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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Changing my Canon XL2 BUT to what? (1 Viewer)

shezza

Well-known member
Hi all, Due to an injured arm I cannot carry/support my Canon XL2 anymore,
So does anyone have any suggestions as to a replacement.
I am not concerned with all the pro switches/buttons etc that the XL2 has,
but I need the same quality or better,a good zoom or be able to put a teleconverter on, manual overide for zoom and focus (but not with a minute joystick that some have) I suppose I would be looking at H.Def but I have no HD tv and no plans to get one, so would I still get better quality than I am getting now?................Any ideas.......Pete.
 
Hi Pete,

You might like to take a look at my thread further down on the Panasonic SD90. It is small and light and fits all your criteria except the manual zoom option. It is possible to perform a slow speed zoom with practice and the quality of the footage is excellent even when converted in editing software to standard DVD quality. The only downside is that I had to send to the USA for an expensive stepping ring to fit the 41.5mm filter thread.

Please contact me if you would like any more info.

Mike
 
The Panasonic SD 900 does have manual focus using a ring around the lens - earlier models did let you reassign this for zoom but that is not mentioned in the spec now. The filter ring is a more conventional 46mm and it employs the more professional 3 sensor set up that I guess that your canon has. It is heavily discounted in several places at the moment - £640 ish.
I have its predecessor a TM700 which is technically superior to the equivalent Sony, however I use Sony on a day to day basis as I find it more user friendly and had a much better selection of accessories a few years ago when I was setting up video.
You will find that compared to your existing camera they will be a lot easier to handle particularly downloading your recorded images.

The next step up is something similar to the Sony NEX range starting with the NEX-VG10E, however, it is heavier than the SD900 class and at a list price of £1,900 is probably a lot more than you want to spend on an entry model.

I do own an SD90, as mentioned by Mike, but as it doesn't have a viewfinder its main. use is to be clamped to vehicles for travelling location shots. (It is probably the best in its price range - the video quality is excellent))

Modern image stabilisation is very good allowing excellent handheld tracking shots for instance and you will find that using a proper video camera far better than most still cameras adapted to video use. (Believe me I've tried)

The down side is that for everything that has a list price of less than £1,500 including lens the marketing and design is very much angled at the 'family man' and less at the serious video producer. You can overcome this but even the manual controls available are nothing like as good as you find on the pro kit costing a few k more.

Your best bet may be to go to a big Sony centre and have an extended play with what is available. You may be a bit frustrated with what you find but if nothing else I expect that downloading your footage will be a lot faster than what you are used to.
 
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