You're proberly best contacting Canon. I don't think anyone hear will be able to tell you how to re-align the chips. That is if the chips are the problem.

Hope this helps,

Hi all, anyone interested in discussing their experiences using Pro Mist Black filters with the XL1? I bought the Tiffen DV Film Look set and wanted to get some pointers.

Thanks - Misha

Greetings:

In case anyone's interested, a piece I shot with my XL-1s for HGTV (Home & Garden Channel) is slated to run December 19. It's a segment for a show called "Outta Control Christmas." The segment is about Salida, Colorado. Wait until you see the stuff I shot in the blizzard.

It airs at 7:00 PM, Rocky Mountain Time.

Congrats, Charles! Good for you.

I've got a HGTV crew in and out of my house shooting for a new show called "Redesign" which will premiere in the spring--they are covering the renovation of a room in my house. I'm having fun with it, because for the first time I'm around a crew and I don't have to do any work(other than being on camera--which I don't consider work).

They shoot on high end DVCAM most of the time, but will occasionally send out a producer with a PD-150 to get b-roll of procedural stuff. A couple of times they haven't been able to schedule a particular event and I have shot it on my DVX100a for them, for which they are eternally grateful!

Yeah, I was told HGTV doesn't want any DV stuff... but they didn't want to take their expensive toys out in the snow storm, I guess. Anyway, the other guy they sent had a DVCAM rig, but I noticed he used his XL-1s, too. They also wanted all audio to be on a wireless mic, which I provided; but that mic on the XL-1s is pretty awesome.

New... Interested in editing... Have hit almost every thread.. (A lot of great info) Have XL1 and XL2 at this time I am shooting for a show I would like to produce for myself. Have stored a lot of my film to hard drives ..(200HRS.).. I am hunting for a player recorder but, I do not want to purchase one that will be either useless or over kill....... Seems to be very little info on this subject... High end or low cost what is the best direction to go? Also the info that is being discussed on the direct recorders seems to be the new item, but is it the new direction the industry will be going? Sony...Panasonic...Quick..Fire... Pretty D--M confusing LAZY MAN PRODUCTION

Do you mean for final delivery? DVD?
For transfer i/o from your computer?
Minidv deck?
A minidv cheapie camera is the budget and robust coice of many...

I'm not sure what you are looking for...
I am sure that your caps lock is ON on your keyboard...

Don: welcome to DVInfo.net. I edited your post to change all to
remove your uppercasing. All the words were WRITTEN LIKE THIS.

Please follow normal writing guidelines. All uppercase is seen as
shouting/yelling on the Internet. Thank you.

I have to agree with Jimmy that your post is a bit vague on what
you are looking for exactly and it might be wise to list how much
money you can spend on such a purchase as well.

I have canon xl1s with ma100 adaptor and am doing a interview in a convetion the way they want to use me is the interviewer will have sennheser g2 wireless lav and also hand held wireless mic for the people she is interviewing schould i have onboard mic working also with the two wireless so i get backround audio and if so how do i set up camera for that ???

thanks for any help...

Also which type of lav mic schould i use cartoid etc..?


thanks again
james

I am looking for a good training DVD for XL1s. I saw one posted on mandy.com, the link takes you to www.canondvguide.com This website claims it has such a training dvd, but it looks like a fraud site. Has any one els ordered this DVD and did they get the goods? and if so, is it a good giude?

Hey Iam new here!

Welcome to DV Info Net, Mark. The XL1S training DVD from canondvguide.com was created by cinematographer Greg Salman of Los Angeles, California, whom I have known personally for several years. If you look at the home page of my XL1 / XL1S Watchdog site (http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/index.php), you'll see a banner at the top for Greg's DVD. In my opinion it is the best XL1S training resource I have ever come across, and I'd say that even if I didn't know him. Greg is so knowledgeable about the XL1, XL1S, XL2 and GL2 that Canon USA frequently invites him to work behind their counter at numerous trade shows across the country. Expect a full review of his series of Canon training DVD's on my site very soon, but in the meantime I can vouch for the quality of his training materials and you will not be disappointed with any of them. Hope this helps,

I do wedding videos, most of the time lighting isn’t a problem, if a dance hall is too dim I can usually get the lighting increased, though just in-case it would be nice to have a light for backup. I really don’t want to spend too much on this as I doubt I would be using it often, so I’m asking what’s the cheapest I could reasonably get a light for my camera? What lights do you recommend? And, where do you recommend I buy a light?

Thanks,
Josh

Please do a search as well, I know for sure this topic has at least
been discussed once for the XL1.

Also a new thread has just been started on the very same thing
on the XL2 (which should be the same light-wise as the XL1),
see the thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36355

I did a search, the only things I found were most definitely not budget conscious, and I don’t check the xl2 forum often, so I started a thread.

The Ultralight 2 was the most reasonably priced listed in that thread you recommended, but at $160 is still not incredibly cheap; is this as low as camera lights go? Its much better than what I found in the threads I searched for, but still for the amount I will be using it, I don’t know if it pays. Honestly I'm looking for something less than $100. Is this possible?

I have been finding some lights online, but how do I know if they will fit a xl1s?

Hi,

Suddenly whenever I hook up my XL1S to premiere using my firewire cable, when I try to capture, I get the message "device offline." I've tried using the same cord with other camcorders, and their is no problem. So I think its something with the XL1S. Also, whenever I'm in VCR mode on the camcorder, it always says "DV In," even when the firewire cable isn't connected. Any ideas? Thanks everyone.

I am about to purchase a cokin sunsoft filter for my XL1S, I know that I need a P series holder....but what size adapter ring do I need in order to mount it. I currently have a UV screw in filter already mounted. Can I keep this is place? Either way, what size adapter ring will be required? Any help would be appreciated!

when you have the standart 16x lense, i remember it's the 72mm ring for the cokin P. just screw it in the lense or in the uv screw-in filter and then click the ring into the cokin p filter holder. there you can use the p series filters.

thanks, i appreciate it

Welcome aboard DVInfo.net Brandon!

Okay, so you have confirmed that your cable and your computer
are not the problem? If so then it is logical to assume that the
problem must be with the camera. Have you tried capturing from
it on another computer?

It sounds like you have a blown firewire port and your camera
needs to be fixed by Canon.

How do you normally connect the cables? Make sure that at least
the camera is powered down before (un)plugging cables!

I just got an XL1s and I've noticed that on my recorded footage there is a black line at the very bottom of the frame that is dead, it just shows up as black. Also on the left side of the frame running from the top to bottom there is one row is pixels or so that show up brighter than all the others. I'm wondering if this is normal for an XL1s or if something is wrong.

These are both outside the tv and title safe area.

Can anyone tell me what this could be?

This is normal. We've had several lengthy discussions on this over the past couple of years, but the short story is that Canon considered this normal as it lands in the overscan area of the image. It's basically related to manner in which Canon masked the CCD's of their video cameras. On some cameras it appears at the verticals.

I don't know if the XL2 also has this attribute but I do know that we complained pretty loudly when it first became an issue. When the GL2 was introduced several months later the issue seemed to have been fixed on those cameras.

Hi Guys

I bought an XL1s last September but have only used it a few times. When I first powered up the camera I had green, pink & white flashing in the viewfinder. This lasted about 30seconds then a picture appeared. I thought that this may just have been a first time power up thing and did not worry about it. I have used it a few times since without fault but today when I switched it on I had the same problem but this time it lasted for about 3minutes then a picture appeared. I rolled record and took some practice footage for about 2 minutes but then the viewfinder switched to black. There was no picture and no osd so I stopped recording. I switched to vtr mode and replayed the footage which played back fine with all osd. I then switched bach to auto and hit the record button only to see the green flahing in the view finder again. The camera actually records this flashing which is handy if I need to go to Canon. Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Is it a botton or buttons that I have pushed? Or is this a major fault that I need to take to Canon. I must add that I'am not a Professional cammo but have been in the TV industry for 22 years. I bought this camera for my business with the intention of using a professional to shoot footage for me while I learn how to operate it.
Thanks for any help

Does not sound normal. Check to be sure lens and CVF are mounted /seated properly. If that has no effect, call Canon customer service and speak to their reps. Probably need to send it in for warranty repair.

Hi don

I've checked the lens and CVF several times, they seem to be mounted correctly.
Not sure how I'm going to go with the warranty as I bought this camera overseas and I found out the other day that Canon has no international warranty. I beleive they have a 90 day manufactureres warranty (whatever they mean by that) and the place were I bought the camera has a 90 day warranty but that past 30 days ago. They are on Christmas holiday at the moment so I'll have to see how I go later.

Thanks

Ken: this problem seems to have been fixed on the XL2 as well,
some people reported this (here on DVi) earlier when it came out.

I was shooting some interviews a couple of days ago which went very well. The interviews were shot indoors with available light and a small 500 watt Lowell Tota light. However when I checked the tape on location I noticed that every few minutes an orange cast would appear. This would be most noticeable on faces. The orange dissappears after a few seconds. When I returned home and played them back on a Canon ZR60 which I use as a deck the same problem existed. This problem isn't one with pixels dropping, etc. which would indicate dirty heads. I recall reading that a long recording session can cause possible overheating. If this is so, what are the usual symptoms of overheating? I usually don't have any problems with my camera but on a couple of occassions towards the end of a long interview I have had crackling in the audio with a ME66 contacted with a Beachtek DXA-4C adaptor. Could these two issues be connected?

Manual or auto white balance?

Did lighting change at all during the shots?

Was camera movement or panning accoicated with the color shifts?

Did the conmposition of the scene change during the shots, especially bringing in some saturated blue-greenish materials?

Was ambient light (e.g., from windows) changing?

What shutter speeed were you using? Using a higher shutter speed can cause some slowly changing color shifts if standard flourescent lighting is present.

Hi,

I just ordered the 3x wide angle lens, arrived yesterday - its great.

However, this has brought to light one problem - my 16x lens (the first one with the XL1), came with the 2nd hand XL1 that I bought a couple of months ago. Well, the lens works fine, there's nothing wrong with the image or the features.

However, the focus ring is really noisy. And it's not an electronic noise, it's just that it's not turning smoothly, so you kinda hear it rubbing whenever you turn it. The zoom ring is not too smooth either. This compared with the new 3x lens with both rings really smooth and spinning with no sound.

Is there some sort of lubricant/grease or something I can put on to make the rings turn smoothly?

Thanks,
Dennis

Hello All,

I use my XL1 at motocross tracks and the basic canon batteries require frequent changing and recharges. Can anyone suggest a could battery belt (or something along those lines) that would be in the couple hundred dollar range?

Thanks in advance.

No you can't. These components are not user servicable. I would
send the lens to Canon for a checkup!

Which Canon battery are you using? I've run hours on a the BP-945
(from mind) without a problem, or are you still using the small
battery that came with the camera? I bought a cheaper brand
(Lenmar) battery of the highest capacity and if I had two or three
of those (still under $100) I would've been able to easily shoot
for 8 hours for example.

Please do a search on the topic, it has been discussed before.

I am currently using two of the BP930s. Thanks Rob, I will check that out.

So there's no grease or like, lubricant of some kind?

Oh no... *cringes*

Dennis

I recently shot some footage of a friend's wedding. The location of the ceremony was a very dark room and none of my footage of the ceremony itself was useable. Luckily a friend was shooting with another camera so I do have footage of ther wedding. My question is, does anybody have any experience shooting w/a lense adapter using photographic lenses(i.e. Nikon, Canon). If I shoot with a prime lense will I gather more light due to the fact that there is less glass for the light to pass through, hence a brighter picture. I'm shooting with an XL1 w/the stock lense BTW. I also had the gain boosted and the iris wide open.

The CCD block limits the max aprerture to F/1.8.

You might gain about a stop relative to the max zoom end of the standard lens if you use a EF lens adapter and a fast (f/1.8) still camera lens. But due to the CCD size relatively to the still film frame size, you will see an effective 7.2x increase in apparent focal length (based on field of view of the image).

Have you tried to increase the image brigthness gain in post? You may be able to squeeze another 6-12 dB . The image will hve plenty of noise, but is better thtn nothing,

Hi,

I've had my XL-1 for 5 years of moderate use without any problems. Just now I find that when I play out to an NTSC monitor through the RCA outs I'm getting these thi, widely separated black lines that slowly drift from the bottom of the monitor to the top like very slow-motion "bad reception".

I've swapped out the RCA cables to no effect, and the problem occurs both when I'm playing back a tape or just playing out from FCP4 through the camera as a deck.

Has anyone experienced this before? I'm trying to identify what I might be facing.

Thanks!

BG

I could have sworn that I found a small website with this adapter. For the life of me, I cannot remember where I saw it.

If anyone knows, let me know.


Stephen

Stephen, are you taking about this site?

http://www.xl1solutions.com/Adaptor%20Products.htm

I think they hawked a C-mount adaptor a while back, but I don't find it on their site now.

JS

hm...
could be.

I'm going to drop them a line and see if they can give me any info.

Thanks!

stephen

A couple of quick questions. Is the camera close to the monitor or a speaker? Have you tried svhs out? Is the camera powered by batteries or ac adapter?( try battery)
smitty

Hi guys,
after having learned from this forum for weeks now (it's been amazing, thanks) without posting any questions myself, I thought I'd give it a go. So here's my first one and I hope it is not too vague.

i just bought a second-hand field mixer (shure fp31) to use with my canon xl1s on my first documentary shoot (in 3 weeks) . I will have a sound person with a boom and a shotgun mic, who will feed (and monitor) the signal into the mixer. However, having read that the onboard audio capabilities of the Xl1s may be inferior to other recording media (e.g. dat) I was wondering whether it would make sense to run two outputs from the mixer (same signal): one to my camera (MA-200) and one to a hardisk recorder (uncompressed recording, i.e. wav). The hard disk would be attached to the sound guy.
Now, is this overkill? the hard disk I intend to use takes a stereo signal via a small 3.5mm jack. I have several output alternatives from the FP-31: 2 XLR, one small 3.5mm tape out, and a large phone (6.3mm) jack.

Any thoughts and opinions welcome

Cheers from down under

PS if somebody has any experience with the FP-31, I would appreciate any advice

A thought for some shoots it would work great, but we are a two person department covering the entire state of California, (or Kal'Eforn'Ya as our gov likes to say it). We rarely have the luxury of both of us on the same shoot, and still do not have any student or senior volunteers for our unit. For the application I just had, a 55 minute speach, I could go 16bit, with the mixer and be in good shape, but for things like following a hunter and guide thru the woods, this would make it rather sporty at best.

I just spent about 9 days low crawling with various folks thru the Grizzly Island Wildlife area, Scouting, Filming, and generally getting up to my ears in mud, a mixer would have to be really small maybe a beachtek or something. Thanks for the post, it starts me thinking anyway..... Of course then I give up the ability to control my mix in post....... Still, it would be better if adobe just wrote their software correctly.

Thanks,

Matt

Wow! Agreed. A location such as that would make a second audio unit rather impractical.

For the record, I hear your pain. I have laboured over 2 camera shoots in the edit bay when the audio drifts by about 2 seconds on the hour between the 2 sources.

Adding a 3rd cam is even more fun....

But that's boring sh*t ... your locations sound like a blast...

Hi, just have a (somewhat strange) query.

I travelling abroad and am taking my Canon XL1s with me.

Can I be sure that a device such an airport X-Ray machine won't damage my XL1s in any way (when put through as hand luggage)?

Does anybody have any knowledge on the topic?

May sound like a bizzare question but you can never be so sure!

I don't want to send it to it's death!

Thanks guys!

It won't damage the camera.

Use the forum Search function to turn up other threads on this topic; as I recall this subject has been previously discussed here in some detail.

Thanks Chris, I will search!

Hi,

I'm trying to transfer footage from a TV back onto miniDV of the XL-1.
For some reason, each time I press 'pause' and 'record' simultaneously
in the VCR mode it gives me the error message 'DV IN' in the bottom right hand corner of the viewfinder.

Is it because the XL-1 doesn't have a s-video input(s) in the first place?

Thanks a lot.

Olivier

Welcome aboard DVInfo.net Olivier!

The XL1 cannot record analog video, that is a feature of the XL1S.
DV-IN is flasing because it isn't detecting a stream coming in from
the firewire (DV IN) connection (which is the only thing that model
understands). Sorry.

I edit on both Final Cut Express and iMovie. I'm now working with a Canon XL1s and want to utilize its four channel audio capability. That means the camera will sample the audio at 32k. I've read that iDVD must have 48k audio or it will hang up in stage 3 of encoding.
I currently export my finished video projects as self-contained Final Cut Movies with audio sampling set at 48k. It takes more memory to do this, but I have yet to have a stage 3 hangup.
The question then, is this the only way to insure a successful dvd burn? Can audio be altered in FCE? I've not been able to find any command that does this.

The FCP preset for your sequence specifies the audio format. Chances are you are using the NTSC-DV preset. That specifies 48KHz 16 bit audio. When you put a clip from your XL1S on the timeline, FCE will show that the audio needs rendering. When you render, it's converting it to 48KHz 16 bit. Basically, it's handled for you.