Canon XH A1 is sure to meet all your standards and requirements. Perfect for all professionals or even beginners who are serious on film making. This Canon XH A1 High Definition Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom is definitely a great deal! If so the Canon XH A1 is a sure bet to win over your heart. Not only is this camera small enough to suit all of your needs but it also has a lot to offer in performance as well. The Canon XH A1 is a beautiful camera and one of the best prices for professional features. It has a great lens, 3 CCD, and HD recording capability.

Despite its compact size the Canon XH A1 is designed to shoot true 1080p HD video at 60i, 30F, or 24F frame rates. Engineered with a wide array of advanced professional Canon camera technologies, the XH A1 captures light through a Genuine Canon 20x HD video zoom lens and directs it to three 1/3-inch native 1440 x 1080 16:9 CCDs with 1.67 million pixels per sensor.

Video can either be captured via the integrated MiniDV recorder or through the DV output that can be sent to an external video recording device. Auto focus is critical to capturing good video and with the Instant AF feature on the Canon XH-A1, the technology makes following the moving action easier. They look great in the on camera LCD and they look even better output to DVD and played on a television. One difference I saw between the GL2 and XH A1 is that colors are particularly vivid with the A1. Those software packages also show audio and enable the computer to record the camera's output directly to a hard drive. But they can only display what the cameras doing.

In addition, the SDI output is the only way to get 4:2:2 output. This means you can customize your camcorder to match the output from any manufacturer's camera so that everything in post will match. If you get lost playing around in the options you can just hit the reset button in the menu and it will take you back to the original defaults. In addition, a nearby lid pops up to reveal a BNC composite video output.

When using the handle zoom control, you can operate the zoom at a single speed which you preset. You can also select high speed zoom to increase the zoom speed when using either the grip or handle control. On the lens barrel rings of different sizes and textures operate focus, zoom and iris. In response to complaints about the mushiness of servo controlled focus, Canon offers a slow speed option.

I love the manual buttons. It feels like a pro camera it looks like a pro camera.

Learn how to make manual adjustments to fine tune your video by adjusting the Shutter Priority Mode (Tv), the manual and auto focus, the exposure, and much, much more. Partial zoom adapter allows zoom capability from wide angle to mid range when using the camera in auto focus mode. Together, the two sensors reduce focusing time even in low light situations and improve focusing performance on difficult subjects.

This may seem a little bit pricey, but you're basically getting the high definition capabilities of much more expensive cameras, and an incredibly affordable high def camera. Do your research, of course.