Content area
Full Text
Of the first crop of professionalized HDV camcorders with 1/3in. sensors, only the latest, Canon's XL H1, can claim to have been created by a lens manufacturer.
This is a meaningful distinction. With fixed-lens HDV camcorders retailing for less than $5,000 - 2/3in. HD lenses are typically $20,000 alone - HDV camcorder design has necessitated compromise and trade-off, optics included. Depending on how you look at it, a $5,000 HD camcorder is either a modern-day miracle or a collection of technical concessions to the mass marketing of affordable HD. (It's both, of course.)
With no disrespect to Sony and Zeiss - I've used Z1s and A1s extensively in the past year and sing their praises - stubby 2in.- or 3in.-long optical assemblies combining lens, prism, and sensor(s) are no match, optically speaking, for longer, wider, full-bodied lenses. (Despite the fact that tiny digital still cameras produce remarkable results these days.)
While Sony has achieved unprecedented Handycam compactness in its HDV designs, Canon has instead opted to retain the bulkier "chainsaw" profile of its XL1 and XL2 series, which permits the use of larger interchangeable lenses, mostly of Canon design.
The XL H1 features a new Canon 20X (5.4-108mm) HD zoom with a microprocessor-actuated vari-angle prism for optical image stabilization - Canon invented OIS, incidentally - as well as a new algorithm that examines, on the fly, low-frequency shake in captured images to fine-tune the vari-angle prism's responsiveness.
This comes at a price, naturally: $9,000 for both camcorder and 20X lens.
Ouch, you say. But compare this to the cost of other HD camcorders with 20X zooms. Hint: You'll no longer find yourself in budget-friendly HDV land. Nor will you find 2/3in. HD zooms with optical image stabilization.
Canon knows that an image can be no better than the lens that formed it in the first place, no matter how much bit depth or digital signal processing you throw at it upon capture. So Canon has gambled that video professionals new to HDV will pay more for better optical performance. After all, we're talking high definition here.
Results I have seen from this camcorder bear out the superiority of Canon's 20X lens: corner resolution that appears to match center resolution, no visible chromatic aberration, minimal...