Last week I dropped my vx1000 into the surf while filming my son boogie boarding. The vx, by the way, makes a very sad sound when it hits saltwater. Mostly I used the camera to film my family but sometimes I shot footage for small time documentary stuff. Yesterday I bought a 16:9 Japanese version on ebay. I figured I don't need Japanese to use the camera and it'd be great to not have to do 16:9 in post. But then I remembered reading that the image is cropped and loses a significant amount of resolution when 2k's are shoot in 16:9 because the ccd's aren't designed for native 16:9. Does anybody know if this is true on the Japanese vx1000 models?

As far as I know, all the VX models, 1000-2100 and the PD models don't have true 16:9 CCDs, they "squish" the 4:3 to make it 16:9. I'm not sure if the Japanese model will be any different, but I doubt it

Ya, 16:9 are a more recient chips. If you use to converted in post, then this will basically give you the same thing without doing it in post. It may even be slightly better quality. I would not worry about it, just have fun shooting your son--er taping him.

Sorry about the saltwater, it is totally unforgiving!

How about a safety strap? :)

Mike