Could you give me some addresses of footage shot on the XL1S without any additional lenses, adapters, boxes etc.

I would just like to see what the basic camera package is capable of. Many thanks,

Matthew

I don't know any specific sites that have just basic camera shots. There are lot of low budget made films stuff on websites that are done using XL1s and standard lenses. But like with any other camera exactly what its capable of is in the hands of the camera operator and the lighting techniques, style, minor adjustments that make the image. I'm sure I could give my XL1s to someone with more experience with it and they can do things better than me. But give the camera to my friend and you will see some awful footage. A lot comes down to the person behind the camera. As a few ranges of images produced on the XL1s...at far end 28 Days Later used them, another program that have used them is Jackass, some UK TV shows have used them for Vox Pop stuff. A lot of UK stuff uses Sony PD-150 which is very similar to the Canon XL1s. I have used the PD-150 and they are nice cameras, and only thing they seem to have over XL1s is a bit better low light recording and have fixed on 2 x XLR connections. But I chose the XL1s for myself as I liked the slightly softer/smoother image the XL1s produces. Plus you can expand/change lenses with XL1s. With a little tweeking you can get the XL1s to look a little sharper like the PD-150. So what you see the XL1s priced as, remember you gonna have to add an extra £200 or so to have XLR connections, up to 4 XLRs at 12bit is possible with XL1s.

If you look under Ken Tanaka 's (sorry if its spelled wrong Ken) name theres a link to a website LadyX...which has a few short films done with XL1/s to show you what its capable of if you cannot find any on other Low Budget / Short film websites. I dont know what equipment he used, but the general basic image quality of the XL1s processors and chips are more or less the same, its just external things like lightning that make the difference. They are still compressed formats as to put FULL RES shots of the XL1s would be very large to paste on a website with very large upload and download times. You could just try going into a shop and try the camera for yourself. Its a good camera but not to everyones taste or needs. It depends on what you want to use the camera for as to which one is the one for you.

One bit of advice....If you decide to buy an XL1s...I got screwed in a few websites in the UK...one called Nomatica...offering great price, but giving me a BullS@#% story about Canon not mass producing them and so waiting for order. It took me like 2 months to finally sort all the crap with them. So go to www.dvwarehouse.co.uk its the website for sales of OPTEX and they can have you one there the next day. I got my stuff from them and they are great. Even if you just wanna call and ask questions they get more excited about talking cameras than I did and I was the one buying the thing.

I have an XL1s (PAL) and am also one of the Lady X's Co
Executive Producers. There are indeed a couple of episodes
done with the XL1(s) and some are unaltered I believe.
Ofcourse it is not in full resolution. My own episode (14) was
shot with the XL1s and afterwarts color correct in Vegas 4.

I would advice you to rent an XL1S and see for yourself. As
Christopher pointed out, it all depends on who uses it and
whether they shoot automatic, manual and with custom
settings or not for example.

The link to the Lady X project is in my signature.

If you really want some raw footage we might be able to
arrange something next week.

Does it have to be "s" footage or can it be standard model footage? All below are with standard XLs with no add ons as you described. Just do a search on me on this board or visit my site and you'll find tons of other footage.


Most Recent
www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?threadid=17557

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?threadid=17436

Thanks alot for those links and help guys.

To solve the problem for myself i've booked an appointment at a camera shop this weekend. I will take along a dv tape and play around with the camera to compare it to others.

Thanks alot,

matthew

here's a frame grab from an XL1s footage, no manipulation:

http://nawaf.com/movielooks/none.jpg

The picture is compressed JPG, so the original is slightly better.

I'll try to post a few seconds video soon.

Nawaf,

The picture is actually very manipulated. On two fronts. One
it is not the native resolution so it has either been cropped or
resized. Two, as you pointed out, it has been compressed. The
only way to truly get an objective look is to either put up
unchanged DV file or an uncompressed picture in something
like BMP, Targa or TIFF (uncompressed).

But since Matthew is going to test out the camera himself he
probably isn't in need of your footage anymore.

Hi guys,

thankyou for all your help, i spent a fun 2 hours playing around with the xl1s and some others in a London Camera shop at the weekend. I recorded a load of footage in different conditions.

Is i expected the xl1s didnt perform quite as well in low light as say the pd150 however it did see to provide a bit more of a film- like texture to the recordings unlike the other dv cameras I tried.

The other thing that struck me was how front weighted the xl1s seemed to be, gave me a aching wrist after a while, I cant imagine what it would be like with a matt box etc stuck on the end.

However, even after this the xl1s does seem to be the best option for my next dv shoot so I guess my question has been answered.

Thank you very much for your help,

Matthew

Your welcome. The XL1 is indeed front heavy. You will learn to
handle it longer (can use both hands sometimes), but it is a
pain, no doubt about that. For fictional stuff I mostly work of
a tripod anyway (so no problem there) and one day hope to
get me a steadicam.

Yeah, a steady cam sure would help, but rather than getting yourself one, why not build it for a couple of £/$.

Take a look here, there is a load of inspiration for you:

http://www.homebuiltstabilizers.com

Matthew

If you want to use an XL1s on any form of steadicam you need to be able to redistribute the weight off your wrist. No form of home-made stabiliser or glidecam or stedicam JR that does not use some sort of body suit or alternative method will not be usable for more than a few minutes at a time.

If you're looking to remove the front-heaviness then the ma-200 does a pretty good balancing job.

Kieran

Thanks. If I was to have a heavy matte box or similar on the front of the XL1S is there any way I can add weight to the back of the camera on the MA200 or something to balance out the weight?

yeah, the ma200 has a slidey-outy bit at the back for additional batteries, which do a good counter balancing job.

Try browsing here:
http://www.canondv.com/xl1s/a_power_adapters.html

Kieran

Thanks for that Kieran, so I guess I could just shuv a spare battery or two on the back to balance out the weight of a matte box.

I’m going to be leaning constantly to my right after getting all this!

A small question, don’t laugh if it sounds silly, but using your right hand in the strap on the right for me would be easy because I’m right handed, but do left handers have trouble getting accustom to using their right hand to do all the moving?

Thanks,

Matthew

Matthew,

I grew up using ENG style cameras, so it would probably be more cumbersome for me to use my left hand/arm for shouldering the camera.

Bill

Mmmm... interesting. Do left hand strap mounted cameras have the view finder on the right?

I really dont know anyting about cameras for left handers, im just interested (although im right handed)

matthew

Shoulder-mount cameras are like military rifles, they're all right-handed.

Thanks for clearing that up for me Chris. I guess its just bad luck for lefties lol.

Matthew