Them soldiers have big biceps.

I just saw an Air Force tech sgt shooting a live fire training exercise at the Pohakuloa training area in Hawaii with a Sony PD-150. He said his unit was testing them out.

They also shoot with an XL1.

Results with the 150 were good, he said.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

Oh yes, good old P.T.A.

I was stationed there in the 80's as a MPI/TAI Officer...

I know lots of different toys are being used, but my initial post was that I saw a soldier being filmed setting up an xl1 to shoot an oil rig fire.

I know if it were me (using the auto lens) I'd encase the thing in plastic and use something like the Varizoom controller to make any adjustments. That way the lens and it's mechanisms stay clean, yet allow the different focus, zoom adjustments.

I just figured that size and weight might be of paramount importance, not to mention battery longevity, on the road trip to Baghdad.

I also think that I'm seeing a fair amount of stuff with the indicative image quality of Frame-mode. Although if they're using a fast shutter speed, it can sometimes have a similar effect. A bit jittery on action shots. But also a certain smoothness of color saturation leads me to think..Canon!