nchopp

STAY AWAY FROM LP MODE! On the XL1, or ANY camera. Only evils can results. You'll get most of the sunrise on an hour of tape - I wouldn't worry about it too much.

MiniDV is definitely still an option. For documentary I often prefer the "harder" edge you get with DV. It all depends on what you're trying to get... Your subject matter, your audience, etc. I've even picked DV over HD on a few projects, just because that "edgy" feel lent itself better to the story being told. ALWAYS pick the medium to advacnce the story - don't write a story to fit a medium, or try to "fit" a medium to the story. If your doc just won't work right in DV, wait until you can shoot it in HD. If it'll work well in DV but would work better in HD and the difference means waiting a while - GO FOR IT. Don't let the tools limit you - work with what you can get.

Use the same tape stock all the time, and you'll likely have no problems, if you shoot in favorable conditions. However, if you shoot hard-core stuff, sports, etc., it'll likely become a problem. It's really tough in Studio situations, when you have tapes moving from camera to camera, VTR to VTR. If you have just one camera though, it should be simple to keep up with it. Clean maybe once a month, and it'll be fine.

I personally would probably use a slow shutter speed - get the smooth, flowing feeling from the water. Depends on your use, though. What's it for? Good call on the WB. You'll want to pull the greens up in post as well, most likely. The 100 never pops them enough for my preference...

Alesis Mark2 Actives are pretty decent for the pricepoint - $400 a pair, I think. I'm very much a fan of the Event Tuned Reference 6s - got a pair of those too, and they're amazingly clean. (Also around $400 a pair) I find the Alesis set a bit bassy, but you can stuff the ports and that seems to clear them up a lot.

Does the 100A have the capability of recording to IC? I don't think I've ever seen it discussed anywhere.

In my experience the most annoying part for me has been having to use the adapters for the viewfinder, etc.

Another vote for Framethief here if you're going to use a DV camera. I would however suggest considering a high-res digital camera. You'll get better than HD results. :-) The Canon 10D gives you a 3072x2048 image. That's just about 35mm resolution. :-) The new 20D is an 8mp, not sure on the exact numbers for how many pixels that is... Or you could just go with the 16mp Canon 1DS Mark 22. :-) A professional dSLR will give you better results than a P&S; less flicker etc. like Frank mentioned.

I agree on the PD-150. A very common camera used for documentaries. Supersize Me was shot on the 150, I believe.

Yeah, that's what it's for. :-) If you're a still photographer with a good set of L glass, it would definitely be useful. I'd LOVE to stick the 1200mm L on an XL2. <grin>

Sure looks that way...

The Mackie VLZ-Pro is a decent board, kinda noisy for high-sensitivity recording (music), but they're more than fine for broadcast work. Pretty cheap, too.

Agreed. I'd probably go with the 8-bit, just because tossing M-JPEG compression (however slight) on top of your future MPEG encoding will probably be a bit lossier than going with the (initially) "less" information in the 8-bit uncompressed.

Agreed. I found the movie to be a close second to Anchorman in terms of sheer hilarity for me. I live with four other guys, and it's one of our favorite flicks. I think part of the appeal comes from the fact that we all either: A. Were that guy in highschool or B. Knew that guy in highschool It's a story just about everyone can relate to.

I would suggest Avid (Even Avid XPress\DV\whatever) over AE for color grading...

Yet another agreement on the grading. You'll get MUCH better results.

What are you shooting? Feature film, short, documentary, promo video? If you're trying to tell a story, I really couldn't suggest the XL1 over the 100. Even if you're shooting PAL, you're still shooting interlaced...

Possible, but we're still not even seeing FW800 on cameras yet. :-\ The only real things we're seeing that are 800 are hard drives.

Oh, very true. I'd take DigiBETA or DVCPRO50 over DVCAM any day.

I disagree entirely. I pull quite solid mattes off DV25 material as a matter of course, and without the FCP color smoothing. Boris RED does a great job of keying DV25 material.

It can manually focus, yes, but it's the standard servo crap. The 14x manual Canon is a much more of a professional lens. Only manual focus, iris, etc. The XL2 WILL take Canon EOS lenses, if you pick up the EOS adapter. About 300, but if he's got good L glass, it'd be worth it. You can stick everything up to and including the Canon L 1200mm. The advantage of the EOS L glass is it's built for much higher resolution DV - it's meant to stand up to the 11mp Canon 1DS, so the XL2 doesn't quite out-res them. ;)

Boy, if I had a dollar... The thing that really bugs me about the XL2 is the same thing that really bugs me about the XL1 - it doesn't know what it is. Is it a shoulder camera? No, not really. It it a handheld? No, not really. It's quite possibly one of the most uncomfortable cameras to shoot handheld with since... well, uhh, I don't know. The back-mounted video cameras of the 70s. That doesn't matter if you're on sticks or flying it, but still. If you don't think you be getting other lenses, that kind of kills one of the biggest advantages the XL2 has over the 100. I would at least consider getting the 14x manual, if you do go for the XL2. The standard lens is... well, decent. It's L glass, so it's not bad at all. I'd say it and the Leica are about on par, but I don't have anything to back that up with. The 16x9 of the XL2 is definitely an advantage. It's a lot simpler than putting the adapter on the 100, then having to adapt the viewfinder, etc. Or using the rather crappy 16x9 on the 100. I've had pretty decent results from shooting 4x3 and then cropping\squeezing in post, but it's still a pain. Shooting 4x3 while composing for 16x9 is not my idea of a good time. ;-) Personally, I prefer the 100. While I love Canon (all my still equipment is Canon, and I've got a pretty decent amount of Canon glass), I just really like the 100.

No cameras that I'm aware of require a certain brand of tape. I always stick with Sony, that's what we use in our Studio. All the things you hear about not switching brands is true - the manufacturers all use different lubricants, they mix up, and then start attracting all kinds of crud. The thing is, it's an infection. In a Studio environment, it's just about instant death. You can clean all the cameras and VTRs, but unless you get rid of ALL your tapes, you're just going to keep spreading the infection around. It got so bad in our Studio that the only thing that would read any of the tapes recorded by our PD-150 was our DSR-80 Sony DVCAM VTRs - that are something like 20 grand new. Nasty stuff. So, in a nutshell, pick a brand and stick with it. :D

Agreed. The camera is quite straight-forward to operate, and I've worked with quite a few of them - haven't run into any problems like you've described. Granted, I also hate the stupid little menu control\tape control knobbie thing.

For your average screen work, something like the 150 will be fine - the key is just lighting well... If you're doing something for broadcast or DVD, a camera like the 150 will be sufficient.