New Owner's First Impressions: Stuart Brontman
posted on rec.video.production 12/29/97
reprinted with permission

"It came today and I've shot about 10 minutes of video so far - including a few in the frame movie mode. First impressions... VERY GOOD! Picture is very "clean" and bright. Quite sharp. I compared almost identical footage shot with a Hi8 cam within a few minutes of each other... the Hi8 still looks good, but the XL1 is noticably better. Again, it's so much cleaner. No artifacts or drop-outs that were noticable. When videotaping my daughter wearing a pink-magenta sweater, the sweater turned orange during playback. It did this as well on the Hi8 for comparison purposes. Conditions were indoor lighting, white balance set to inside (and then auto). I think I can compensate for this with a little tweaking...

"The zoom control takes a little getting used to... push too hard, and you've got "instant" zoom.

"Frame movie mode does really give the look of a movie, not video. It's hard to describe better than that... you really have to see it to understand. Low light taping is quite good - no noise, but colors are overly saturated. I'm sure I can compensate for this as I spend more time with the unit.

"Ergonomics are good. It's certainly heavier than the VX-1000, but not so heavy as to be a problem. I find it pretty comfortable to use. The viewfinder is quite bright and fits my eye quite well. As reported by others, it is front heavy. And it WILL draw attention. This camera just "begs" you to look at it. Those around you would have to be brain dead not to notice its unique, bold styling.

"One slight flaw came with the camera in the lens... In one of the screw rings inside the front of the lens there appears to be a slight bulge... almost like the sealing "glue" or whatever they use was over applied there. I'm not the technical type that knows how these lenses are manufactured, but it does seem like a slight flaw. So far, even at widest angle, there is no visible sign of the "bulge". It's probably more of a cosmetic flaw than anything else. If not, they better replace it. At this price, no one should accept any compromises.

"Overall first impressions are quite good. It seems like a great performer and very well built. I won't be able to do anymore work on the camera until Wednesday night, so I'll report more later. I'm sure by then there will be many more posts. It will be interesting to hear other's reports. I'm also going to try and do a side-by-side taping comparison with a VX-1000 on Friday.

"I'll be shooting the footage of identical subjects and playing them back for a subjective comparison. It should be interesting."

Back to the XL1 Owner's Reports Menu
Written by Stuart Brontman
Thrown together by Chris Hurd