Although you might draw a blank over the term, skew lag remains an inherent problem when shooting with CCDs. (An image, such as a straight line, that suffers skew lag won't appear as a true vertical if you look from screen top to bottom.) Altasens — a new company spun off from Rockwell Scientific's imaging division — banishes that and other problems with its new-generation CMOS image sensor technology found in JVC's KH-F870U HD camera. Another benefit: the fast response of CMOS pixels enables quick pans without, again, skewing the images. Switchable between 1080i or 720p, the JVC camera runs at a high data rate of 75MHz, even while its low power consumption runs about 20 percent that of a comparable CCD system, according to the company. JVC spots the box-style camera for broadcast television, live conferencing, speaker enlargement, remote sporting events, distance learning, and more.

Price: less than $2000
Wayne, N.J.
(800) 582-5825
http://pro.jvc.com