I plan to buy a camcorder, was almost convinced to buy XL2 before learning about the Z1U. HDV capability is tempting but i live in the philippines where hd and hdv formats are far from being the standards. HD application here is limited to shooting movies and television commercials (big budget).

Most of my future camcorder's use will be for SD ouput (about 90% I guess) that's why im seriously considering XL2. But with the Z1U, i understand that i will have an option between shooting in SD and HDV Format, and there is always a posibility of a client or two might want an hdv output for internal viewing purposes and no public distribution plans.

Now here are my questions?

1). with the z1u in sd setting, what is the effective pixels count?

2). will i get a better sd result if i shoot in hdv and the use the z1u's
downconverter to capture footage as sd? (Im using adobe premiere pro 1.5 with
matrox rtx.100)

3) or should i go on with the XL2 plan and forget about that 1 or 2 would be hdv
client?

4). can anyone inform me if there is a site with info on the Z1U's ccd

Thanks,

Arlie

Welcome aboard DVInfo.net Arlie. As you have found yours is a
difficult decision which also (I suppose involves budget etc.).

Keep in MIND that the Z1U does *NOT* have a progressive mode,
if you would like to use that. I do not know if your country is using
NTSC or PAL, but if you are in NTSC you also do *NOT* get a 24
fps option with the Z1U.

I live in Holland and there is no HD here either, so it isn't too
interesting for me. I would personally go with the XL2 since it
has progressive and I really like the formfactor and the ability
to swap lenses etc.

In the end you are the only one who can make the decision which
is the right camera for you to buy. Make a list of the things a camera
must do and make a list of things that would be nice to have.
Make sure to include your budget as well. With such lists it should
be relative easy to figure out which camera you should get!

Good luck!