Which prosumer camcorder is better?

[Rogerdeville]

Forget price, which of these is the "best"? Best meaning which one shoots the best, lasts longest, and can handle more filming situations well.

Canon XH-A1S
Canon XH A1
Canon XL-H1A
Canon XH-G1S
Canon XL-H1S

I don't know all the little differences but I am fond of Canon and want to choose the best out of these. Thanks!

[GeorgeMaier]

I'm a big fan of the XL-H1s, but its getting very old now... So I'd fall back onto something else, I'd probs go with XH-A1S if cost was an issue

[cgbier]

I don't need shoes....

[antman]

which ever has hd-sdi out, and genlock, whick I think is the xhg1, xlh1. The xha1s is a nice cam. But you have to get the 4:2;2 signal from analogue component out. Hd sdi, is a feature all camcorders should have, but it's just not cost effective. too bad.

[peterarcson]

XF300/305 is by far better. The sensor is superior, you get uncompressed sound and don't have to deal with tapes. On the top you get 4:2:2 in camera recording at 50 Mb/s, so there is hardly any need for external recorder. In proper lighting XF100 is almost as good- you can't tell the difference between the two in good light.

[antman]

I don't recall seeing anything about the xf300 or xf100 in the list. There may be a specific reason why he wants ccd over cmos. Like if plans on moving fast motion. The newer Canons may be superior in that they have less noise, and a tapeless workflow, but when it comes to doing a whip pan or the like, the cams he listed destroy any of the xf series cams. Not to mention those may be out of his budget. He can get some of those for half of what the xf100 goes for.

[Lunchbox]

XH-A1 and XH-A1a are the same. XH-A1s is the newer version with some little bit of enhancement.

[cgbier]

Hey, that guy's a spammer. The same question was here before.... just the link to the spam was a different one.

[drapeama]

I don't need shoes....

LOL!
So the others didn't click the link, so you're the only one that read more than the title and the first few lines of the post!

[Lunchbox]

I removed his link.

[mgalvan]

I too like the Canon XL H1S. With the Nanoflash, its great!

[peterarcson]

I don't recall seeing anything about the xf300 or xf100 in the list. There may be a specific reason why he wants ccd over cmos. Like if plans on moving fast motion. The newer Canons may be superior in that they have less noise, and a tapeless workflow, but when it comes to doing a whip pan or the like, the cams he listed destroy any of the xf series cams. Not to mention those may be out of his budget. He can get some of those for half of what the xf100 goes for.
Sorry, but ccd vs cmos is and old tale and no longer applies. I used plenty of times XF100 to film DH biking at Whistler and here in WA and by far it's much better then any CCD camera I used in the past. When it comes to economics- to match XF quality you'll have to get Nanoflash, which forces you to buy XH-G1, because A1 doesn't have HD-SDi or HDMI out. Used G1 will run you about 3K, plus another 3K for Nano. I call it hardly any savings, since new XF300 costs about the same.

[jet]

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/camcorders/canon-xf300.shtml

:( drool