I’m not filming the next Discovery Cannel series though I think this camera is well suited for the task. This is the first camcorder I have owned since I had some Panasonic 3CCD consumer camcorder. You can imagine how long ago that was. Anyway, I enjoy photography but I thought I’d try to get onto videography and I don’t believe in going in half way. So, I wanted a serious video camera. That’s what the Canon XA50 is. It’s a camcorder designed for serous work best sided for news and documentaries. This camcorder is probably well suited for cinema. Having said, that, I really enjoy this camera. It is compact and light. The 1” sensor really helps in low light and the zoom is fantastic. You can get a pretty wide shot or get in really close. The image stabilization is really nice too but I think you’ll want something more serious for real stabilization. The Canon XA50 really gives you a lot of options. For anyone interested in upping their video recording game, the XLR inputs are a must. They provide phantom power, giving you a ton of microphone options. I’m currently using an Audio Technica BP4029 stereo shotgun mic for my recording. It’s a great setup and sounds fantastic. There are optional accessories. I’m also using a wide teleconverter to record marching bands. In terms of video quality, I find it to be excellent. I got a lot of complements on the professional look of my videos. It limited to 4K at 30fps. I don’t find this limiting but some that want to to 60fps may. It will do 60fps at 1080p. You can also record through HDMI to an external source and that gives you some different color options. 4:2:0 vs 4:2:2. I’m not pro enough to have this make much difference for me. Out of the box, anyone can pick this up and shoot decent video in full auto mode but as I continue to use it, I'm learning how to use more of the manual settings and up the quality even more. Canon’s colors look really nice and I'm glad I bought this camcorder. As far as editing videos goes, I recommend DaVinci Resolve. It’s free version is pretty robust and it works well with the videos from the Canon XA50, especially if you shoot XF-AVC over MP4. This camcorder is expensive but for a dedicated, semiprofessional to professional tool, it’s a good value.

This is an awesome movie camera, whether you are professional or amateur. I bought this camera just in time for my daughter college graduation. The video quality is superb. Image stabilization is also a key selling point. I look forward to exploring and playing with this quality-built movie camera in the years to come.

This camera has been a great upgrade from the little Sony camera, I have had for years.

Great camera. Big improvement over my old cheap camcorder.