I have a Canon XL1, I use it for doing skits and announcements for my church. I have always wanted to produce something that someone would say "WoW" looks like something out of TV. I have read through these threads and I know!!! I should get another camera beacuse this one is old! got it, when I win the lottery or get an awesome paying job, I'll upgrade. For now I'm learning everything on the go and through asking. So, I have been getting grainy footage, and read another thread stating optimal shooting is in manual with Gain -3. can someone please explain a good configuration for all the knobs. Also can you please explain each function so I can better understand it when I change it. example;
IRIS= what does it do? what setting is best
GAIN= what is it? what is a good setting?
WHITE BALANCE= what is it? what is best setting
If anyone here is a pro on adobe Premiere CS3 please eamil me I have allot of questions that are getting me frustrated
thank you very much

Hi Victor, you're really asking for an awful lot here. Too much for a message board post, really. I'll give you some very brief answers which might help you to further refine your searches for numerous existing discussions which already cover these topics.

Iris = a valve which controls the amount of light going from the lens to the image sensors.
Gain = an electronic amplification of the video image for shooting in low light.
White Balance = determines color accuracy for a given lighting situation.

What is best setting for each of these? It depends entirely on each individual particular shooting situation. Until you learn how to control these settings to best suit your particular shooting situation, you should use Auto for everything. Then gradually switch to manual, one setting at a time, as you learn what they do and how to control them.

Shoot me an email with your physical shipping address and I'll send you an XL1 tutorial DVD which will tell you everything you need to know about the camera.

I'll give it to you for free, but you have to promise something in return: please do NOT use this site to solicit help by private email for Adobe CS3 or anything else. I really don't like that at all. It goes against the community spirit here. By asking your questions in public, on this site, other people can benefit from reading those discussions. Asking for private tutorials by email excludes everybody else who stood a chance to learn something by reading this on the forum.

Consider buying a training DVD instead -- it's the next best thing to the forum and it's like having a private tutor. By making such a purchase, you're placing a value upon the information you receive from such training. The money you're spending on a training DVD is a way of properly giving thanks to the people who take the time and effort to put these training materials together.

Of course, searching -- reading -- posting questions in our forum is always free.

I look forward to receiving your mailing address. Hope this helps,