Completely agree with this post. We have the PDW 530 SD XDCAM versus BVP570 cameras matched with DVW 250 DigiBeta portable decks. The PDW 530 has 2/3 CCD and with IMX50(4:2:2/8bit) we are not seeing a drop off versus Digibeta (4:2:2/10 bit). The XDCAM’s have been rock solid and the convenience of disk is invaluable at this point…cost, ingest, storage.
We also have the 1/2 inch HD XDCAM(PDW350L) and I would agree that in downconverting SD, the end product is inferior to both Digibeta and SD XDCAM.