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August 2nd, 2006: Canon announces the HV10, a very small 1080i HDV camcorder that appears to be based on their Optura 600 chassis. According to Canon, it's the smallest and lightest HDV camcorder available. It features a 2.96 megapixel CMOS image sensor (made by Canon; not outsourced as usual) that is 1/2.7 inches in size with a native pixel resolution of 1920 x 1080. Among a variety of other features, the HV10 will play back video recorded in 24F or 30F Frame mode from the Canon XL H1 and the recently announced Canon XH series HDV camcorders. It ships in September 2006 with a suggested retail price of $1,299. For more information, check out our HV10 pages:

• Canon HV10 Overview


• Canon USA Press Release


• Canon HV10 Images

Here's the current Canon HDV camcorder spread as of August 2006:

• XL H1 $9000


• XH G1 $7000


• XH A1 $4000


• HV10 $1300

Earlier: Our own Charles Papert took a crack at the HD100 combined with a Mini35 image converter for a couple of days and put the combo through its paces. Charles has prepared a bunch of explanatory text, still images and HD video clips for you to browse through. Begin with Article, Part One: the Camera and Mini35 combo. After that, check out Article, Part Two: The Shoot. Then browse through some photos at Part Three: Behind the Scenes. There's a whole series of images from video at Part Four: Still Frame Images. You can also download the samples at Part Five: HD Video Clips. Last but not least, you can discuss what you find with fellow HDV Info Net members at our dedicated GY-HD100 discussion group.

Earlier: Here are some long overdue updates to the site... beginning with an extensive hands-on review of the Sony FX1 by Cinematographer and Digital Imaging Technician Jon Fordham. We had to break it into three separate sections, so here's Jon Fordham's FX1 Review, Part One, followed by Part Two and concluding with Part Three. Jon's biography page has been updated as well. Also, Douglas Spotted Eagle contributes a handy tutorial covering the subject of Repairing the Sony Z1U / FX1 Lens Shade, should you ever need to do it. Also, Heath McKnight reads HDV: What You NEED to Know by Douglas Spotted Eagle. This book was one of the best sellers at NAB2005!

Things are heating up in the HDV world -- the next offering in the HDV format camera line appears to be the three-chip JVC GY-HD100, a light-weight, low-height professional shoulder-mount camcorder with interchangeable lenses. Its three Progressive Scan CCD's are one-third inch in size, each containing 1.1 megapixels. The HD100 will record 720p24, 720p30, 480i and 480p with 1080i playback. There's a lot more going on in this camera, including an enhanced version of the HDV format, plus some other hardware as well. Read more about the HD100 here, and check out our dedicated GY-HD100 discussion group. Our HDV Resources Index has been updated with two new entries, to include the V.A.S.S.T. HDV Portal, Adam Wilt's HDV Format Info page (which is a new addition to his expansive online DV FAQ), and also HD for Indies, a very active Blog from Mike Curtis in Austin, Texas (the links to these sites are located here.

What is HDV?

HDV is a "consumer high-definition video format" proposed by a consortium of manufacturers, the core of which is composed by JVC, Sony, Canon and Sharp. These companies proposed the basic format specifications in July of 2003, and the formal announcement of the format came in a press release from the HDV consortium on 30 September 2003. HDV is native 16:9 with supported frame rates of 60i (frames-per-second interlaced), 30p (progressive), 50i, and 25p. All HDV variants record to existing standard DV format digital video cassettes, the most popular form factor of which is the Mini-DV shell. The transport stream interface conforms to IEEE 1394 (FireWire).

HDV1 (from JVC) is a 19 megabit-per-second MPEG-2 transport stream with a resolution of 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels tall. HDV2 (from Sony and Canon) is a 25 megabit-per-second MPEG-2 transport stream with a resolution of 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall.

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