I feel like I'm wandering into enemy territory...

[sigepwriter]

Okay I'm going to lay it all out. I've always been a canon man. All the way back to the XL-1s. I loved my XL2 and practically cried when I had to let her go. I was downright convinced that I was going to purchase the XH A1 tomorrow. I had seen so much test footage that I was convinced.

But then a little voice in the back of my mind made me come to the internet today to do more test footage searches and more side by side comparisons just to make sure I don't regret my purchase.

Now I'll admit when I was deciding on which 35mm dof adapter to buy and searched for SGblade + Xh a1, and came across and awesome vid... turns out I was watching the HVX200, as opposed to the XH a1, perhaps this was also reasons for some seeds of doubt being planted.

More over, I shot a commercial a few years back ('07) and I remember using the HVX200 that day as opposed to our usual camera, and being quite impressed.

Then I read Barry Green's side by side comparison. After seeing the canon footage right next to something that looked much better... I was kinda floored, and a little disappointed - in canon that is. They already disappointed me with a non-tapeless work flow... but I was willing to look past that, for the sake of loyalty and frankly what I was use to.

All this being said I may be making the switch for my indie filmmaking ventures - Tapeless workflow, uncompressed audio, tapeless workflow... frankly it was the audio features that sold me the most, since an audiences willingness to forgive bad audio is slim to none.

Anywho, thank you for indulging me for so many paragraphs... and I do blame you for converting from Canon to the world of Panasonic.

Thanks,

Sean

[Cassius]

If it makes you feel better, Canon still kicks ass in the stills area.

[Phenixone]

Hey, same here, I used to be a Sony guy.

[Jimmy Moss]

If your shooting music video's and short films ect where you need to do a lot of color grading or compositing the HVX/HPX line wins hands down. The colors you can get are awesome. However I love my XH-A1 for doing weddings and live performance type shoots, also long form interviews because the ergonomics of the Canon is SO much better than my HVX200a. The zoom and focus ring is so smooth, and it has an iris ring instead of a dial. It's also quite a bit lighter and easier to handle than the HVX200a.

Maybe someone can speak on the ergonomics or the HPX170 but I've used one only on occasion so I don't know how much improved it is over the 200a.

[Ted Spencer]

I'm an HVX200A owner and advocate, so take that into consideration. And I do think the Canon camcorders are excellent as well. But what I find *as an actor* in low budget indie films is the more telling part for me - the HVX/HPX seems to dominate this area overwhelmingly, at least from my own little window into it. So if you see collaboration with other shooters, editors (not to mention P2 wranglers) etc., I think you'll find a larger group of kindred souls are on the P2 wagon than any other. Like I said, it's possible that my perspective on this is not reflected in other places and filmmaker communities, but here in NYC, in micro indie-world, that's sure how it looks to me.

[Nick Walters]

HVX Owner here as well, and I see alot of folks using P2 camera's in St. Louis. HVX-200 and HPX-500 are quite common here...it's seems to me it's usually one of those, an older Panny tape model, or RED....Of course I still see alot of DVX shooters here.

I see the occasional XL1/2, but they're getting rare in my line of sight....although we did just have one on set last week doing BTS.

I own and used a Canon Optura Xi to shoot a film(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU7bRbl97YY)...fine camera with a single native 16:9 sensor, but lacking some of those delicious manual controls....but right now it's a paper weight(need to open her up and see what's the prob).

[SantaCruzMichael]

I'm very happy with my HVX200a, but I miss the low-light capability of my DVX.
For web delivery, which is the destination for a great deal of the video content produced these days, the DVX still kicks ***.

[puredrifting]

The HPX170 has MUCH better ergonomics than the HVX200. You can read about it here http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hpx_170_evolution_brockett.html The article compares just about everything between the HPX170 and the HVX200

Dan

[jrmiller_entertainment]

made me come to the internet today to do more test footage searches

just remember footage on vimeo or youtube is very compressed and I would personally not go by internet footage alone. Rent an xh-a1 and an hvx and do your own comparisons.