What is being used in motion pictures?
 

If any of you had to shoot a motion picture (theatrical) entirely using only a digital (or analog) camcorder what would you pick? Whats the usual specs on something like this?

I am guessing you would want a higher end professional camcorder with true 16x9, but what are the actual brands?

High-definition (HD) cameras are beginning to make inroads into the movie-making process as well as television production.

Sony's CineAlta system has garnered quite a bit of attention, partially due to George Lucas' use of it on his recent Star Wars project. (http://www.sonyusacinealta.com/) Here in Chicago, Fletcher is a prominent sales and rental outfit for this gear (and most everything else). Their main page (http://www.fletch.com/) features a good look at some of this gear.

Panasonic also has a line of HD equipment.

One could also do a respectable job with a mid-range camera such as a Sony DSR570 which has 2/3" native 16:9 CCD's.

But, hey, you could also do a good job with an XL1s, as Steven Soderbergh is about to demonstrate later this year.

The D-11 digital video recording format (used in the Sony HDCAM digital camera) has a capability of only 1440 horizontal pixels luminance, and 480 pixels of chroma (Standard SMPTE 367M), even though the camera has 1920 horizontal pixels.

If you were to look at that and film side by side you might not like HD so much. Plus Georgy-poo is CROPPING the picture to give it a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, so it is even losing more resolution. I wish video would advance further before people use it to shoot real theatrical movies with.