That was a nice post Kiwi, but how did we get on the topic of consumers and HD? The Panasonic camera mentioned is MiniDV and can shoot 24p as well as a standard (NTSC) 29.97fps. Many people, at least indie filmmakers, like shooting in "frame", progressive, or even PAL (talking US shooters here) so they can have less "video" feel and more "movie" feel at least in the way of FPS and on screen motion.
Granted the highest quality DV footage I've seen has been stuff from an XL-1 and PD-150, but I can tell the difference between that and and what I shoot w/my work camera (Sony D-30 BetaSP) when comparing raw footage. Are the differences huge? Not really for normal viewing (stuff like compositing and the like is a different story). But I think most of the difference w/the tapes I've compared comes from the quality of the camera (and the $21k Angeuix lens
), not neccesarily<sp?> the quality of the format.
Well, now that we've taken this thread completely off topic...
Obviously digital is the future and I can't wait 'til FW 2 is released and more pro decks start having Firewire I/O's. I'm all for anything to get rid of cable clutter. 
Lethal
Granted the highest quality DV footage I've seen has been stuff from an XL-1 and PD-150, but I can tell the difference between that and and what I shoot w/my work camera (Sony D-30 BetaSP) when comparing raw footage. Are the differences huge? Not really for normal viewing (stuff like compositing and the like is a different story). But I think most of the difference w/the tapes I've compared comes from the quality of the camera (and the $21k Angeuix lens
Well, now that we've taken this thread completely off topic...
Lethal