If you are on a tight budget and would still prefer to use a tape-based camera the Sony HDW-F900R will not disappoint. The F900R features a 12-bit A/D conversion and HD-SDI output. It’s 24P look has been used on many dramas, commercials and feature films worldwide. The HDCAM range has proven itself as a strong competitor at the high end of broadcast cameras.

The SRW-9000 camcorder is the latest in Sony’s product range. Designed as an alternative to the costly F35 camera, the SRW-9000 is an HDCAM SR tape-based recording system. It’s a 2/3-inch CCD sensor and would perfectly compliment the F35 as a second camera or simply as a complete shooting package. It offers top-quality 4:2:2 Y/Cb/Cr 10-bit recording at 1080/23.98P, 24P, 25P, and 29.97P, and 1080/50i and 59.94i. The SRW-9000 can record 4:2:2 720/50P and 59.94P signals with high sensitivity and low noise imaging.

The Panasonic AJ-HPX3700 P2 Varicam is a 2/3-inch hi-end video camera with a 2.2 megapixel CCD sensor that delivers full 1920 x 1080 HD images. With progressive and interlace options, this camera supports native 23.98p/24p/25p/29.97p and 50i/59.94i.

Panasonic’s proprietary P2 solid-state recording format is well established and the 3700 Varicam can record 100Mb/s data with AVC-Intra 100 codec as 10-bit 4:2:2 sampling or it can even output RGB 4:4:4 images with full-pixel resolution and P-10Log gamma. The best part of this camera is that it records video and wraps it as an MXF file, making it ready to simply upload in to most popular edit systems.

The camera also has standard Panasonic-developed film-like looks that reproduce a wonderful colour space and an in-built Chromatic Aberration Compensation (CAC) function.

The biggest development after the RED camera in recent years has been the emergence of the DSLR market as digital video cameras. The Canon has released a couple of options in the EOS range such as the 7D and the 5D Mark II. The 5D Mark II is a 21.1 mega-pixel full frame camera with a CMOS sensor that can record 1080 HD video up to 30fps, giving a very shallow depth-of-field.

The latest Canon release is the EOS 7D that is a smaller sensor size (APS-C) that has a 1.6 crop factor but allows the frame rate to increase to 60fps in 720p. Standard frame rates up to 30fps are still recorded in 1080 HD and with an 18 mega-pixel sensor this certainly is a very desirable option for the budget-conscious filmmaker.