One major strike against the Canon A1 for me is the lack of a dedicated playback deck. It is simply not professional to capture tapes from the camera itself (or HV10) in front of clients.

I know you can always record to a hard drive recorder, but I still can't believe Canon has not released a playback deck to coincide with the release of the A1.

The deck issue only applies to people who are going to shoot in the frame modes. I for one like the crisp look of the A1's 60i, so I plan on buying a sony deck to capture most of my work. If I ever shoot 24f, or 30f then I have my HV10.

I just completed a shoot with an A1 and a V1u, they matched up quite nice with their 30 frame rates, the V1u appeared a tad softer to me, and the V1's low light performance was worse then I expected. Coming from the PD170 the A1 and V1's low light performance were bad in comparison, however I couldn't see myself purchasing a camera that is any worse in low light than my A1. I am happy with my purchase.

Again the footage from both cameras was still pretty comparable in my opinion. But if you're an event shooter or you require more light, I'd say shoot for the A1.

*e

Not a tough decision at all. The preproduction V1 cams showd in England Germany, Netherlands and the USA had a problem -as noted- with the 24P and 25P. The reviewers told the world that they will come up with the final results after Sony 'repaired' those issues. I read that in many magazines online and offline. I am still waiting.

So for now the A1 is the only one to keep an eye on. Did you saw the updates on this V1 25p issue? Where?

Raymond,

My V1e is currently being fixed. It is a firmware update being performed under Prime Support. All shipping cams will have the updated firmware as all dealers' cams are being fixed also.

The V1 is a stunning camera and in my opinion you'd have to spend much more to get more. It's just my opinion as there are a lot of XH-A1 owners that are very happy but I chose the V1 'cause it ticked more boxes than the Canon. The camera's a so closely matched it really comes down to which factors are important to you in a camera.

I preferred the V1E's:
Picture quality
Colour reproduction
Massive LCD
Monitoring tools (Histogram, Peaking and Zebras all on at same time)
Smaller, lighter form factor and better ergonomics
I can use all my PD150 accessories including batteries (quite a cost involved!)
Sony 2 year Prime Support package.

TT

Hi Tony,
Good to hear that Sony is working on the problem, if it's fixed, I give it another look, you know "first see ~ than believe", I think the Sony has a lot to offer, but in the main part: picture quality, 24P, 25P and lowlight quality I prefer the Canon A1 on this moment.

That does not sound good at al.

When I get my camera back I'll be posting footage of the new 25P.

If the problems exist like those in that review model my camera will be returned and I shall have a full refund. As European users we should not expect lower quality products than the other regions are being provided with. Until I see the issue reported by DVuser myself I would urge some caution however.

TT

One has to remember that these marching ants type artefacts can easily be caused by the viewing device. Edge sharpening on consumer HD TVs can be quite severe. I have also noticed much more edge and halo on my Dell's component input compared to the DVI input so this problem might not be indicative of the V1E 25P fix.

Fingers crossed! :)