someone mentioned this already, but before even considering one of the HDV cameras, be sure you have adequate editing power, including up-to-date hardware and software. if you don't already have this ready access, you are talking about several hundred to several thousands of dollars more in upgrades over SD, depending on your existing system. to support my FX-1, i bought a $2800 computer and am awaiting a software upgrade which, for me, is costing $200 but new, would cost more in the area of $999.

if you're already covered with an up-to-date editing system, i would get the Sony A1 over the FX-1 for travel. it's less conspicuous and has built-in XLR inputs. you will have to purchase an audio unit for the FX-1, so with mic and say, beachtek box, that's another coupla hundred. it's onboard audio is not great.

if you decide on the GL2, you can pick up an MA-300 pretty inexpensively compared to the beachtek units.

i think the GL2 is a terrific travel camera. it's not too conspicuous, you can get away with a much lighter tripod or monopod for stabilizing than the FX-1.

i still think with the available plug-ins for post-production, you can get great-looking video out of a GL2. or a PDX-10, for the money, which also has built-in XLR inputs.

one other bit of advice: buy used here, if you can. there are some great deals, and you can save a ton of money. i rarely buy used gear anymore, and i've saved thousands over time.

Kevin, i dont know this Edius bug.

For HC1 low light question:
I have 2x500W halogen lamp for wedding evening.
This is just enough for XM2/GL2 to produce video with following settings:
shutter 1/50
F 1.6
Gain: 0db
So, the picture is very sharp and absolutly free of noise.

I'm afraid.
What can do the HC1 in this situation? Gain up to 9-12db? And the picture will be noise? :(

thx

Prech: the HC1 is less sensitive in low light than the GL2, so you would have to use more light or some gain to get an equivalent exposure. But with two 500W halogen lamps you should be able to get a pretty good image with an HC1 in lit areas; anything in the shadows would start to show some noise. I've shot footage with the HC1 using as little as 3 watts of on-camera light, but the resulting image doesn't look very good.

The FX1 works better in low light than the HC1.

The current version of Edius (3.x) and corresponding version of Procoder Express do not properly convert HDV to SD MPEG2; some aliasing is introduced on straight lines and text. The solution is to switch to a widescreen SD project setting and render to SD MPEG2 after doing that. You can still have HDV files on your timeline, but you have to change the project format before rendering to SD. If you need both HD and SD output, you'll have to check the placement of text and transitions when switching the project setting from HD to SD and back again.

There's some indication this problem may be fixed in the next version of Edius, but as I said before we don't know that for sure yet.