What's a good replacement cam for the XH-A1s?

J

jthabel

Well-known member
After almost five years of consistent, productive use, I'm about ready to retire my XH-A1s and upgrade to something new. This has been a workhorse of a cam, and I've encountered next to no issues with my Canon. I'm looking for a little more versatilty from whatever camera I end up buying next though, including:

Better low light sensitivity -- this is first and foremost
Interchangeable lenses
A tapeless workflow.

Some things I really don't want to do without if I can help it are:

ND filters
XLR Audio connections
All the basic manual functions that are present on the XH-A1s (f-stop, manual focus, adjustable white balance, just to name a few).

I'm looking to stay under 10k if I can help it. Preferably even under 6k.

So, the question is, what should I get? I'm a huge fan of the run-and-gun versatility of the XH-A1s. I'm looking to find this in whatever camera I replace it with, ie, I don't want whatever I get to be much more of a hassle to use than the XH-A1s.

The camera that's really coming to mind here is the Sony FS100. Is this a good replacement? Opinions? Other suggestions? Thanks in advance!
 
C100 is a good fit IMO. It has ND-filters, XLR, and youve enjoyed the Canon Brand. Its $5,500 with the 24-105mm F4 IS lens. Otherwise you're looking at the FS700 which will push your budget limits unless you buy one used. There's the AF100 also but youll quickly hit its limits with poor lowlight and sub-par resolution. Ive owned all three cams and have settled on the fs700. In your case the C100 looks like a great option.
 
I second the vote for a C100 at the price they are at right now (body only $4999) Same sensor that is in the C300 and C500. ALL of the footage I've seen from that camera is beautiful.
Pros - Great in low light, great DR, great overall IQ...and most of the owners here on DVX user say it just flat out works like a dream for everything from short films to corporate work.
Cons - Those same users will tell you the view finder is not great and the lack of 60P may or may not be something that affects you. AVCHD may be another con, even though the implementation of it on the C100 seems to be very good quality. But if you want 4:2:2...that is an option you can add with an external recorder.

Some random found footage:
http://vimeo.com/groups/c100/videos/77931546

A very practical review done by DVXUser member Erik Naso:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...QODA9WTuNnVPX-V0A&sig2=Vns82UuAWFWzID_5y1bDRg
 
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Thanks for the info here, guys. Very useful information, and based on my love of Canon and the article I've read about how usable this camera is, I'm officially leaning toward the C100 now. One question about editing with AVCHD... coming from the XH-A1s universe, I'm used to a workflow utilizing MPEG2. My quad core AMD works just fine with these files, but I'm sure AVCHD will be a lot more processor intensive. Is there any drawback to converting the AVCHD files to MPEG2 for editing/grading? I'd like to avoid the expense and hassle of upgrading my editing rig to something more powerful if I can avoid it. Thanks in advance for the answers!
 
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