Hello
Does anyone use the XL1s for Event/Doc filming,?
I cover equestrian dressage with a digi stills camera, and think there maybe a window
to supply the whole dressage test on DVD. No one does this in my area at present.
I know they are old hat but I have just been presented with 2 cams by a relative just retired,
one with X16 lens and the other X20 and I think they just look the bee's knee's
Not worth a great deal if sold, anyway I wouldnt be the most popular person if I did sell. They wre a gift.
I find the results really good from the sample tests I have been carrying out, and have had positive feedback from owners and riders alike so far.
Opinions and advice would be welcome.
Regards
Allan

I still have my XL1s but rarely use it. I still love it. If that's the camera you have, it will take fine standard definition video for DVD. Especially outdoors. You mentioned a 20x lens, that sounds like the XL2. The XL1s had a 3x wide angle, 16x automatic lens and a 14x Fujinon manual lens.

If you shoot the XL1s in Frame mode and in 16x9 mode, your DVDs will be widescreen ones which will give them a modern look.

If you are shooting handheld, my favorite rig was the Spiderbrace and a Varizoom LANC controller. You have to get the right model Spiderbrace that was designed for the XL cameras that have a proper viewfinder on the side versus handycams with it on the back.

The XL1/XL1s came stock with a 16x zoom lens and Canon offered an optional 3x zoom range wide angle lens, and in later years a 16x fullly manual lens. The XL2 introduced a 20x zoom lens (backward compatible). Canon also offered a 1.4x (?) teleconverter and an adapter to allow use of Canon still lenses with it. There should be plenty of information about it elsewhere here at this web site.

I used the XL1 for event work until about 3.5 years ago. It was a great camcorder in its day for SD video, and still has a cool "professional" look to random passing civilians if that is important. In the hands of a reasonably skilled shooter you can use it and produce good DVDs. However, it is a 10+ year old design, and no match for current HD camcorders.

While the XL2 offered a native 16x9 mode, as I understand it the XL1s did not. It may have achieved its 16x9 aspect ratio by discarding some scan line from the top/bottom of the image and scaling the remainder to 480 lines resulting in a somewhat softer 16x9 image.

If the camcorder were a gift, give them a try and judge whether or not they met your needs. The price is right.

My thanks to Les and Don for taking the time to comment on my post.
Much appreciated.
Allan

The XL1s and especially XL2 have many settings to customize the look, they are not point and shoot cameras and require skilled operation.

I still use my XL1S, especially for sports (football, basketball, volleyball, etc.). Here's a video I did recently. It was an insect we found in our front yard - really ugly looking thing that looked like it could bite. The thing was over 2 inches long!

Here's another video taken with the Canon XL1S. The priest had already finished his prayers, and everyone was getting ready to leave, so I had put away the tripod already. Then someone remembered the tradition of carrying unbaptized babies over the coffin. I had never heard or seen it done before. I just turned the XL1S back on, and taped it handheld, while shooting my still camera (awkwardly) with my left hand. I increased the frame to HD and increased the saturation to match the footage from our HD video cameras (Canon XH-A1), and clients can't tell the difference once it's put on DVD.