New Owner's First Impressions: Bob Anderson
submitted by e-mail 5/5/98 -- reprinted with permission

I'll give you a couple of quick observations, but first a little background. I run a part time event video business shooting weddings, corporate board meetings, etc. I shoot with two L1's and a Sony TR-3000 Hi-8, and edit on a Newtek Flyer. I spent a couple hundred hours reading every post on the XL1, as well as reading about the EZ1, VX1000, XB2, & the Supercam. I've had the camera about two weeks and shot one wedding and a lot of around the house & yard stuff.

The low light performance is a lot better than the L1. When I did receptions with the L1, I used the 1/30 gain and an on-camera lite. With the Xl1 there are three ways you can boost the image in low light: you can use the gain, and with the gain set at the max of 12db there is no visible noise. You can open the iris all the way... in auto mode it is probably open all the way to begin with. And you can use the 1/30 shutter speed (I think there are two slower shuuter speeds available). Please note that the on-button focus & the auto focus both work in the 1/30 gain mode on the XL1. The auto focus doesn't work on the L1 in 1/30 gain mode.

Low Light Summary: The gain helps a lot and doesn't produce any noise or smear. To brighten an image even more, the 1/30 shutter speed makes things a lot brighter & pretty much noise free. Of course you will get a little smear if you move the camera fast. I found it a little hard to focus in low light, but the footage looked pretty good and wasn't out of focus.

The lens does seem to have "sweet spots". On full wide in low light the image in the EVF looks soft, is a little hard to focus, and the end result on tape is a soft image, usually in focus. On shots with some zoom, the image is crystal clear most of the time and maybe a little soft once in a while.

I noticed that in manual mode every once in a while if you touch the zoom ring, the picture will jump out of focus. I'm getting into the habit of pushing the one-button focus when I use the zoom ring to see if it eliminates the jump. I've done several zooms to all the way in and then do a slow crawl to wide and the camera seems to hold focus, except for the obvious jumps I mentioned.

My XL1's EVF has a magenta tint.

The outdoor colors seem pretty close to life without having to use manual white balance. Inside they look pretty good also. A manual WB is supposed to make the color more life-like. The default WB seems better than the L1, maybe because the colors are more vibrant.

The audio is much better on the XL1 than the L1. You can record simltaneously the on-board mic on a stero channel, and two different wireless systems on two mono channels (a stero pair). You have manual control over all three sources. With a touch of a button you can monitor via headphones the on-board mic & whatever is connected to the other stero pair. You could probably record from four different wireless systems at the same time without the XLR connector.

When I shot wedding receptions with the L1, I almost always used a monpod for all activities. With the Xl1 you don't need the monopod because of the stabilizer. The camera is a little awkward; however, you can shoot a five to seven minute scene with a little practice.

I use the far mode on the EVF and shoot from the hip a lot for a different perspective. A great feature, but you can't use it outside because of the sun-burn issue. Even if the EVF didn't burn, I don't think you can see it from the hip on a bright day.

If you're looking for an under $5K camera to replace L1's or the Panasonic AG-456, you have a couple of choices:

Go digital and look at the EZ1, DSR200, VX1000 & XL1. The XL1 is better than the Sony in low light, has a 16x lens & has 4 audio channels with good controls for manual adjusting. For weddings in my opinion the XL1 is the best choice.

Or you could look at a used X2B, Supercam, or EVW-300. If I were sure that I could get a low-milage X2B for $4K I might have bought one because I have a very good S-VHS VCR. I considered the EVW-300, but a weak link might be my EVS-7000 VCR. If I had the SONY top of the line Hi-8 VCR, I might have gone this route.

I shot 60 minutes of a rock band over a two and a half hour period last night. All of it was hand held. While my back was a bit sore it probably would have been hurting even more if I was using a 13 pound Supercam. The XL1 is great for getting very low, low, waist level, & shoulder level shots. The low shots are very easy to get if you don't have to worry about the sun burning the viewfinder. In the EVF "near" mode (the regular mode) you can see the EVF clearly with your eye about six to eight inches away. With the EVF in "far" mode you can see it from 12-18 inches away.

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Written by Bob Anderson
Thrown together by Chris Hurd