Has anyone replaced his FX1 with an XH-A1?

I'm thinking about mainly because of the zoom! I went from a GL2 to the FX1 and whenever I look at FX1 footage I'm reminded of how I really wanted to get a tighter shot but couldn't.

Can anyone give me an idea of how the A1 zoom compares to the GL2 and/or FX1. I have the numbers but with different chip sizes and aspect ratios I know that they don't mean the same thing.

In closing do you miss your FX1? Is the A1's LCD really that much tougher to look at than the FX1's?

Before buying the XH A1 I did quite a bit of shooting with a friend's Sony Z1. Same lens, etc., as the FX1.

On my first shoot with the XH A1, I found that I really liked the 20:1 lens. I got some shots of gargoyles up on top of old historical buildings, With the 20X lens, I was able to get as tight as I wanted to be. The lens on the Sony wouldn't have done that.

People seem to like to complain about the smaller LCD, but I find it very good. True, it's smaller than the Sony, but it's also very high resolution and nice and bright for outdoor use in the sun. It's sharp enough to use for focus in many situations. I do prefer the positioning of Sony's LCD up on top of the handle, but even so, you can still see the screen from the right side of the camera if necessary, looking over the handle or through it. Sony's location way up on top of everything is brilliant.

With the Canon you'll want to buy a Sony rubber eyecup (or use the one on your FX1), because that little hard rubber thing that's like the one on the GL2 sucks. The Sony part is under 40 bucks, and there's a thread on here about where to order it.

I was really not happy with the FX1 and sold it rather quickly after getting it. As for the XHA1, I bought it without testing it out and I have now ordered two more. So no, I don't miss the FX1, but I would have said that before I got these as well.

I'm an FX1 owner myself and having the same debate about making the switch myself... I don't think the FX1 has much if anything on the A1. From what I understand, the one debatable area is FX1 you can take up to 18db gain for low light situations and still have a pretty good picture, so it may be slightly better for low light situations. (other than the smaller LCD screen as well)

Cesar the A1 just about matches the zoom range of a PD-170/VX2100. That might not sound right because the canon is rated at 20x and the Sony is 12x, but the Canon starts out MUCH wider than the Sony.

Miss the FX1?

I absolutely don't miss the HVR-V1 at all!!!!

The smaller LCD is much less of a handicap than expected. I have no trouble making focus at all. Use the colour bars to set up the brightness can contrast and it will give a reasonable reproduction of the image being recorded.

A great camera.

TT

Don't miss mine at all. I do agree you have to be more careful on the gain settings with the A1. 24F, XLR inputs, and the depth of the custom picture presets are the best gains for me.

Don't miss my SONY FX-1 at all. I may even purchase another A1 in a few weeks.

I like the balance of the Z1, the convenient lens shade and superb flip-out LCD, and fast battery charger.

...But I like the images of the XH-A1 the best, even the low light stuff. Never mind comparisons of gain settings. The XH-A1 makes prettier pictures in low light in my hands. The Z1 lens has less CA at the wide end, but goes soft at the telephoto end, or at wide open aperture. The XH-A1 stays sharp at large aperture openings, and the CA goes away as you zoom toward the telephoto side. I think the Z1 and XH-A1 have about the same FOV at the wide end supposedly, but it seems like the XH-A1 is marginally wider.

They are both great cams. The Z1 gives great out of the box color with less fuss. The A1 default image is bland, and requires experimentation, but the payoff is big. You can tweak it for the look you want.

Can anyone give me an idea of how the A1 zoom compares to the GL2 and/or FX1. I have the numbers but with different chip sizes and aspect ratios I know that they don't mean the same thing.

Cesar,

Camera manufacturers also express their lens specs by converting them to the equivalent focal length on a 35mm still camera. This provides a way to compare different cameras even though they have different chip sizes.

The A1/G1 has a zoom range equivalent to 32.5mm-650mm. The Z1/FX1 equivalent is 32.5mm-390mm. So you can see they are exactly the same at the full wide setting, but the telephoto end of the A1/G1 is much greater.

Cesar the A1 just about matches the zoom range of a PD-170/VX2100.

Glenn,

The PD/VX series has an equivalent zoom range of 43.2-518.4mm, so I'm not sure that I understand what you're saying. The A1/G1 goes about 25% wider and also has about 25% more telephoto reach.

"Zoom range" refers to the difference between the telephoto and wide ends of the lens. So with the FX1/Z1 the calculation is 390/32.5 = 12, which is why that camera is labeled as "12x". The same calculation for the VX/PD is 518.4/43.2 = 12, so this is also a "12x" lens. On the Canon it's 650/32.5 = 20, which explains its "20x" rating.

So comparing lenses on different cameras is really very simple if you use a little basic math. Any other comparisons are purely subjective.

how easy is it to match Z1 and A1 footage? I think my FX1 is about
to go bye bye, but I will still have 2 Sony cams in a 3 cam system.
Kinda concerned about matching picture.

Cesar the A1 just about matches the zoom range of a PD-170/VX2100. That might not sound right because the canon is rated at 20x and the Sony is 12x, but the Canon starts out MUCH wider than the Sony.

I also noticed this (I own a VX-2000 and a 2100). What pushed me to the A1 over the Sony was the 20x zoom . . . although I am very happy with the A1.

hi you guys that used/uses Fx1 and A1..
is the A1 a much lighter camcorder or its about the same?

It's almost exactly the same weight. The FX1/Z1 is just a little bit bigger but not much.

The images out of the A1 easily beat my old FX1.

The two things I miss are the way the Sony handled auto-exposure, and shot transition. The A1 pictures look so much better that I'm definately not going back!

Sony's shot transition feature is definitely better because you can set the speed to what you want. However, it's something I'd rarely use. I also like Sony's positioning of the LCD screen up on the handle, and I think it's better balanced. But I bought the Canon because I like the way the 24p footage looks, and I like the nice and wide and nice and long lens.

if I may be allowed to play devil's advocate here...

the Canon A1 is a great camera and terrific value for money but..
as someone who has been considering purchasing it and watching the A1 forums, I do have some reservations. In no particular order these are:

audio
the audio options are much more limited on the A1 than on the Z1. The Z1 is much more geared up towards professional broadcast standards. I'm used to using a Z1 at work and it's great to be able to set 2 different levels for a mic plugged into the XLR - (for safety in case the louder setting peaks). As I understand it, you cannot do this with the A1. With the Z1 you can assign a mic plugged into the XLR, to one channel and the built in mic to the other (useful as a 'backup' sound source). I believe this isn't possible with the A1 which allows only one source to be recorded at one level only. (I'm going by what I have read - so please correct me if I am wrong). The A1 also seems to have issues with levels when used with mixers.

build quality
I've read a lot of things on the A1 one forums about bits snapping off / falling off / falling inside the A1. The Z1 on the other hand is built like a tank and has been proven as a robust camera over the last couple of years. Judging by some of the A1 stories, I wonder if it will last a couple of years.

the near infinite customisation of the picture look
a good thing, yes, but on the other hand I'd rather have a 'look' which is pretty much there out of the box and can be tweaked in post, rather than faffing about forever adjusting a huge number of settings - a lot of which are quite baffling as regards to what they actually do. I've followed a thread on here recently which seemed to go forever with people trying over and over to find a decent vivid daylight setting without a cast. It seems to me to be a bit of a nightmare. I think if I bought a camera which is infinitely tweakable, I'd be in danger of spending an infinite amount of time tweaking it (that's probably just me though)
There are published BBC recommended settings for the Z1 to give a broadcast quality standard. I think that will do for me.

broadcast quality
the Z1 was bought-up by the BBC by the lorryload and became a standard replacement for the outdated DVCAMs they used previously. The Z1 is already well 'bedded in' to the broadcast industry (though HDV generally isn't considered adequate for more than a small percentage of HD output).
From a UK-centric point of view, those seeking to do work with production houses may have to match the Z1 look (best done with a Z1 in my opinion)

that teensy LCD
yes I'm sure I could get used to it but that 'batwing' design does tend to make it look like something you'd find on a Fisher Price toy. What is it with Canon and LCDs?

the button layout
maybe it's just because I'm used to the Sony layout but I'm not so keen on the Canon arrangement. For example 5 buttons to control white balance? Also I found myself having to fumble for the pimple sized Push AF button on the A1 - a button I use a lot.

integration
the recently announced Sony EX HDCAM looks like a 'must have' for me when it comes out and it has made me decide to stay within the Sony family in the meantime and go for an Z1 instead of the A1.(unfortunately the V1 didn't live up to expectations)

Please don't think I'm anti-Canon/pro-Sony. I'd rather take the Canon A1 over the Sony V1 anyday. (I'm hoping Sony won't mess up with the EX like they did with the V1). The A1 is an excellent camera - excellent value for money - with a better lens than the Z1 and better chips than the Z1. And of course it has the frame mode/ progressive look which the Z1 doesn't (yes, I know the Z1's cineframe is rubbish in comparison) but for all the reasons outlined above I'm going to go with the Sony Z1.

(Had I the budget though, I'd buy a Canon A1 as well!)

Valid points Keiran.
Similar thoughts went through my mind before i bit the bullet and went with the A1. So far i'm really happy with it, though i am looking forward to settling on a couple of presets that do the job for me. I know what you mean by all the faffing around. Some of the presets i've downloaded off this site make me wish i'd bought a Sony. I now have more than 25 presets in this camera and am thoroughly confused. Thanks to Steven Dempsey and a couple of other people I now have 3 or 4 i really like, but the sooner i jettison the rest the simpler my life will be.
Also, i shall be upgrading to FCP 6 shortly and be getting into the new Colour program, which ought to make stylised looks in post even more interesing than it is at the moment.
Even so, as appealing as the Z1 is, the only real contender for me was - and is - the HVX200, in fact had the Panasonic been shipping with 2 x 32 gig P2 cards it would be in my camera bag now.
Maybe next year.
In the meantime the A1 is a fabulous camera that i'm sure will pay off with a bit of perseverence, and with a considerably lower price tag than the Sony i still think its the best buy HDV camcorder around.

yep, the A1 is constantly mentioned in reviews as the best current HDV camera out there and a (relative) bargain for the price too. I went to demo it at proav but it was out on loan - otherwise, who knows I might be a proud owner of one now. Then I decided to hold out to see what was announced at NAB. If sony hadn't have pulled the EX HDCAM out of the bag then I would probably still be going with the A1. I don't want to wait til the end of the year before buying a camera though, but I do want a camera now which will work with the EX in terms of a similar/consistent look, hence the Z1.
Of course if the EX HDCAM is CMOS based, maybe the image won't be as similar as I imagine. Also I suppose I'm staying within my comfort-zone with Sony (I never really got on with the XL2 when I used it a few times).

The A1 is a superb camera though, and I've seen some stunning footage here from it - particularly from Steven Dempsey and Joe Simon.

do they have a price estimate for the ex hdcam

do they have a price estimate for the ex hdcam
You can find some info on the new XDCAM EX here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=91612

As mentioned there, the availability is this fall, and the price - below $8.000. Also, a nice high-rez picture is available here:

http://news.sel.sony.com/en/image_library/b2b/broadcast_production/content_create_edit/high/29749

William, it's an XDCAM HD format, not HDCAM.

I have had Z1/FX1 for almost 2 years and now I have been using A1 for about 5 months and the only thing I missed is the built in lens cap of the FX1. (-: