Compact does not describe the new Professional camcorder from Canon it is tiny. The XA-10 does not skimp on quality by recording in HD 1080p. Inside the body is a wide angle lens with flexible zoom range and an eight blade iris for getting clean depth of field.
You should take advantage of the attachable arm shown in the video to get external XLRs and it’s still less than 10 inches in all dimensions and under two lbs, and if you are a Canon customer you may have the DSLR, EOS 60D, which is mere ounces lighter than the XA-10. Recording time will be a small issue with either 64GB internal memory for a minimum of five hours recording time or two SDXC card slots, including simultaneous recording for instant backup. You will be able to make great video with this small, professional camcorder for $2,000. We caught up with a speaker for Canon to give us some insight in this video from CES 2011:
