Hey Dylan,

Are you being serious with the only professional cameras are black comment? I guess some of us XL2 users are amateurs not making a living with a consumer camcorder. I guess all of Canon's L telephoto lenses we saw being used at the Olympics weren't really professional grade equipment after all but instead, consumer grade lenses the pro's mistook as a pro lens. Oh no, the Panasonic AJ-HDC27F has dark grey body panels. Does that count or does it have to be all black? When does black stop being black and when does it become grey? Oh well, I guess the AJ-HDC27F isn't a professional camera after all. Oh, and who are the chumps? The writers of the article, me, the posters in this thread, um you?

Who said anything about being shocked? I didn't. I'm so glad you pointed out the obvious to us. I'm just correcting them, that's all.

Oh and you won't watch pan'n scan? You're such a purest. You go Dylan!

Now, now, this issue is not as simple as black and white.

There's a lot of grey area here.

Wait. The DVX is grey, ain't it? Or charcoal grey, which is "as good as" professional.

My face is red.

Haha, thanks for that Chris. I like the "as good as professional" line. Sorry about kinda getting out of hand with my posts.

Certainly if we wanted to measure which camera was more professional, we'd have to take into account square surface area, and shades of grey, versus shades of gray.
Let me break it down guys, here are the numbers based on black/white/grey content:
XL2: 48%
FX1: 57%
DVX100: 63%
XL2 w. manual lens: 82%

Clearly...
(ahem)
CLEARLY, the XL2 with a manual lens and that big black EVF is the most professional camera in this lineup. Sadly, the cutoff point for "a professional camera" is 90%.
*BUT* Adding a large bellow style matte box would add 15% to this score though, bringing the XL2 up to 97% and qualifying as a pro-camera. The other two camers actually lose 10% each for having flipout LCD panels because real pro cameras don't have them.

I hope this helps clarify things. Get yourself a matte box and a manual lens and you won't just be an amateur playing with a little toy camera anymore, you'll be a filmmaker!!!

Yes, I am kidding and was kidding in my previous post too. :)
The "only black cameras are professional" is a long running DVinfo joke. But now you are in on it too!

On the other hand, I was being serious about not watching movies cut down to a 4:3 format. It kills the cinematography and annoys the hell out of me. Kind of like watching Showgirls on TBS with bikini tops airbrushed over all the boobies. It destroys the art and integrity of the film.

LOL! That was hilarious Dylan. I'm glad it was a joke. I think I need to lighten up. Thanks for the laugh!

Hi Andrew,

Welcome to DV INFO. When you have a chance, look back at some of the threads on this site. You will find the people here are some of the most 'well behaved' netizens as I did. We have a wide range of experience and some darn nice folks on this board.

The joke about black cameras that Dylan referred to has a lot to do with some of the smaller DV cameras that Japan seems to only offer in 'silver' for US consumers, while the identical model in their country is often in black finish. And they sometimes leave some of the better features off the US versions.

Anyway, come on in, look around, have a seat, relax, and enjoy one of the finest forums on the net.

regards,

=gb=

No problem Andrew. Look for my upcoming "Pimp My Camcorder" article, where I turn my ZR40 into a badassed rig that looks as stylin' in the newsroom as it does on the feature set!

Dylan,

Don't forget the black level on the XL2 can be elevated with the addition of the batterypack and two honkin black batteries on back! (From someone who has a manual lens, evf viewfinder and BH910 dual batt packs... but no matte box, yet)

As far as "air brushed" breasts. I watched "Apolcolypse Now" last night on AMC I think, I was shocked, SHOCKED that those women had a permanetn patch of "fuzzy darkness" attached to their bodies!