I'm trying to do a firewire copy of one of my own tapes between these two cams. It looks simple enough in the manual, but no matter which way I try it (Canon to Sony or vice versa) it won't work.

It's standard 25i footage, so there shouldn't be a problem there and I've checked and rechecked the settings detailed in the manual.

Any suggestions are welcome. The only thing I don't have right now is a spare 4 pin to 4 pin cable to check that the cable is OK, but it was certainly fine until recently.

On the H1, is there a tiny blue light shining next the the FireWire jack?

If not, then the HD downconvert function is on when it shouldn't be.

Thanks for suggestion Chris, but downconvert was set to off. Anyway I've managed to borrow a magnifying glass and check the cable and one of the pins is noticeably bent, so it looks like that is the culprit. It won't push back into place, so I've ordered a couple of new cables.

Thanks again for your help and apologies for not thinking to borrow the magnifying glass before I posted.

Paul,
Actually your post is a great contibution. Keeping a magnifying glass handy is a great idea. Ray

Thanks for the comments Ray - it helps make me feel a bit less stupid!

The new firewire cable arrived today, so I plugged in and copied across without any problems, so clearly that bent pin was the culprit.

It does of course confirm what has been noted elsewhere on the forums - that copying standard interlaced footage from an XL-H1 to an FX1 is not a problem.