First of all, I have never really bothered with video that much.  I tend to not enjoy watching videos of weddings, events, and vacations that others greatly enjoy.  I do enjoy videos of my kids, so we purchased a Canon HF10 some time ago.  This is a very nice video camera, though we still do not have a good decoder for the AVCHD format.

However, the Mark II offers some new perspectives on video previously unavailable to me.  For one, the quality is considerably better than the HF10.  While it is certainly missing features present in top video cameras, the raw quality of the video is on par with the best video cameras.  Therefore, I plan to use it for the following purposes.

1. Video of kids.  I’m not sure how much we’ll take with the HF10 and how much we’ll take with the Mark II.  My guess is the HF10 will still take the lion’s share of the video.  However, when I feel that the video is very important, I will likely use the Mark II.
2. Macro video.  In particular I hope to take macro stock video.  I am still working out a number of the details on how I plan to go about this, as lighting and stability are significant issues that I have not yet fully addressed.  Once I do start creating these videos, I will obviously post them here along with my technique.
3. Real estate videos.  I have gone back and forth about the need and use of video in real estate.  The truth is I have yet to see a real estate video that does a good job.  However, I have some ideas on how this may work and I plan to do use an upcoming listing of Nelya’s to test my theory out.

So, yes, the HD video feature of the Mark II is useful in my opinion.  It is not a replacement for a full video camera, but I suspect if you understand it’s limitations it makes a great tool for those of us unable or unwilling to spend tens of thousands on a professional video camera.

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