XL2 Free Run Time Code as an External Sync by Chris Hurd (http://www.dvinfo.net/canonxl2/articles/article11.php)

The basics:

1. Put two or more cameras in time code in Free Run mode.

2. Use single remote control to reset all the cameras at once.

Could this work?????

I wanted to give an update on this technique.. and it indeed does work, and except for a minor issue works well.

I had the opportunity to shoot with two XF100's (actually, and XF100 and XF105) last weekend. I had rented the 105 and I copied all the settings on the 100 to the SD card then imported them into the 105. Both I put in Free Run timecode, and I manually set the menus to the 'reset' position. I put the cameras next to each other and with the remote reset the timecode on both at the same moment.

When I imported the clips into Premiere Pro CS6 and synchronized the clips, it synced them perfectly by the timecode. I used a clapper for redundancy, but it wasn't needed.

The only issue is that the cameras drifted over time. After 15 hours (overnight), they were ~0.25 seconds off. I took a photo of their LCD's next to each other to see the difference. So I for the three shows I did, I just reset the timecodes right before the start.

That was precisely what had to be done with the XL2 in teams. Takes but a second and they're synced again.

Thanks for sharing the result. I was interested to know if this worked. Interesting to know the relative drift on your camera too. I also often do long continuous recordings of performances.

Brett