Various GL1 / XM1 questions

[Ken Tanaka]

"in that thread everyone was talking about bad head alignment...
could that be the culprit for my missing sound and timecode as well?"

This is purely speculative, but yes it very well could be. The tolerances for laying bits onto tape are bogglingly tight.

[Ryan Martino]

ken, i think you are probably right.
i was thinking about it last night, and i bet it's the head alignment being off, and the intermittency is probably tied to whether or not the tape gets threaded up just the right way when i load it.

i shot some video last night on a tape that had previously had no sound, but last night the sound was there and everything was fine. the only variable was that i had taken the tape out and put it back in...

so - how do i go about contacting a canon service center to get the heads aligned? and what's it going to cost me roughly?

-martino

[Ken Tanaka]

Use Canon's GL1 Service Locator page to find out where to get the camera repaired.

[Ryan Martino]

cool. thanks, ken

[Tony Lam]

I've been working with my GL1 for about 3 years now.

Recently I've tried to capture footage off of some tapes (freshly shot video). When I view the footage using the DV controls in either Adobe Premiere 6 or Sony Vegas 4, it's fine. However, when I hit capture (either batch or manual) the video will capture for approximately 2 seconds and then block / pixelate in both black and white and then a spectrum of colors (think TV static noise, except more blocky; this will weave in and out of the video occaisionally).

I was thinking about getting a video-head cleaner, but viewing tapes through the LCD and analog composite out to TV works fine. PLAYING through the IEEE 1394 port works fine as I've already mentioned. CAPTURE is what gives me issues.

I've already tried this on two different computers and with two different IEEE 1394 cables.

Anyone had experience with something like this?

[Tony Lam]

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like (the blocked pixels keep moving)

http://adev.freeunixhost.com/camerror.JPG

[Seth Chambers]

Is there any updated pricing info on having your LCD display go out in normal vie mode? I just had this happen and am somewhat cheesed...?

[Patrick Smith]

well i have recently really gotten into videographing. I film for my friends DVD, and really enjoy filming.

About a month or 2 ago i purchased my first nice camera, ( used to have a cheap-o sony camera that was about 500$ and given to me.)

I got the optura 300 with the canon wide angle and biggest battery. Now i love this camera and takes ncie film and not to metion not bad quatlity digital pictures. But when i watch my footage in comparison to my friend ( owner of the dvd) Gl-1, i hate my camera. My night shots are horrible and i just feel like my film sucks.

So now i have been thinking a lot about getting a gl-1, for price reasons. i also hear a lot about people liking the gl-1 more then the new gl-2.?

So i have come to this.... if i can sell my optura 300 with all i have for it ( about 6 hours of usage time) for a good price im going to get a gl-1.

Now the questions:
1. is it worth it? to buy a 3 year old camera that is discountinued?
2. is a bigger camera what i want after getting used my small 300?
3. does canon or anyone still make parts for the gl-1? like extra batterys, wide angles lenses, filters, lights etc?
* will gl-2 parts fit the gl-1?
4. if my gl-1 happens to break some how, will canon fix it? will it be expenisve?

i know i have more, but the more info i can get the better! Please help me out guys! Thanks!

[Patrick Smith]

bump

[Gale Smith]

Patrick-

First off, I know nothing about the canon optura you already own. I did buy a used gl1 to use in addition to the sony pd150 that I already had. I now use the gl1 more than the pd150, mainly because of its big zoom (20x). I film wildlife where a big zoom is definitely needed. Before I bought the sony, all I read about was how much better shooting in dvcam (pd150) was over minidv (gl1). I really can't tell the difference in the footage between the two cameras. The only thing that the gl1 is lacking is high-quality audio. That can be easily fixed by getting a good shotgun mic and there are a lot of options to setting up the gl1 for wireless mics. If I could do it over again, I would have bought 3 used gl1's for the price of one new pd150. The audio upgrades are not that expensive (I'm guessing no more than $500). One video quality area that the gl1 isn't as impressive as the pd150 is in low-light situations. This is my opinion for whatever it's worth. Oh, from what I've read there wasn't a lot of upgrades from the gl1 to the gl2.

One more thing. You can still get all the accessories you need for the gl1 (batteries, lenses, etc.).

[Patrick Smith]

thanks a bunch!!!! now only if i can get my hands on a super mint gl-1 !! where did u get yours ?

[Gale Smith]

I got mine off of eBay, but you have to be real careful. I emailed the guy and told him I wanted to speak with him on the phone before I proceded with the transaction. There are quite a few of them listed in the $1,000 to $1,200 range.

[Patrick Smith]

OK, a buddy of mine has a used GL-1 for sale. He said 1150$ with everything it came with. box, charger, cords, etc.

the camera was highly used, but never had a problem with it.

is this a reasonable price? or should it be lower?

what should i look @ to determine if its worth buying?

if he had insuranc eon it, will it still be with the camera incase i breaks?

thanks!

[Ted Banucci]

Never posted a reply to this, but here is the resolution:

Sent my camera into Canon for repair. Got it back 2 months later. Total cost: $400.

Expensive, but better than having to buy another camera!

Ted

[Carleton Lane]

Do people notice a slightly annoying amount of interlacing? Maybe it is because I shoot a lot of action. It is usually the worst during lower light conditions, but a little bit of it is present all of the time.
--Carleton