The results from the Canon XL2 may prove to be very interesting since its vertical resolution is well over 600 lines. If PAL version is not available, NTSC model should do. It is nice to test these low end HD cameras against pro HD models, but to gain proper perspective, you need to test them also against a flagship SD progressive 16x9 prosumer camera, which is more in the price range of the low cost HD models than the $100K monsters. I think that Canon has a very good reason not to discontinue this model.

Never thought of it, but actually a pretty good and well argumented idea.

Actually, adding a good SD camera as a low poit of reference is a must to make the test meaningful. Otherwise I can just imagine the conclusion: All the HD cameras performed wonderfully and are so much better than SD, except for HD-200, which has a true 24p and looks most filmic, or similar BS that we were hearing for some time now. Adding SD would bring in a totally different perspective and conclusion... like one camera (HVX) performed similarly to XL2, while another (H1) similarly to pro HD.