XL2 versus HD101
 

Time to ditch my trusty xl1s after 3 odd years of good service. Unfortunately the poor thing took a dive and although the lens/body is fine (deep relief) the viewfinder and ma200 took loads of punishment...

Now I've been hunting around for replacement parts, but the cost is building up enough that I may as well sell what I have that still is in one piece and upgrade. Now the obvoius choice is an XL2 body only kit as I have the 16x manual lens, a matt box, canon batteries, etc. However as I was browsing around I came across the JVC HD101. Now it's more expensive, but the option of HiDef isn't bad.

Now first things first. I'm UK based so hidef is of limited value at the moment. What I need (rather than would like) is a camera capable of native 16:9 SD.

Question 1 - How does 16:9 SD compare between the two? I film a mixture of extreme sports and short films.
Question 2 - Any major advantages between the glass? Ie the manual lens on the HD101 and the Canon 16x manual
Question 3 - Comfort. The xl1 is notoriously front heavy, has this been fixed any in the XL2 and how does the HD101 compare?
Question 4 - Is 720p really that much better than 576p?

Regards

Matt

1 - Just saw sth filmed with the JVCs dv mode, good, but can easily be done with the XL or DVX
2 - the original hd100 lens had CA issues, but I heard this has been fixed now with a new lens...?
3 - xxx
4 - well, it's hd, you can uprez sd, but I don´t now...
ashG promissed to show some comparrison sometime, between varicam,hvx and xl2 used in one project - I´m still locked on sd right now...

5 - I would add: do you have the editing power for HDV?
and: the JVC had a splitscreen issue, don´t know if this has been fixed (or
even can...)
last: if "extreme sports" means extremly fast motion, I would really make
sure the mpeg compression can hold up with that...

- chris

Cheers Chris,

2 - Yup, I've seen some the reports about this. I'm going to wait and see what happens with the new lens.
4 - I agree. I don't have a particular need for HD, but if I'm going to spend a fair chunk of cash on one, then I would like one with a reasonable life span, and the HD101 doesn win on this point.
5 - True. I think it might be worthing renting an HD101 for a day and seeing how well it performs. The main sport I film is wakeboarding which can be pretty fast. I quite like the idea of the HD200 60p mode, then undercranking in editing to 25p. Should give a nice smooth slow motion.

I think it's going to be best to stick with my xl1s for a while longer, and try out both the xl2 and hd101/hd200 and see which works out for me.

Regards

Matt