I currently have a Panasonic HMC151 which has and is brilliant. The reason I have it is that it uses 3xCCD which means that propellers are not an issue and appear 'realistic' rather than some of the problems facing CMOS chips.

Now, I am happy with the 151, but I could do with something that has a longer Optical range, like the old XM2 I had which had a 20x zoom.

So what I am looking for is a HD camera that shoots full 1080P, has a reasonable Optical zoom and can cope with Propellers. If it has CCD's that's great, but I don't know how the latest CMOS chips cope with Propellers.

The best way of testing this is to just use an indoor fan and film it. If it looks like a spinning disk, great, if it looks like a bent banana or straight horizontal lines, it's not what I am looking for

I am looking at a £2k budget, but at a push (and with a little tear in the eye) I can probably go to £3k.

I have no idea with recent cameras whether £3k will get me interchangeable lenses (like the old XL1/2 system), but I hope to be able to get a decent HD camera with the above specification, but interchangeable lenses is a bonus not a priority.


Any help really appreciated, it was advice here that made me choose the 151, cheers, MP

I love video camera and currently have an old Cannon 3 chip digital 8 that needs to be replaced. I have done a ton of research and now think an slr such as the Cannon 5d would be my choice. The 5d combined with a quality lens would give pro results, they even use it for real movie production.

just to clarify, if you want to look at the Canons, look at either the 5d Mark II or the 7D. The original 5D does not have video capability.