cassy_g | Camcorder Geekiness

So because I am a masochist... I have been looking at camcorders again... ones that would be capable of shooting movies in a professional standard without being $20,000+ ... and I found one (on sale for $3500, still more than I can afford right now)... one that I am lusting over... drooling over... coveting beyond belief.

So for you other photo geeks, please enjoy my beautiful shiny picture and specs here...

It's a Canon XL1S MiniDV Digital Camcorder with SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization & Interchangable Lenses. Just click the link if you care to see the full specs.

Here's a sample:

3 CCD system. A prism separates light passing through the lens and assigns each primary color to an individual CCD (270K pixels each), generating terrific detail, precise color reproduction and low color noise within a wide dynamic range.

Pixel Shift signal processing. Maximizes dynamic range, brightens low-light video, diminishes vertical smearing and sharpens digital photos overall, to solve common shooting problems.

Enhanced low-light sensitivity. Combination of 3 CCDs and a larger pixel size (72 square microns) yields an improvement in low-light sensitivity, approximately 4dB overall.

SuperRange optical image stabilizer. Inspects CCD image for any low-frequency vibration missed by the gyro sensor, then back-feeds the data to accelerate and refine vari-angle prism movement, vastly improving performance (16x zoom lens only).

3 shooting modes. Normal Movie (natural playback, standard interlaced recording), Frame Movie (cinema quality, a unique, noninterlaced method similar to 35mm cameras) and Digital Photo modes (6-sec. still shots with self-timer and sound capture).

6 AE programs. Modes include Full Auto (green zone), Auto with select manual functions, Manual, Spotlight (extreme contrast awareness), and Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority modes (one value manually selected, counterpart automatically set).

3 picture adjustment settings. Quick creative control from up to 3 stored settings, including Color Gain (oversaturation to off/black-and-white), Color Phase (red to green adjustment), Camera Sharpness and Setup Level (fine-tuned shadow detail)

4-channel digital audio. Record audio in 16-bit (2 channels, 48kHz) or 12-bit (4 channels, 32kHz) formats, with fully automatic or manual control and an illuminated VU meter (microphone included).

Canon XL 5.5-88mm 16x Zoom Lens (IS II). Includes SuperRange variable angle prism for optical image stabilization, plus 600+ TV resolution lines, ND filter, manual focus and zoom rings, and a Push AF button.

XL mount system. (Yes, that means it has interchangeable lenses...) Accommodates a wide range of Canon XL and EF 35mm lenses (with EF adapter), adding up to focal range of 24mm to 2160mm, for an extremely versatile shooting system.

So, that's what I am spending today doing... gushing over technology... I am such a geek... (By the way, the husband banned me from doing anything Dragon*Con related today, so blame him for this... heh)