Canon XH-A1 Quality
 

Well I've been researching and I'm caught between the Sony HVR-V1 and the Canon XH-A1. To help my decision making, I personally took a trip to NYC to go to B&H Photovideo to see the camcorders and try out the controls. Overall from a design and ease of use stand point the Canon kills it hands down. Not knowing anything about either camcorder I figured out the Canon menu system and learned the controls much easier than the Sony. The Sony has smaller buttons and menu systems for key controls that the Canon has dedicated buttons in the right spots. The dedicated iris ring is huge feature that really attracted me to the model. Adjusting the iris as you make a long telephoto shot can be corrected in a milisecond as opposed to Sony's button and scroll wheel which is more work. In the low lit surroundings that B&H set the camcorders in, the Sony showed more noticeable noise which was easy to see on the dedicated monitors for each camcorder. I came to this conclusion by setting the camcorders in identical modes with regard to camcorder settings. Although the Canon doesn't have the HDMI port and true progressive scan, the Canon I think is built way better and the work flow of setting up an image is way easier. The feel of the three rings on the Canon have a better resistance feel than the Sony and the whole overall feel is just much more solid. Just to let you know that I'm not being a bias towards the Canon, my previous camcorder was the Panasonic AG-DVC30 so thats where all my knowledge and experience is coming from. I know there are Sony lovers that will defend the V1 and they should b/c with regard to other aspects of videoing the Sony is superior I think. For me, I feel that the Canon over all is just a better build and design. With larger native 16:9 CCDs the quality on the video monitor in HDV mode and SD mode looks amazing. Looks like I'll be a future A1 owner even though I want that HDMI port and true progressive scan.

Mike, do a search on this forum for 24f. There has been much discussion on 24P vs 24f. Seems like I remember that those who have seen both say that the difference is not noticeable.

Don

Dont forget the articles where Sony found errors in the 24p and 25p versions of that camera....I wouldn't even go near it. Go with what is proven to work lol.

yup. Getting the cameras in your hands really helps.

Don, Kyle, and Andrew I can't agree more. I heard the 24 and 30 fps looks great on the Canon and you can't tell the difference. I'm excited to be a future owner, just need to get the reset of my funds together and start shooting some serious video.

Yeah, if you read all the posts and the Canon white paper, you'll see that 24F results in 24P. They just get from Point A to Point B in a different fashion, but the end result is the same. It's true progressive 24p footage.