Middle of the week...blah....and HDV cameras.

I've come to dread and love the Wednesday. It's the middle of the week, so it's halfway done, but then you still half of it to go. Today I resent, because it's a beautiful day, and I keep wandering outside to enjoy the beautiful weather, and I am resenting that I am now an adult and must work. I keep thinking about wandering off to a bookstore or somewhere to enjoy, and then I have to reign myself back in with the big "responsibility" leash.

Since I'm at work-I'll gush on some of the new cameras in the market right now. I have the fun job of working with cameras-so sometimes I like to try out brand new stuff. The HDV consumer cameras are really great still cameras as well. So you get a double dose of both a video camera of higher quality-with the ability to take high resolution stills. The cheapest one of broadcast quality you can get is the Canon HV-10. The camera is really cool-it fits in the palm of your hand-and has pretty good image stabilization. Like most consumer grade cameras, the focus is pretty weak-so don't expect it to blow your mind with some amazing zoom ins and outs. In fact-put it too close to an object and the auto focus wobbles and is unable to focus direct. The problem with the camera-is no manual focus, and no infrared-so low light is pretty weak. But it does have the added bonus of having a little interview light to cast on your subjects.

Second fun one is the HVR-A1U by Sony. Sony rocks my world, seriously. I love walking into Sony stores and looking at all their new stuff. (I'm a mac lover, but when I saw the new Sony Vaios-and they're so small and cute, I was drooling). I took a picture of some roses with the A1U, and honestly-the camera function on that camera is just awesome. Beautiful, really. And then it has the added bonus of nightvision-so you can take it into complete darkness and it'll illuminate with infrared light. Drawbacks-poor low light performance and zoom function. But-you can buy a wide angle lens for it, and it actually has a beechtek addition-with XLR inputs so you can buy high quality microphones and get good directional sound. In fact-the camera actually comes with a ECM mic-which is not a bad standard mic that Sony makes.

So what does this all mean? Well-think about this. Let's say you buy one of the best digital cameras out there-those would be a Nikon or Canon SLR (Nikon D-70 or Canon Rebel). That's going to set you back anywhere from $800-$1000. Now, what if you can get a high quality video camera-that shoots high definition video (this is not true HD-by the way), but that ALSO works as a still camera? Canon HV-10 $1100, the A1U $3000. Pretty neat, if you ask me, and it'll still get better as it goes along, and technology gets better.

Ahhhh. I freaking love technology. I swear, I'll probably faint when I see the new I-phone.