I finally took the plunge and decided to buy an HD camera. The process was pretty exhausting to wade through all of the footage online that others had posted but I found inspiration in one particular site by a guy named Michael Pappas. He tested the JVC HD100 and also the Canon XLH1 and posted some beautiful footage that blew me away.

One of the limitations of mini DV is lack of detail in wide shots. I love wide shots and I tried all types of sharpening and uprezzing experiments to make details pop on distant horizons but usually, to my disappointment, all I got was more detailed blobs. Sitting in my red leather chair watching Discovery HD Theater or INHD just got me more depressed. I wanted to be inspired by what I saw on these channels but knew that my poor little DVX was not up to the task.

When I first heard about Panasonic's new HD camera, the HVX200, I was beyond excited about the possibilities of an HD version of my beloved DVX. I feverishly awaiting footage to be posted by those who were first in line to buy. Finally, the guys at DVXUser posted some professionally-shot HVX footage and it looked wonderful. I began to obsess about shooting High Definition. I couldn't even go to work without framing almost everything I saw through my car window and imagining being able to capture the detail in the leaves of a tree or the distant Cascade mountains. Detail, detail, detail, I dreamt about it, I wanted it.

As the HVX200 became available to the masses, more and more footage was posted online and I was beginning to lose my initial enthusiasm when I noticed that detail seemed to be lacking in wide shots. The medium and closeup shots looked spectacular but the camera didn't do so well in the distant detail.

One of the other things that I have battled with while shooting with the Panasonic DVX100a was the noise problems in the picture. As soon as light began to fade in the sky, the noise began to bounce around like multicolored mosquitoes in my shots. I hated it. In fact, if you take a look at the first sequence of narrative in the morning shots of our film Brackendale, you will see two shots that I took in more than adequate light of trees and a river and the noise level is off the scale. I upped my antidepressant medication when I began to see the exact same thing in the HVX footage online. It looked like big brother had inherited this weakness and it was much more prevalent to my eye in HD, mainly because you see a bigger picture and more noise.

When I saw Michael Pappas' footage of the JVC HD100, I loved it. The noise seemed to be much less to my eye but a recent comparison of this and other HD cameras revealed that the JVC exhibitied the most noise in low light situations.

So the HDV underdog, Canon, was my next option. The price was way more than I wanted to pay for a new camera but it had everything I wanted. Having a 20x reach coupled with my newly modified 1.6x Century Optics teleconverter, I now have the still camera equivalent of a 1244mm lens! Absolutely fantastic for wildlife shooting and no workarounds, just a great setup. The sharpness and detail of the camera plus its almost limitless color configurations made this a highly attractive acquisiton. I finally bought it and have not looked back.

It didn't take me long to get up and running not being a stranger to the more ENG style shoulder mount cameras. I was easily able to simulate the colors I have used on the DVX and the fineness of the "grain" or noise looks much more like that of fast film rather than the typical murky video noise.

I am awaiting the results of the battle for what will be the standard for the new HD DVDs. Right now it's either going to be Blu-Ray or HD DVD. It's a little too early to say and, because this is currently bleeding edge technology, my favorite Adobe apps are not supporting HD DVDs yet. So I'm stuck with watching my edits on my HD computer LCD monitor in WMV HD format. That's fine, it'll get there. In the meantime, hooking up the camera to an HD plasma is a spectacular experience. All of the shots I took testing the camera last week exhibit detail that I've only seen with the naked eye and, yes, on Discovery HD Theater and INHD.

HD opens new possiblities in many ways for me. More vista shots, more low light shooting because, in my experience and opinion, the Canon trumps the Panasonic when the sun goes down.

You can read more thoughts about the my experience with the XLH1 and see some additional examples on my blog.

Here are some test shots I took at Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA recently: