Dear all:

I recently purchased an XL-1s, and I am planning a trip involving flying with the camera soon. Reading through the instruction manual of the 16x IS II lens, I stumbled upon the following bit of information:

"When the lens is used in areas of low atmospheric pressure (less than approx. 1 atomsphere), such as airplanes or high mountains, air bubbles may apprear inside the lens (within the Vari-Angle Pirsm). This is not a malfunction. About 10 days* after the lens is returned to normal atmospheric pressure, these bubbles will disappear (*depending slightly on the condiditons in which it is used)."

If true, this could be a serious problem, since my trip is going to be a short one. Can anyone with real-life experience under the aforementioned conditions comment on the above? Particularly, I'd be interested in the effects of a series of pressure changes (i.e. flights) with an interval of a few days in between.

I would highly appreciate any feedback on this!

Regards,

Ron

Dear Ron
I'm a videojournalist working in Indonesia. I've the Canon XL1 since 1998 and since then the two of us have flown a lot(30+), Indonesia is huge! I never had any bubbles inside the lens and I start shooting straight when I leave the plane. We've been in all sorts of planes, from small to big boeings, so...
The only thing I once experienced was a condensation warning, wich was gone in 30 minutes.
Good luck
Andre

Certainly not a common problem. Might have read one post on it over the past 3+ years. Might be more likely if the camcorder is not in a pressurized cabin, and if the in-flight time is very long.

I assume you are carrying the camera so that it stays in the pressurized cabin. Should be no problem. I have done it several times.

I have experienced the bubble problem with my Canon ES900 analog, 8mm camcorder. A portion of the lens is liquid-filled, and as the ambient atmospheric pressure decreases, any gas (air) in the lens liquid expands to form a visible bubble. This happened with my camera while high on a mountain in Utah (that is, the elevation was high, not me). However, the bubble was only visible when pointing the camera either straight down at the ground or straight up in the air. While holding the camera horizontal, the bubble rose to the top of the lens and was not in the field of view. After returning to sea level, the bubble did go away.