Not Everyone Needs HD part 2

Today’s post is Part 2 of the, Not Everyone Needs HD post from the other day. The cameras we’re looking at today are two older models that are still very popular among indie-filmmakers and other professionals alike, Sony’s DSR-PD170 and Canon’s GL2.

Sony PD170 – MSRP $2579
This is the camera I use in the Camera & Editing Training workshop I teach. It’s great for shooting documentaries or other news oriented programming but it definitely has a “video feel” (probably because it doesn’t have 24p capabilities) and I wouldn’t recommend it for indie-filmmakers trying to find a digital video camera that closely resembles film.

The PD170 was released right before Sony came out with its HD model so the upgrades from its predecessor the PD150 were minimal. Actually, with the exception of increasing the minimum illumination from 2lux to 1lux, Sony didn’t mention any other upgrades from the previous model.

However, because of the increase in low light illumination, the PD170 has better color reproduction then other models that were popular at the time of its release, namely Canon’s GL-2 and XL-1S models. And even with the release of Canon’s XL2 model and Panasonic’s AG-DVX100A the PD170 is still the low light champion.

And I can attest to the fact that it does shoot rather clear, crisp images even in low light situations.

Canon GL2 – MSRP $2399.99
From C-Net: This is a camcorder with a great deal of control to offer, but how to exercise that control isn't always apparent at first. You might forget, for instance, that to select one of the four programmed-exposure modes, you'll need to actuate a switch on the lower left side of the camera body, then push in the wheel labeled only Select (in other modes, it's used for other purposes), then choose from an onscreen menu.

Although far more compact than the XL1S, like its big brother, the GL2 comes richly endowed and offers you ample discretion over how you employ its assets. Everything you'd ask of a prosumer camcorder is here--automatic and manual focus and exposure control, the latter augmented by programmed autoexposure settings to let you quickly adapt to a variety of shooting circumstances--in addition to standout features such as nearly two megapixels of still-photo resolution.


The GL2 produces pristine images and superior color fidelity within the limits of the DV medium. It stands toe-to-toe with Sony's VX2000 in this regard. Unlike Canon's XL1S, whose low-light performance faltered in our tests, the GL2 is every bit as good as the VX2000 under low-light conditions, producing noise-free blacks and handling candlelight with aplomb. This is likely the result of the new, higher-resolution CCDs Canon employs in the GL2 (380,000 effective pixels per CCD for the GL2 versus 250,000 for the XL1S), coupled with another step forward in Canon's pixel-shift technology and its fluorite lens.