David-

What are you planning on shooting and what do you plan on doing with the finished product? Theatrical release? DVD? etc......these factors might help steer you to a certain camera...

Jim Martin
FilmTools.com

I'm not in business. I having been shooting HD video around my home in Sitka Alaska for over three years. Until my camera died. I have been putting my video on the web at: Old Duffer's Natural World on Vimeo and sitkaalaskavideo.blogspot.com. I have also given footage to some Alaska TV Stations. Made and gave away some DVD's over the years. Having a video camera was a great way for me to get outside more. I have a chronic neurological disorder which limits some of my life activities. I guess you can say I find videography therapeutic. Since the 1960's it was my life dream to be a wildlife photographer/ videographer. But life happened.

Hi David,

I think you've got some real nice video on your Vimeo site.
If I was in your shoes, and was shooting those kind of subjects (no interviews, no run & gun, no important audio) I'd forget about camcorders and get a Canon T2i or a Nikon D3100 and a couple of nice lenses. If you've got some lenses for one of those brands already, then that makes the decision of which model to get even easier.

Advantages:
Very nice images with shalow DoF.
Less expensive. About $700 with the cheap kit lens.
Video and stills with one body.
Smaller, lighter and easier to carry around.

I haven't seen the D3100 yet, but I expect it to be a nice camera. The T2i is basically a 7D in a cheaper body. Either way you can't go wrong for the kind of work you're doing.

That's just my two cents. I think you'd enjoy one of those DSLR cameras.

I have thought about a DSLR. But I want to expand my filming to include Alaska Native Cultural activities, subsistence and art activities. I also have a lot of Russian and Early American historical activities to film in my community. There are just so many opportunities for filming here. Drive me nuts thinking about it.

So I will need pretty good sound.

I do most of my wildlife/nature and commercial fishing filming using a tripod from the road system, or from short walks from the road system, that's why I need the 20x lens.

My illness is beginning to effect my vision. So focusing will become more and more of a issue in the future.

That being the case, a more modern camera with the Peaking features may help. The ones that let you set the peaking color are great for helping with focus. The $3999 NX5U may have the colored peaking. Not sure about the HDV cameras.

Too bad the XF300/305 is out of your price range because it has the best auto-focus system I've ever encountered on a camcorder.

David Rice

Hey David, great Vimeo page. I'd love to go to Alaska someday.

I spent 4 years in Anchorage in the mid 80's..and I loved it. Wish i would've had the gear I have now.. back then all I had was a Canon AE-1 and no video cam..lol I've been to Sitka a couple of times fishing. Will have to check out your site for sure...

David-

As the others have pointed out, there are other options out there from Sony, Panasonic, and JVC. I understand you want a Canon but I don't think we will know what is coming next until the end of the year at best. According to your schedule, it looks like you can make it until then.

Jim Martin
FilmTools.com

Well.....The baby brothers have shown themselves ...XF100 & XF105. So lets keep speculatin'......is it me or does there seem to be a numbers gap between these guys and the XF 300 & XF 305???? Maybe eh....200 & 205??? So here is my revised thought:
Canon is going to have a line of 3 or 4 cameras using the 50mb codec. I think the 100/105s, like a juiced up GL2, will be for the lower price point and a good "C" camera for the 300/305. Down the road a bit, we'll see a 200/205...being the direct A1/G1 replacement ( not too soon as to cut into 300/305 sales). A 4th camera would be the one many are hopeful for....a 5D/7D in a video configuration.....and we call it the ???400...or 500????

This all came to me in the middle of last night........like vision.....

Anyway, this thread is for speculatin'

Jim Martin
FilmTools.com

Disappointed with the poor lens on the xf100 & xf105

I'm more confused than ever................and I can't wait forever.

Hmmm let me try to write this so it translates well to Japanese......
Personally I think Canon is hard to speculate about and I can't recall anyone ever doing a good job of it. Case in point, this thread is several pages long and nobody predicted a single 1/3" chip solid state GL2 with the pro audio people wanted for the last 10 years and spitting out 50mbs 4:2:2 long GOP. Search DVInfo. Where do you find users asking for small single chip cameras with a silly 10x lens?

HINT: People want cameras with the stuff they talk about here. Making cameras with the things people want might be a good concept for selling lots of product. Just an idea.

The time gap between the GL2 and its XF100 successor is flabbergasting. So is the gap between the XH-A1 and the theoretical XF200. If the prediction of an XF200 is sometime in 2011, multiple competitor models with better low light performance and solid state recording will have been in the market already for 3 years; some with their second model while Canon comes out with version 1.0. I'll give Canon credit that their 1.0 is better than average, but the fact that it's 3 years late is why David and everyone else like him are frustrated or have given up and moved to other brands. It's all very mind numbing.

余りに時間がかかった. さようなら Canon 私はに変更した Sony

No one did indeed predict a single CMOS chip camera. And yet Canon has obviously put lots of time and effort into building it. As far as building what people say they want on this site, If I may quote Steve Jobs:

"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."

Apple builds products that they believe people will want. They have no focus groups. And they've been darn successful at it. Do I need to mention the success of the iPhone and iPad?
If Canon operates the same way, and puts out quality, innovative products at a good price - what's wrong with that business model?

Who really expected Canon to produce the XF line, a 1/3" 3CMOS camera with a codec and other features that were so outstanding, the cameras were instantly accepted by the BBC? How many other 1/3" CMOS cams can make that claim?
And what about the DSLR HD video revolution? Who can lay claim to starting that? Did posters on this board request Canon make the 5D? Even if Canon accidentally backed into the DSLR video craze, no one was screaming at Canon to build a large-sensor VIDEO camera in a DSLR body.
If anything, right now it seems Canon is riding the crest of the wave.

Strategic product platforms and feature sets are two different things. Making something new and building products with the features people want are not mutually exclusive. Coming up with innovative Dick Tracy-esq iPods is independent of responding to customer feedback on say ummm removing the Express 32 slot in the 15" MBP. Years ago, Apple first pulled the Firewire port on the iBook and quickly put it back based on customer feedback. All that was independent of strategic decisions in it's product line like unibody construction and green displays.

What makes speculating on Canon hard is that it's purposely last in the game but eventually enters with a well engineered product based on what it thinks the market was going to be. But given the long development cycles, that strategy means we're seeing products today based largely on what Canon was thinking what today would look like xx months ago and adjusted as best it could along the way... and maybe that's why we're seeing a single 1/3" chip 10x GL2 replacement on the strategic 50MBS 4:2:2 platform.

It also seems Canon has been slower than usual to move past tape in a very fast moving and changing time in the market. That slowness created lots of frustration and "input" from its customers in the middle that hasn't been addressed. So to re-state my point with less sarcasm, there's been a lot of "input" for camera features and capabilities given here. Products that incorporate that on whatever strategic platform it's decided on will sell well.

Neither the XF300 nor XF100 are intended to address the "middle" market. From what we read, IBC will see more Panny and Sony with large sensor in a camera body products/technology and according to what's been written here, Canon will deliver another 3-chip 1/3" based equal-to-aging-competitor cameras on the 50MBS 4:2:2 platform but sprinkled with the trademark Canon-esq innovative features like 3-D assist, maybe a power switch that turns off <smirk>.... According to past rollout behavior, the mid-range will be pushed out so as to not affect uptake of XF300 and IBC model....fix some of the complaints of the XF300 and XL version maybe .... it remains to be seen if the uptake on that will be a flood or a trickle because it took so long.

All that said, given the development cycle, it's already well known what the supposed XF200 will be and the play is in the middle of executing it. There's two data points and soon a third that will point to it ... more 1/3" 3-chip 50MBS 4:2:2 ... and hopefully a feature set that people want ... but with Canon, there's plenty of things to keep people guessing and time to give some input right here in this thread as Jim and others say Canon reads it regularly.

interchangeable lens ?
 

Am I the only XLH1 owner waiting for an interchangeable lens version of the XF 305?