I run two XL1 cams from way back in the church sanctuary. It's about 80 feet, and we have to zoom all the way to get the speaker in frame properly.

Couple this with low light -- and no budget to add more lights or change the existing tracks.

We usually run the cams hot and let the highlights blow out - it's the only way to keep him from disappearing into the shadow spots onstage - gain's all the way, shutter is wide open...

If we were to move the cameras closer, would it help any? How many stops are we losing by zooming so much?

Believe me, I'd like to rip out the existing lights and put the right stuff in myself, but there's no money. Everything was donated years ago...

Well, the figures on my XL 1s' lens say 1.6 - 2.6 aperture, so theoretically going from max zoom in to full zoom out isn't going to save your bacon by much.

At full zoom out you'd pretty much need to be sitting in the front row, not all that practical I guess.

Cheapest solution I can think of is a brace of those el cheapo 500 Watt halogen spots you can buy in the shops here for $9 (NZ) bucks a throw, and screw 'em to sommat near the speaker, plug 'em in and away you go. They ain't pretty but they do the job.

Heck, get 4, with cables, plugs etc, less than $50 the lot. Not exactly a kings ransom.


CS

the XL lenses can maintain maximum aperture through most of the focal range.

So wide open to 50/60% zoom will not give much more light, but zooming in 100% from 50% the lens will shut down from 1.6 to 2.8.

So moving the camera forward could give you almost 4 times as much light.

Physics dictates that moving closer will help (inverse-square law) with any camera being closer to the light-source along the reflectance path.

f/1.6 to 2.6 is a bit over 1 stop of light. The EVF dispaly can give an indication of how much light you are loosing by using a longer focal length (higher zoom) setting.