We had a Canon XL1 and boy were we excited at the time. Horribly front heavy for the shoulder though. Too bad Hi-8 was such a terribly delicate format. Big mistake ever bothering with it.

Older decks still have value due to the glut of media that still needs to be transferred to digital. We're in the process right now of transferring 1000s of tapes from Beta, DVCAM, Hi-8, 3/4, you name it. Sending it all out to a service actually. All the old cameras though are useless. There's just no logical reason to record to tape now or ever have to go back. An iphone or any basic HD camcorder you can buy at Walmart is better than any of our $30k Sony ENG rigs we used pre-2000s.

Corporations and Businesses actually LOVE the subscription model. It makes budgets easy. Procurement loves consistency. Of course a solo guy out of his house doesn't want to pay monthly, when he can continue to use software that works good enough for him in a closed system. However, 60/mo to do business is still cheap. I'd love to not have to pay for years if its ok for me. But Davinci won't be free once it reaches a certain market penetration. Count on it. It's a business decision for them that will be exploited once the time is right.

Doing green screen is certainly not out of the range for an indie, if those involved have an SFX background, but what this article is referring to...virtual environments or real 3D design. Sorry, that's on a whole other level of experience well out of range for your average filmmaker. Again, unless he comes from a SFX background and can do it at home, like Gareth Edwards did for Monsters, what this article is proposing is a little absurd.

News stations care=) BMD is trying to move in on Sony who has the ENG market mostly wrapped up. For news gathering and some doc work a cinema camera is inadequate compared to a smaller sensor and B4 lens.

Next tip...you can protect your lens by using the cap=) What passes for tips these days, hehe.