Professional quality results for dimes on the dollar

Having transitioned from 16mm SOF to 3/4video in the mid-70's, and used broadcast video cameras and portable recorders separately and 2/3" 3CCD Digital camcorders..The small format/footprint HD1U offers a great many professional features if you take the time to read the manual, and use a higher end NLE like Pinnacle/Avid Liquid, or Avid Studio. Capture is intuitive and the MPEG-2 is very close to as good as it gets. The price of the camera used is significantly lower than the original $3500. US, and with the improvements in the editing software and platforms (I-3/I-7 Intel CPU) The HD1U has come into its own against much higher priced larger units--and certainly shows superior to most if not all consumer HD SD/HD cameras even today-keep in mind the HD1U is vintage 2003--a little too far ahead of its time--and quirky due the the transfer file nature of the MPEG2 processing/ingest for NLE back then. As for the color--calibrate your monitor. This is a serious piece of professional eqiupment with a die cast aluminum chassis. The only reason I marked it lower in ease of use is the penalty owners will pay if they don't read the manual about the IEEE1394 firewire output setting-use SW not auto-/if you can get one of these at 700-1500 bucks and you take the time to actually use it you will be very pleased with your results. Archiving on HD mini-dv is also a plus.

JVC GR-HD1

I had a Canon XL-1s and I purchased it 6 month ago, I like the way that most pros says about Canon that: “ YOU CAN’T BREAK IT “ and I believed it because I am working with Canon products over 20 years.
A month ago I went for HD world and bought JVC GR HD1.I record over 20 hours in different condition and this is my personal view about that compare with XL1:

Great about:
- High Quality HD resolution,
- Animation mode possibility
- Great side LCD. (Supports up- and down-conversion for a variety of display options)
-Very comfortable design
- Solid construction

Worse about:
- Lacks professional controls
- Mediocre color and latitude
- Very Amateur editing options
- Limited zooming possibility

Couldn't get what I wanted, so I have 5 of these.

I wanted to buy 2 Panasonic AG-HMC70U's, but could not swing the extra money for all the extra's. I do A and B shots of sports games and I felt the flash drives would save me five hours of video transfer time and wear and tear on the camera.
I purchased the three extra camera's because they are a legacy item that will not be supported in the future. You may want to know:
Sony Vegas 9 handles my high-def well. I had to purchase a Pyro Av link to transfer my hi-def footage. Color is what you see so I have to beef it up with my video editing tools to make it look like today's hi-def camera's.
What I love is that for the price it is so solid and sweet. Mount it with a Raynox tltphoto conversion lens and an Azden shotgun mic and you look like you know what you ae doing.
If you are going to buy it, know that it is a short term fix and for the same price you can get a consumer level 3 ccd hi-def camera.

I have bought a JVC GR-HD1 on ebay and love it.

The camera is of great value and may seem hard to use but with just a little time and some usage it is very easy to capture all the best footage you want. Many great memories will be caught on mine. PERFECT camera for the price.