and kept on tickin. I suppose I may have the first XL2 horror story to share. At the very beginning of a 10 hour shoot day, with a one shot opportunity for 4 action locations and three set interviews, the XL2 crashed. I mean literally.

We were at the top of the starting ramp at the USLF training facility (an indoor 34 degree sereis of three tracks for Olympian start testing) As Brian Martin came by preparing for the first start of the day, the XL2 being positioned on the tripod, tipped off and fell 4 feet to the ice.

No shit, I stood there as 2 crew dove in vain to catch it. It hit a rail hard enough to scuff paint onto the lens hood, flipped upside down and smashed to the concrete and ice track...hard enough to smash the battery.

It survived completely intact!...well aside form the paint and dented battery. It would have abruptly ended the most important day of this project and would have cost me the first production deadline...oh and $5k too.

So new tagline for Canon might be something like "built to survive an Olympic fall". Ironically, one of the main USOC sponsors is Panasonic whose name they wear embroidered on anything they wear during interviews. Personally I think a DVX100 would have shattered on impact <VBG>

Glad things *ahem* bounced back, Jim.

But that's a great testimonial for the cam.

--Ralph

Thats very comforting and probably due to the magnesium alloy chasis. ( I get that right?) I probably would have had to sit down after that happened for a few minutes just to regain my bearings. I have noticed that the XL1 is very tough under most circumstances and it obviously follows through with the XL2. That is a story to tell around a campfire for sure.

Now you do have insurance on your $5K camera, right Jim? So
if it would've needed replacement it wouldn't cost you $5K.....

<<Now you do have insurance on your $5K camera, right Jim? So
if it would've needed replacement it wouldn't cost you $5K.....>>

Yeah, we carry a million dollar blanket policy for all of our gear that includes the studios and any location damage, theft etc. I definitely wasn't thinking about insurance as I watched it fall though <g>.

Ofcourse not, just wanted to point out the obvious <g>

I doubt you'll be mentioning that if and when you go to sell it on Ebay someday, lol...

Jim, that's a great story!

More importantly, it belies everything I've read by XL bashers, here and else where, that the XLs are "fragile" cameras. I can't tell you how many times I've read by "users" saying that they simply don't hold up in normal production use. I can't help but wonder what the heck their using them for! The only thing I can imagine is that they use them in San Francisco as chocks for the grip truck and have backed over one or two of them.

Based on my experience over the past severals years, and I've owned/used every model, it has proven to be a very robust camera when trested with the respect and care that any camera deserves.

Thanks for sharing!

Jay