David Cleverly
November 8th, 2004, 11:29 PM
Hi everyone,
Today I was fortunate enough to get my hands on two XL2's - one that was set up on a tripod with Matte Box, rails and a shade as well as a rear-mount hard disk recorder/IDX battery setup and the other that I shot with hand-held without any add-ons. Here are my first impressions of the XL2 after an hour with it at the dealer: - please remeber I am used to a Sony DSR300 DVCAM camcorder...
1) Visually - WOW! What a great looking piece of kit. Mind you, the one on the tripod did look somewhat over the top (and quite sexy) with a Matte Box, rails and shade on the front as well as a huge hard drive recorder on the rear plus an IDX battery mounted on top of that all via a n IDX V-mount on the supplied XL2 rear bracket! I do think all the extra add-ons (especially the Matte Box and Shade) made the camera much more impressive and imposing (perhaps more professional) to look at.
2) Ease of use - Very good although the camera was mainly in auto mode for my trials and the manual settings are going to take some getting used to, especially the unusual (for a pro user) iris control (don't know how that is going to affect the shooting experience in a rushed situation as it seems way too fiddly). I feel I would have to operate with Exposure lock "on" all the time to get used to it. 20x lens not wide enough so I will have to go for the 3x Wide as well, which I expected.
3) Focus - easier than I expected although the infinite focus ring sucks. I had no problem focussing using the viewfinder, quite sharp for a colour vf of this level, but it lacked saturation - maybe that is adjustable or just common for a low-end colour lcd vf. The focussing of distant objects - even on a wide shot - was easy. I found some distant objects in the shop I tested in could actually be put out of focus on a wide shot by turning the focus ring too far. I remember how on the old DSR 300 I used to shoot on, the viewfinder didn't give a very good indication of distant objects being in focus on a wide-shot but I used to know they would be in focus (or pretty close to it) because the focus ring would be at "infinity". I honestly do not think I will need the black and whit CRT viewfinder after this test.
4) Comfort - bloody awful. To me the Sony DSR300 wasn't too comfortable either, but this is terrible. The shoulder pad is hopeless and whoever designed it must have had a weird-shaped shoulder. To fit my shoulder correctly I had to tilt the top of the camera toward my head more - that is how the pad is moulded. Also, my left arm was sore after about 5 minutes of the test - maybe that is because I have not shot for a while, though. Front-heavy. I didn't try the tripod-mounted example on my shoulder and my thoughts are that the IDX battery setup on the back of the camera would have solved the balance issue.
5) Picture quality - Excellent on "all auto" mode. I did notice the auto iris being fooled by someone walking infront of a window, though - making the shot look unprofessional. Exposure lock would solve this of course! I have just downloaded the vision into FCP and am going to have a fiddle. 25p looks a bit weird so far. I don't think it will be of much use.
All-in-all, I think this would be an excellent kit for the price. I expect I am going to be up for somewhere betwenn $15,000 and $20,000 total, depending upon how I option it up, which is more than I expected it would be. Because it is around the $20k mark, all I have to do is work out whether I should go for a DSR570 kit for an extra $13,000 instead and if that extra amount is justified. Looking at the pcitures, I would have to say "probably not"....now only if the XL2 was more comfortable....
Cheers!
David Cleverly
Australia
Today I was fortunate enough to get my hands on two XL2's - one that was set up on a tripod with Matte Box, rails and a shade as well as a rear-mount hard disk recorder/IDX battery setup and the other that I shot with hand-held without any add-ons. Here are my first impressions of the XL2 after an hour with it at the dealer: - please remeber I am used to a Sony DSR300 DVCAM camcorder...
1) Visually - WOW! What a great looking piece of kit. Mind you, the one on the tripod did look somewhat over the top (and quite sexy) with a Matte Box, rails and shade on the front as well as a huge hard drive recorder on the rear plus an IDX battery mounted on top of that all via a n IDX V-mount on the supplied XL2 rear bracket! I do think all the extra add-ons (especially the Matte Box and Shade) made the camera much more impressive and imposing (perhaps more professional) to look at.
2) Ease of use - Very good although the camera was mainly in auto mode for my trials and the manual settings are going to take some getting used to, especially the unusual (for a pro user) iris control (don't know how that is going to affect the shooting experience in a rushed situation as it seems way too fiddly). I feel I would have to operate with Exposure lock "on" all the time to get used to it. 20x lens not wide enough so I will have to go for the 3x Wide as well, which I expected.
3) Focus - easier than I expected although the infinite focus ring sucks. I had no problem focussing using the viewfinder, quite sharp for a colour vf of this level, but it lacked saturation - maybe that is adjustable or just common for a low-end colour lcd vf. The focussing of distant objects - even on a wide shot - was easy. I found some distant objects in the shop I tested in could actually be put out of focus on a wide shot by turning the focus ring too far. I remember how on the old DSR 300 I used to shoot on, the viewfinder didn't give a very good indication of distant objects being in focus on a wide-shot but I used to know they would be in focus (or pretty close to it) because the focus ring would be at "infinity". I honestly do not think I will need the black and whit CRT viewfinder after this test.
4) Comfort - bloody awful. To me the Sony DSR300 wasn't too comfortable either, but this is terrible. The shoulder pad is hopeless and whoever designed it must have had a weird-shaped shoulder. To fit my shoulder correctly I had to tilt the top of the camera toward my head more - that is how the pad is moulded. Also, my left arm was sore after about 5 minutes of the test - maybe that is because I have not shot for a while, though. Front-heavy. I didn't try the tripod-mounted example on my shoulder and my thoughts are that the IDX battery setup on the back of the camera would have solved the balance issue.
5) Picture quality - Excellent on "all auto" mode. I did notice the auto iris being fooled by someone walking infront of a window, though - making the shot look unprofessional. Exposure lock would solve this of course! I have just downloaded the vision into FCP and am going to have a fiddle. 25p looks a bit weird so far. I don't think it will be of much use.
All-in-all, I think this would be an excellent kit for the price. I expect I am going to be up for somewhere betwenn $15,000 and $20,000 total, depending upon how I option it up, which is more than I expected it would be. Because it is around the $20k mark, all I have to do is work out whether I should go for a DSR570 kit for an extra $13,000 instead and if that extra amount is justified. Looking at the pcitures, I would have to say "probably not"....now only if the XL2 was more comfortable....
Cheers!
David Cleverly
Australia