Everything was interlaced 480i or at most Telecined 480p in a 480i container. MiniDV was all the rage and HD was a figment of our imagination.

I started with a Canon mini-DV camcorder in late 2003 that shot 480i(720x480). It looked great on my 480i Tube TV. However, it was absolute garbage once you deinterlaced it for computer use with Progressive displays. I sold it almost immediately swearing that I would never buy another interlaced camera again.

So I waited and waited. Everything new was 480i. Even when HD TVs came about the HD consumer cameras were still interlaced 1080i. Then finally the Canon S1-IS came out in 2004. It was a little known jewel. It shot wonderful 480p @ 30 FPS for up to 1 Gigabyte. The nice thing was that it supported the MicroDrive compact flash cards that at the time went up to 4 GB for about $200.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons1is/

That camera revolutionized video for me. At the time everyone asked why I was getting a still camera for video. They all said “Why don’t you get a proper camcorder for the job”? I said “The camcorders are all interlaced and this is progressive”. They looked at me like I was speaking Japanese.

I loved that S1-IS and used it for several years as my main camera. Sure it was only 480p but it was good solid 480p @ 30 FPS and it used a decent bit rate(For that time period). The S1-IS also had a really bright F2.8-F3.1 lens on it. With a 10x optical zoom it did everything I wanted it to do until I saw what the 1080p of the 5D MKII looked like in September of 2008.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos5dmarkii

Reverie, blew my mind. I couldn’t believe that you could get such cinematic shallow depth of field and dynamic range in digital video. In addition the resolution seemed astounding. At the time I couldn’t imagine ever needing more resolution than that.

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/galleries/galleries/sample_videos/reverie.shtml

I came as close as you could get to buying into the 5D MKII with a complete set of lenses. I saved and saved until I was finally ready to pull the trigger by the fall of 2009. Then something caught my attention.

A little known camera maker (At the time) called Panasonic had developed a 720p camera that was actually really small. It was called the GF1 and looked too good to be true. It could use any lens ever made with adapters. It wasn’t super expensive and all the manual focus lenses for video were super cheap on ebay.

They also had the mighty GH1 but it was hard to find without the super small aperture 14-140mm lens. By that time I had come to realize what I loved so much about the Canon S1-IS was that its lens was relatively bright. Just like I had with interlaced video I swore off super slow mega zooms.

However, I simply couldn’t resist the GF1 with the 20mm F1.7 lens. I bought the GF1 on day one and never looked back. I bought every large aperture MF lens I could get my hands on and loved them all. However, those lenses were heavy when it was all said and done. I realized why full frame wasn’t really considered to be portable back then. 5 or 6 lenses added up to a lot of weight in a backpack even though the camera body was so light.

By that time 720p had become old hat and M4/3s had more than just a few native lenses. They had some fast primes like the new 14mm F2.5, 25mm F1.4, and the 45mm F1.8. Auto Focus was improving in their newer cameras and I found myself wishing for more.

I finally broke down when the GH2 was announced in September of 2010. It was finally the camera that seemed like it could do it all. 1080p video, ETC mode for endless reach, and it was hackable. Those were the good old days. We ALL spent countless hours eeking out every last ounce of bit rate and reliability that we could.

http://www.dpreview.com/products/panasonic/slrs/panasonic_dmcgh2/review

I even gave up on the MF lenses. I had all of the fast primes at that time and MF wasn’t as cool as I once thought it was. I was much more content to just let the camera do the focusing for me. After the firmware update for the GH2 added 1080p at 30 FPS and much improved AF I sold all of my MF lenses for a nice telescope.

Honestly, the GH2 was probably the camera that I could have stopped at and lived with for quite a while. It did everything I needed it to do and did it quite well. However, the hacking had sparked something in me that made me always look for that little bit extra. I went on to buy the GH3, GH4, LX100, and the 35-100mm F2.8 all on the day that they came out. Each one offered a little something extra that I thought made it justify the extra cost. I finally have 4K @ 30 FPS and 1080p @ 96 FPS and the 4K photo from video mode. I couldn’t have ever possibly imagined those things when I first bought the S1-IS.

Well actually I did predict the photo from video mode way back in 2009. It wasn’t an acceptable thing back then to predict that video could one day replace stills. In fact I still don’t think it is acceptable today either.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/31728454

So we have come a long way in video cameras. I wonder what is next. How much farther can we go? Will it be as big a leap forward as it has in the past? Will I still want to spend my money on upgrades in the future or will I finally be satisfied with what I have now? Who knows? Only time will tell.

Please post your stories with how you got started into video and where you are with it today.