seems to me there is a hole in the canon lineup that could be met by a 5-6K hdv cam without some of the broadcast features. Any comments?

Once you've spent the dollars on the engineering and tooling costs there's not much to be saved bypulling bits off, if anything your costs might go up.
Sony do this with the Z1 and FX1 but they're built by different divisions.
With the XL H1 how much do you think removing two BNC sockets and half an I.C. is going to save? $5 maybe. How much is the cost of new drawings, parts lists and storage space going to add? $10.

I think, if Canon will launch a new HDV cam it will be in the XM-series (or GL-series in the States) - a XM/GL3 with HDV! I really (rather) hope that Canon will give us some new lenses for the H1.

Keep in mind that Canon Video has never introduced a new camcorder at NAB. That's not their show. They always take a back seat to Canon Broadcast at NAB. I would be very surprised if Canon Video broke from tradition and announced a new camcorder at NAB. That's never happened before, and the recent past is always a very good guage of the near future.

Seems like a longshot I guess. I hate to leave Canon XL after owning 3 but the 10K price tag is too rich for my blood.

It'd be neat if they came out with an even HIGHER-end XL-type camera that uses a new lense mount. But then we're going into Area 51 territory. But seriously, I wouldn't count on any new cameras at NAB, unless they want to show lenses or something.

I don't know, does Canon announce lenses at least at NAB?

Can you get free stuff at NAB? Magnets, pens, rulers?

How about an XL H2!!!
Following xl2 tradition - progressive ccds, better low light, less noise, less CA(with the new lens), 60p recording(this one's not exactly and xl2 feature), much higher latitude and...and...well then I wake up with my foot in the fish tank.
...and don't even have fish.

I think that Canon should make some new lenses to fit the H1 (especially wide angle) before thinking of uprating or down-grading the original body.

Yeah, you can get some free stationary at some booths, I don't remember if Canon had stuff at their booths last year. I know they sure as pancakes had brochures left and right though! =)

An HD 3X Lens for me please!

At least, if Canon doesnt plan to release new HD lenses, they should release a firmware update to let us use the SD lenses without the 10 second warning...

Yeah, you can get some free stationary at some booths, I don't remember if Canon had stuff at their booths last year. I know they sure as pancakes had brochures left and right though! =)

Canon might as well be handing out pencils since they won't have anything else to show people.

The broadcast division usually has new lenses to show at NAB. It's their biggest event of the year.

Chris I read somewhere that Goodmorning America uses Sony Z1's for there show. Maybe Canon broadcasting will come out with something (GL3 maybe) to try and compete! Just a thought.

But your probably right they won't.

Canon planning to launch at least a new wide for the Xl H1 third or forth quarter this year (directly from the horse mouth). They will probably not announce at NAB, because NAB is more into the broadcast segment, where XL H1 appearently does not belong (?).

Glad to hear the horse mouth is saying something. Third or 4th quarter is a very long time to wait when the camera was released 4th quarter last year. I hope they don't just make an an HDV version of the 3x lens. Give us a good 12x or 13x wide angle lens so I can shoot documentaries here in the small apartments of NY.

Third or 4th quarter is a very long time to wait when the camera was released 4th quarter last year.Actually the camera was announced Q4 of last year but not released until Q1 of this year. And that would be consistent with Canon's history. Remember the XL1 was announced Q4 of 1997, shipped Q1 of 1998, and the first additional lenses (other than the stock lens) came later in Q3 of 1998. In this business, history usually repeats itself.

I'd like to see a XL2s that records Mpeg4 with 4:4:4 sampling and 24 bit audio. Oh and variable frame rates would be nice too.