Canon XL H1

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Somewhere between the major television networks' $40,000 professional high-definition cameras and consumers' $3,500 HD camcorders are the independent filmmakers and small TV stations with the needs of the pros but not the budget. That's where Canon's XL H1 fits in, the first cam under $10,000 to deliver full manual control, 24-frame-per-second capture (to mimic analog film, the gold standard), and industry-standard time coding and connectors for easy integration into small TV stations' existing production equipment. 20x optical zoom lens included; $9,000