Hey, XL2 with dual charger, two 945's 20x lens, 3x on table, manfrotto 525 legs and 501 head, 7inch, 16:9 monitor and power supply mounted on top, and Cavision Matte box with rails.

Enjoy. (Wish the pool table was mine)

http://theexodus.battletechmodproductions.com/nayman/Beaut.jpg

To what end, Matt?

Jay

Pardon? You mean, to what end am I posting this? To what end should you post yours? To what end do i want a pool table ? :P

I am jsut curious to see how other folks here keep there Canon's set up. Most forums have a "You show me yours, I'll show you mine" thread. Surpised this one doesnt. I'd like to see other's XL2's with follow focuses, different matte boxes, different tripods, maybe different monitors, view finders, filter setsd, lenses, steady cams, cases, etc. It's a nice resource to have, and might inspire good ideas in new owners and old owners alike.

Also, the Xl2, in my oppinion, is a very photogenic Camera. As a photographer as well as videogrpaher, I enjoy taking photos. So it was natural to take a nice photo of somehting that I like. The XL2.

I would lvoe to see some other rigs.

Nice setup Matthew.
What's the spec on the matte box ... and where'd you buy? Do you use it mostly as a filter holder or stray light deflector?
Keep the pix coming.

It is a cavision MB4169H matte box with 4x5 filter trays, one rotating. It sits on rails, and was about $600 canadian (not bad, really).

I'd like to see some other posts...

I am jsut curious to see how other folks here keep there Canon's set up.

Okay, I can understand that. Thanks for the clarification!

Jay

Most forums have a "You show me yours, I'll show you mine" thread. Surpised this one doesnt.
I don't know about anyone else, but to me the proof is in the pudding. I like to see what other people are doing with their XL2, rather than see their setup. I could only assume the reason there isn't one here is for the same reason I've mentioned above. I don't know, perhaps I'm wrong. I am sort of new to this place myself.

Setup I rented a couple of months ago to shoot a short:

http://www.the-hegemony.com/P1010689.JPG

Hey man, nice follow focus set up! Looks good!

Also, in respones to John, Many people do not post footage tests because it requires a lot of space and downlaod time to show anything of decent quality. Ify ou want to see some footage of mine, feel free to email me I can transfer it to you directly. I jsut don't have bandwidth to be posting videos.

This thread is about the Physical Appearance on the XL2 and the equipment that goes with it. It is nice to see how many different incarnations there of this lovely cam.

where did you get the dual battery charger? i haven't seen it anywhere!

The dual batt. charger is a common Canon accessory, part number CH-910, and may be ordered from any authorized Canon dealer (see our sponsors list in my link below).

For Xiaoli, did you rent that Mini35 in Austin? Who has it?

Nope, short was shot in Plano. Got everything from MPS Studios in Dallas.

Thanks for the info -- I've been trying to talk Craig Chartier over at GEAR to pick one up for his DV rentals for a couple of years now.

I was kind of disappointed MPS didn't have the 400 series. We had to shoot wide open, which was annoying.

Also take a look at this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=13127

Setup I rented a couple of months ago to shoot a short:

http://www.the-hegemony.com/P1010689.JPG

What is the lens mounted on that camera?

Steve,

It's a Zeiss Superspeed, Distagon 50mm T1.3. They're pretty old (made in West Germany) and have been replaced by the Master Primes.

you might also be interested in this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=20798

It has quite a few pictures of XL1/s setups.

May sound like a dumb question but..

What exactly is the purpose of having a Matte box and rails mounted on the camera? I'm new to the technological side of things..

Lon

For shooting cinematic peices, you can add warming or cooling filters, star filrters (make specular high lights turn into corsses or 5 pointed stars, liek in a car comercial), you can add diffusion filters, half neutral density filters (so the sky is darker but the ground isn't.

Also, can mount a follow focus, sunshade (French flag) keep lens flares out of your footage, and it also looks REALLY COOL!

Matt

The matte box is a large lens hood, with movable leaves, that can also hold filters and usually a rotating stage, or two, or more. A rotating stage is good for polarizers and grads, etc. The rods allow for different length lenses to be used with the matte box. Different sized rods accommodate the lengths of various sized lenses and they can usually be lengthened, or shortened by adding or removing sections of rod. Arriflex and Chrosziel are two of the larger matte box manufacturers.

A follow focus unit is mounted on the rods. The follow focus allows the camera assistant to accurately pull focus to follow an actor or whatever action needs to be in focus during a take. Cinetech and the afore mentioned mfr's and others make ff units.

Focus, zoom and iris motors can be mounted on the rods as well. These controls are adjusted remotely via a wireless control unit or a wired controller, like a Microforce, for the zoom. If you look at a motion picture camera in full studio mode, you'll see all of the afore mentioned tools mounted. The motors and controllers have gears that mesh with the gears on the lenses. In the case of the wired controllers, they plug into the remote jack of the lens or controller. BarTech, Chrosziel, MagFox, Fox, Seitz, Genio, Hedén, Benz, Jurgens, Varizoom, Zoe and Microforce make motors, remotes and wired controllers for zoom, focus and iris.

All helpful tools. Sometimes ya need 'em, sometimes ya don't.

Thanks Mark.

Here are some pictures of my XL2 setup. Pretty simple. XL2 body, 20x lens, EQ-XL1 windscreen, bogen manfrotto 3051 tripod with 501 head.

http://www.sweepinghalo.com/pics/canonxl2_01.jpg
http://www.sweepinghalo.com/pics/canonxl2_02.jpg
http://www.sweepinghalo.com/pics/canonxl2_03.jpg

Here is a shot of mine.

http://www.geocities.com/downhillmania/Picture062.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/downhillmania/Picture063.jpg

Another Downhill Biker with an XL2?

What are the odds?

I ride a Balfa 2step

Nice Bike. I have to get up North there and ride one of these days. Maybe Ill catch you at MT Snow?

Travis

Here is a rig I cooked-up. The focus of the Sony parabola and the power of the 20x lens makes incredible bird footage.

http://www.geocities.com/amjoyce2004/main.html

that is one NUTTY mic!

Andy,

Where did you get the mic? I'm also curious about the sound quality. I was going to build one to use with a good uni-directional for nat sounds. I know of one guy who built one from a metal snow disk. This one looks light weight and might fill the bill. It also looks like you can replace the mic. Can you?

Dan

Andy,

Where did you get the mic? I'm also curious about the sound quality. I was going to build one to use with a good uni-directional for nat sounds. I know of one guy who built one from a metal snow disk. This one looks light weight and might fill the bill. It also looks like you can replace the mic. Can you?

Dan


The Sony PBR is discontinued since not enough people bought them. I bought mine about 10 years ago from Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and it's very cool. The parabola accepts any "tube style" mic (dynamic or condenser) and is a pistol grip style or 5/8" thread-mountable.

Even a Tupperware container will work in a pinch, but the quality of the material affects the sound a lot. The polycarbonate design of the PBR is superior to any homemade material, but you can try anything.

The sound quality is dictated by the mic element, but there is also an inherent loss of bass by using a smaller sized parabola. I've used 3ft. diameter dishes before to get more frequency response, but they are very impractical. Since I mainly use it to record birds and insects, the loss in bass response is irrelevant.

Good luck...

It figures! I was thinking about using someone's old 18" satelite dish before I saw yours. It's worth a try.

Dan

Parabolics need to be made right to work to their potential. I have used several and really like the Dan Gibson Parabolic for the money. It'll run you about $900 but it works very well. The audio quality when recorded is not something you would use to capture dialog in a narrative work, but for surveillance or nature work it does deliver some very impressive results.

Matt

I liked this idea when I originally read it way back before I even had a Canon XL2. So now that I've got a XL2 and some equipment attached to go along with it, here's my XL2 -

http://www.thisis24p.com/firestore-pic1.html
http://www.thisis24p.com/firestore-pic2.html
http://www.thisis24p.com/firestore-pic3.html

XL2
Cartoni Focus (tripod & fluid head)
Sennheiser G2 Evolution Wireless mic
TransVideo Cinemonitor IIIA
FireStore FS-4

in the mail -
Manfrotto 522C LANC

on the way -
Redrock M2 Adaptor & Mounting Brackets

Originally, I took the photos over the weekend to show how I mounted my FireStore FS-4 thanks to Michael Padilla's idea in another thread. While some of you may not have a FireStore, the velcro adhered to the "adaptor holder" that your XL2 shipped with may be useful way for you to attach other stuff.

So here it is, the first time i've posted my gear.

http://visualmasterpiece.com/user_photos/XLstedicamOP.jpg
http://visualmasterpiece.com/user_photos/xl2setup2.jpg
http://visualmasterpiece.com/user_photos/xl2setup3.jpg
http://visualmasterpiece.com/user_photos/xl2setup4.jpg


Originally, I took the photos over the weekend to show how I mounted my FireStore FS-4 thanks to Michael Padilla's idea in another thread. While some of you may not have a FireStore, the velcro adhered to the "adaptor holder" that your XL2 shipped with may be useful way for you to attach other stuff.

Hey Derek, Im glad you like my FireStore idea but I've discovered one more thing that you and everyone may be interested in...
Check it out (i'll also post details on the firestore page for everyone else)

http://visualmasterpiece.com/user_photos/firestore_xlm4.JPG

opps forgot the detials on the gear:

2 XL2's, 3x lens, 1.6 tele converter (canon), Firestore FS-4Pro 80GB, CH-10 Dual Batt Holder/Charger, FU-1000 Monochrome viewfinder (one lucky ebay purchase here), Manfrotto/Bogen tripod/501head, Eartec headsets, Steadicam by Hollywood lite (Varizoom ProLite), 2 Varizoom rockers.

Sorry about the stedicam pic its poor res and I don't have many others...

That looks good. The screw may be a great alternative to the Velcro if anyone was not sure about how well it fastened. I'm going to stick with the Velcro for now, no pun intended!