Q for Steve Mullen and others: XH-A1 or V1U?

[Paul Martin]

Hello Steve Mullen, your writings on the V1U have made me very excited about the camera. I am in the market for an HD camera that shoots 24p, 30p and 60i and does well with available light. My aim is to shoot personal narrative projects, so I have no deadline by which to buy. I also don't want to spend more than $6,000. Until your review of the V1U I was planning on purchasing the Canon XH-A1. I figured the video from the A1 would be more or less the same as that from the XL-H1, and based on Kaku Ito's clips, it seems that this is pretty much the case. Please correct me if I am wrong. What has made me reconsider this decision is your description of the V1U as having excellent latitude and low noise, even with some gain. This sounds absolutely fantastic to me. Ideally, I hope to shoot narrative projects in a "point and shoot" manner using on-location available light and not adding any or taking any away. A camera with great latitude that is capable of looking good in low light is exactly what I want. Actually, the more I articulate what I am looking for, the more I think my choice is obvious, based on how you described the V1U as shooting video as if it were negative stock. Despite my desire not to light, I love over-saturated colors. That said, if you were me, and you wanted to shoot a movie, with available light, in bars and dimly-lit subway stations, but also in the blinding light of a sunny day after a snow storm, and wanted the video to look like kodachrome, which camera would you choose the XH-A1 or the V1U? And one more thing, do you think the HDV implementation in the Canon shooting, say, 24f is superior to that of the Sony shooting 24p, given that the Canon is recording 24 progressive frames to tape rather than recording the 24 frames within a 60i stream? I don't even think I have this straight. I guess what I want to know is whether you think Canon's 24f will be less prone to motion artifacts than Sony's 24p?

I thank you, Steve Mullen, for your dedication to the video community and I would be most grateful if you, or anyone else here in the great DVinfo community, would give your opinion on any of these matters.

Thank you for your time,
Paul

[Steve Mullen]

I would wait until you can try both camcorders. You'll get a much better match if you actually use both--even if for a short time.

"And one more thing, do you think the HDV implementation in the Canon shooting, say, 24f is superior to that of the Sony shooting 24p, given that the Canon is recording 24 progressive frames to tape rather than recording the 24 frames within a 60i stream?"

The V1 shoot and records full vertical rez. progressive while the Canon does not. The method of recording has nothing to do with the nature of the 24p.

If you prefer saturated color both camcorders let you adjust the Color Level.