While casually watching CNN, I saw a uniformed US soldier following the assistant secretary of defense in Iraq. This in itself is not so special considering that there was more than one soldier in the group during this official visit. What DID stand out, is that this soldier was using a Canon XL-1s to document Wolfowitz's every move.

I have noticed on several occasions, troops running around with the XL-1. It appears that the XL-1 is being used by todays combat photographers in Iraq. While on a trip to Poland, on the cover of a magazine for Polish broadcast professionals, was a US soldier with the XL-1, standing in front of a blazing oil fire. A really dramatic shot by the way.

In anycase, it seems that the US military has picked up on the fact that DV is the way to go when it comes to portability, cost, and quality.

Josh, how is Beriln now days?

It has been a few years since I was there. I was there a year before the wall came down. Then got to see it come down, what a great time to be in Germany. I sure wish the Army was using something like the XL1 when I was there. (I know it was not out yet.) I would have tried to change jobs.

I really liked the people in Berlin. At least they could understand my terrible attempt at German.

I've been in Berlin for four years now. Quite a bit has changed since the Berlin Brigade days. No more military (except those attached to the Embassy)in Berlin. Most of the facilities are still here, having been left up for varius reasons. You can still drive through much of southern Berlin (Zeheldorf district) and see the old American officers housing. The US embassy still uses much of these to quarter diplomats.

I have been thinking of doing a documentary about BBDE sites as they are now using my XL-1....

As a note to ths thread I would also add that pd-150's are in use on the pave-hawks and other helos to document the ops they take place in. Must be the size that gets em on board the choppers. one of the reasons I picked it for my own arsenol.

As you pointed out PD-150s are used as well. This company makes night vision adaptors for DV cams, and Id bet some cash that this is what was used for the Spec Ops footage made during the PFC Lynch rescue mission:

http://www.bemeyers.com/product.asp?productID=CMO-745-B&catImage=images/title_nightvision.gif

Apparently this system works on Canon lenses.

This is the awesome system that is used by our fly-boys and oh what a system they are the nvg has rca's oout off the gogs to go to a sony gv-900 to record and that is where the best footage comes from.

http://www.ittnv.com/itt/Active/MilProductPages/AviationSystems/ProductPage/187

If anyone needs to use any nightvision shots on the cameras they use I would only use ITT, I have gen 3 and it is awesome...not one single blimish in my intensifier tube ..Get ready to shell out the bucks tho my anpvs/14 was 3900.00 but it has all the goodies to adapt and wear on a head gear too!

Looks like this thread eveloved into a thread about night vision options for DV cams. Not bad. Heres another site featuring adaptors for the XL-1, and several sets of example images.

http://www.electrophysics.com/

Re-activating this thread--I need to shoot some nightvision material for a feature; have contacted Electrophysics about their XL1 adaptor, but also wondering if by any chance anyone on the board here own the setup and have interest in renting it out. Also interested in other lower-cost possibilities (but it does need to be real nightvision, not just "Nightshot" IR technology)

the american army should film their daily lives on the xl1 and post the footage in here. I am not talking about CNN stuff. I prefer to see the real stuff.....the anger/hate from both sides.