my decision

Two weeks ago I wrote a post titled "My Dilemma", since then I've accepted the fact that as much as I love my Z1u, I don't desperately need it at this moment. What I do desperately need (two months ago) is about 2 TBs of storage, so I can begin to import & log the 140+ hours of footage from Pedal.

I spent tonight sorting out everything I plan on selling along with the Z1u, including the: 4 extra batteries (440 min ea.), the Century Optics Pro Sony HDV wide angle lens / 0.6X, the Quantary 72mm polarizer filter, and a 5 pack of Sony premium tapes (just cause I have tons of them left over).

Since I bought the camera, six months ago, it's basically been used for only two things: Project Pedal, and Jay Leno's Garage. It makes me sad to see it go - it's a really, really great camera. I love the way it handles, the way looks, the picture it produces, I really have no complaints.

The plan is: after I sell the Z1u, the first thing I'll buy is a replacement camera. After a lot of looking, I've settled on the A1u (pdf), the Z1's baby-brother, it still has XLR 2 channel inputs, it has a CMOS chip instead of 3 CCDs, it's gotten a lot of very positive reviews. And considering I need a deck for capturing more than anything else - it should work out great.

My only concern is that I still haven't been able to find a clear answer to whether or not capturing PAL footage with an NTSC camera is going to be problematic? While on the road, I used the HC1 (which is NTSC only) and iMovie to capture bits of PAL footage here and there, and never had problems, but I'm trying to avoid any major nightmares down the road.

After I buy the A1u, I'll buy my 1st TB, I've decided on Lacie's 2big Triple (2-disk RAID). I was going to buy the 2 TB model, when I realized that it was about $140 cheaper to buy two 1 TBs separately. Since the first TB alone will capture around 70 hours of HDV, it should last me a while before I need a 2nd Raid.

If you're interested, the Z1u is for sale here, and you can take a look at some more detailed pictures on flickr. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.