ok, so what is the deal with 1 chip and 3 chip cameras. what is the difference?

and

i'm looking for a camera in the $1000 price range for making various shorts and what-not, are there any good cameras out there for this amount?

i found the panasonic ag-dvc 7 and it looks nice, but i know appearances aren't everything, anyone have knowledge on this cam? i know it is a 1 chip cam, so should i buy? if not, please give some recommendations ($1000-1200 range) ... thanks.

3 CCD cameras can better handle low light situations. The image is split into three colors and processed seperately. There are some other advantages as well.

The sensors on a CCD chip can only pick-up "brightness" (not "color").

In order to produce a color picture with a 1-CCD camera, the pixels of the CCD have to be shared between the 3 primary colors (Red, Green and Blue). 50% of the pixels are used for Green, 25% for Blue and 25% for Red. The camera electronics calculate the missing pixels and produce a color picture. Due to this technique only about half of the resolution of the CCD is visible in a color picture.

A 3-CCD camera uses 3 separate CCD for Red, Green and Blue and the camera electronics combine 1 pixel from each CCD to a color pixel. As a result the full resolution of the CCD is visible in a color picture! The colors are also more precise and lifelike than with a 1-CCD unit.

"I fear that Omelas so far strikes some of you as goody-goody. Smiles, bells, parades, horses, bleh. If so, please add an orgy. If an orgy would help, don't hesitate." -LeGuin

I just read about the chip thing tonight in a film book. I'm assuming that all high end dv cameras have 3 chips or do some have more or function differently? Do the Can GL-1/GL-2 / XL1 have 3 chips?

yes, the gl-1, gl-2, and xl-s have 3-chips. but the other thing to take a look at besides the 3 chips is how large they are / how many pixels they have. for example, the GL-2 has 1/4" chips and each chip has 410,000 pixels. the GL-1 only has 270,000 pixels. both are 3-chips, but the GL-2 is clearly superior, and it is totally obvious. (and cams with smaller CCD's also don't function as well under low-light.) so be sure to check out the resolution and CCD size when checking out a cam, too.

and yea, higher-end dv cams will have 3 ccd's. prosumer cameras, and even some consumer models these days, also can have 3 chips. but, as i said, the quality difference will be ENORMOUS when comparing a consumer 3-chip, such as the Sony TRV-950, to a high-end 3-chip, such as the Panasonic SDX-900. (a $25,000 3-chip cam with 2/3" chips and some insane amount of resolution.) so look into it all!