Hi everyone I’ve been reading posts here for several weeks now and on information gained and others recommendations I have purchased a canon XA20.
I’ve had a couple of camcorder over the years but nothing as advanced as the XA20, I suppose the last what I would call serious camcorder I owned was a Ferguson FC23 that used S-VHS tapes and I did my editing on two tape decks.

I’m still getting to grips with the camera and the instruction book that I feel does not explain some things very well. So again I have found this forum very helpful along with instructional videos on YouTube.

A question I would like to ask other XA20 owners is about the viewfinder. When looking through the viewfinder does the picture fill the whole viewfinder, or is it set back a bit. On my DSLR when looking through the viewfinder the view fills the whole viewfinder on the XA20 I see a screen that is a little setback from the front of your eye. I can see all the detail and its all in focus but was not sure if this is correct or am I doing something wrong.

I have downloaded a trial version of Adobe’s Permiere Pro and after a lot of reading, I must say I am getting to grips with it and finding it very good, but it is very expensive. Are there any other recommendations.

Many thanks
Ross

Try Premiere Elements.

Grass Valley offers two products to consider; Edius Pro and Edius Neo (a lite version). They do an excellent job with AVCHD video. They have a 30-day trial version you can download.

Editing on two VCRs is how Robert Rodriguez learned to make films. He did ok. I know a lot of people find Adobe CC to be expensive but it really is very, very good and getting better all the time. As suggested, Premiere Elements is an option to get you started but, it doesn't take too long to find its limitations.

What I really like about the Adobe CC is that I get everything. I'm primarily a still photographer so Photoshop and Lightroom are very important to me but, I also use Photoshop with Premiere Pro and the layers import across allowing me to animate them individually. You get After Effects, which has incredible flexibility at animating, keying, compiling RAW frames, adding special effects; the list goes on and on.

The viewfinder on the XA20 just looks that way. Kind of like a screen at the end of a tunnel. I use it quite a bit for the stability aspect and I find it works fine for framing but the color is off and you would be hard pressed to determine critical focus.

Bob

I have taken a look in the VF at the IBC 2013 today, but I found the size of the image disappointing.

Hi Everyone

Thanks for your replies and the software suggestions, also the info on the viewfinder. Thought I may have had to send the camera back to Canon.

For the moment I will stay with Premiere pro I have, a while before the trial runs out and that will give me some time to look at the other suggestions made. I am still getting to grips with the camera at the moment, but am enjoying my return to video photography very much. I will keep looking here for advice a very helpful and informative site.

Many thanks once more
Ross