Hi. I do a lot of live events (concerts, plays, etc) with available light in HDV, now using a little Sony HVR-A1. I create DVDs not aim to reach a professional level in terms of quality but good enough to be enjoy at home.
The A1 is great with good light, but with low light noise it very bad. Ocassionally I rent the famous Sony Z1 and I really love it (of course, after using the Sony A1 the Z1 is a great step forward). Although people say that it not good in low light, for be is does a decent job (could be better of course). The only problem I see with the Z1 is that iris increase quite dramatically when zoomed, which is bad as all my footage requiere being almost fully zoomed.
Looking for a possible upgrade, the natural one is the new Sony Z5, which is about $3800. But I have seen the Canon XH A1s for $1000 less!
The XH A1s and the Z5 seems almost identical. Some people critict the Canon’s LCD and probably a little less sensitivity to light than the Z5, but this is worth $1000?
Probably the main drawback for me with the Canon is that where I live, almost all equipment is Sony, so maybe pairing the Canon with rented Sonys willl be problematic.
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