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Interesting article over Wired on the Red Digital Movie Camera. But this is way beyond amateurs. What I find interesting is the new Nikon D90 (links to dpreview and Ken) which shoots 720p at 24 frames with a bigg-ish and fast sensor.

Despite what the Wired article says about HD cameras having too much DOF, I have seen a few clips where the subject is out-of-focus. It is just not out-of-focus-with-nice-bokeh.

Quoting Simon in his preview on dpreview:-

There are several limitations to be aware of, however; as mentioned there’s no autofocus whilst recording clips, and there is a time limit to a single clip (5 minutes for a 1280×720 movie, 20 minutes for others).

HD camcorders do autofocus, but professional movie cameras don’t. I understand that some videographers prefer manual focus for the artistic control. The 5 minutes time limit for a single clip is also a very reasonable compromise, unless one is recording an event. But the technology is already there. Think of what the next model could do. Think of what the next Nikon D-single-digit professional camera could do, should Nikon decide to build the function into it.