I considering the purchase of an XL-1s, since it has been a while since this camera system was released I have to wonder when the successor will arrive and if it is worth waiting. I know the interval between the last releases was fairly long. Any guesses/insights?

it's only been a little over a year, i think you have a bout a 2.5 year wait.


Bruce

I don't think Canon can afford to wait that long. The Panasonic DVX100 will have captured too large of a market share in that time frame. I think Canon will announce and possibly show a camera at PMA or NAB. It will ship by next summer. The XL1s was not a total replacement and the tooling and R & D has all ready been recovered. They will move faster than their normal product development time frame to preserve market share. My guess is they are working on it right now. How do I know this? I don't, pure guess work on my part.

Jeff

I agree, Since the xl1s uses panasonic chips, it makes sense that an upgrade to the xl series will come a soon as panasonic makes the 1/3inch 410k chips available, I think next summer is a pretty safe bet.

Barry

I'd like to see CANON develop their own chips for the next round. Certainly, Canon is quite capable of doing so, as seen with the new EOS 1DS. In my view, even if and when they do introduce a new model, the XL1S will still be used by those who desire that particular XL1S "look". Now that the majority of the market is screaming for higher definition and higher detail with better low-light capability, it makes sense to me that that part of the market shouldn't be ignored. Personally, I would like to see a larger image plane, using larger "megapixel" 16:9 native CCD's, at least 1/2". Yes, that would call for new lenses due to the larger chip size, however, a manual/ servo lens with larger 16:9 native chips and true progressive scan would do it for me.

Right now, I am still very much happy with what I can do with the XL1S and the manual/ servo lens.

Jeff,
I hope you're right

Bruce

Rumor: The XL2 will be released around august....cost $5K. It will use existing canon XL1 lenses and incorporate 2nd gen 24p encoding....supposedly better than the Panny....and it has on-board XLR connectors

the rumor is right.... but you forgot to mention that it's August 2004 that it will be released.....not this year!

<<<-- Originally posted by Maya Taylor : the rumor is right.... but you forgot to mention that it's August 2004 that it will be released.....not this year! -->>>

Damn.

Thanks for getting my hopes up Bill! :P

Is that 5k for just the base camera? No viewfinder, no autolens?

$5k would most likely include a VF and lens. Any more than that and they are pricing themselves out of their target range, unless they plan on delivering something to take on the Sony DSR-350 or JVC DV5000.

The $5,000 might be manufacturers suggested list price. Street price and MAP would be considerably less once the initial demand for the product wears and the cycle matures (camera gets old).

That would roll over the ma-200 and ma-100 and beachtek investments , except for the BNC port on the Ma-200.

24p will be welcome, hopefully they wont add a goofy fold out LCd that drains power , breaks easily, and does squat for framing a shot.

I have two of them on my XL-1s... one for video and one for audios. Got 'em at Radio Shack for $4bucks each. They plug right into my RCA connectors. I have to have them because I dump news footage off to satellite trucks and they take BNC connectors.

Somebody posted this on another forum:

"Tony Hawk in Vancouver with a XL-2 maybe
05/02/03 07:06 PM



Well this is a wierd one, I dont know if you guys know who tony hawk is but he is an Xtreme Sports Icon of some sort, Anyways, he is up here on some sort of tour, and I went out on assignment and saw someone else filming him with a XL1- with a flipout display.... I swear to god i almost fainted. The camera had no markings whatsover, I mean not even on the buttons, and was all flat black like someone spray painted it, so I have no idea what it was, It was identical to the XL1 in shape, but it had a flip out screen. Any ideaS? I highly doubt that if Canon was "alpha beta testing" it they would do it at a public event, unless maybe some Hong Kong company copied the camera?

Man I swear I peed myslelf a little... first glance I thought it was a xl-2! "

Highly unlikely.
If a working XL2 exists at this point, it wouldn't be in public shooting Tony Hawk, it would be hidden at Chris Hurd's secret testing compound in Texas.

I have seen a pic of the XL1 like u describe....black compartment and all...it appears in a Camcorder User magazine every month on a page for company sales advertisement. It has manual 16x lens and the back is red and black....no white and looks to have no markings either. whow knows where they got the pic from. However they sell the normal XL1s....I guess they use the pic for "sales trick". Like most show the Xl1 with manual lens...either they dont know the diference or try to make it look better with manual lens, and all filter gear on with the tubes on bottom....looks the business doesnt it...but not what you buy! Damn!

I guess anyone can spray-paint an XL1(s). This is on the homepage of Optex's xl1s.com website:
http://www.xl1s.com/images/xl1anafull.jpg