much on a camcorder.
So with that all squared away, how many of you, if anybody just yet, are planning to make the move over to HD? Do any of you have plans for this in the future? Having seen the only two videos I know of that have weather chasing in HD (the latest NOVA weather special and a 30 minute segment that ran on INHD network's news magazine), I can't wait to try shooting for myself. The quality of storm chase video looks as good on my monitor (Samsung DLP) as untouched digital still photos I've shot myself, with the same amount of detail visible.