http://www.camgaroo.com/media/artikelbilder/bjoern/040723_xl2_zoom.jpg

What lens is that, how much does it cost and how many times optical zoom is it?

It appears to be the Canon EF 600mm f/4 IS USM prime lens.

Because it cannot change focal length, it is therefore not a zoom lens. It has a fixed focal length of 600mm, so we call it a prime lens. With the built-in crop factor of the Canon XL image circle, the equivalent field-of-view would equal about 4320mm in terms of 35mm still photography. A telescope, in other words.

The cost of that lens is about $7,200 plus $450 or so for the EF to XL adapter.

It's an impressive pic but my 1200mm page is still the king, despite the fact that it's the obsolete XL1:

http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/images/images17.php

Bloody Hell Chris - you might have put it on a better tripod!!!!

Ha! That was the tripod that goes with that particular 1200mm prime. Strictly meant for still photography only... and it was broken to boot! At that event we had only a handful of small, lightweight video tripods that were barely adequate for the stock XL1, and no other set of sticks available that could come close to handling that monster of a lens, so it was either that one or nothing. It was a rare opportunity to mate that glass with that camcorder, so I couldn't really complain about it... in fact I was pretty happy that they were willing to drag that thing out into the street for those shots, despite the gnarly sticks.

Hmm thanks guys! Does anyone know the max optical zoom lens I could get for the XL2? (Not a telescope lol)

The stock 20x lens that came with your XL2 is the maximum zoom lens available for that camcorder. If you need to go longer, you can add either the Canon 1.6x Extender behind that lens, or the Century 1.6x teleconverter in front of that lens, or add both.

See http://www.dvinfo.net/canonxl2/articles/article10.php for more info.

See also http://www.dvinfo.net/canonxl2/articles/article04.php -- hope this helps,

Chris,

Those photos are great! Now, if only someone could get photos of a
XL2 on the 200 inch Hale telescope ;')

Terry

Chris.

I am using the 100~400 Canon w/EF. Works just fine. But, tricky in even a lite wind. A sturdy TP is a must. Gives 2878mm, or, @57x the basic 50mm on a 35 still cam.

Sorry, no stills to show.

Scott,

In a nutshell, the maximum optical zoom available for the XL2 will be the same as the maximum SLR zooms available from either Canon or Nikon.
I believe these are in the 200-400mm range. Beyond that you are getting into fixed focal length telephoto lenses.
You can obtain adaptors to use Canon SLR or Nikon SLR lenses on the XL2.
Remember there is a 7.2x magnification factor when using SLR lenses on the XL2.