GL / XM assorted posts, 2003

[Jose Marrero]

Considering purchase of used Gl1 or Xl1 from online auctions where I can test before I accept.. What is the best way to test a used camera in 3 days? Also, can I purchase a warranty for it as new owner?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

[Chris Hurd]

The safest way is to have it done by an authorized Canon Service Center (there are only two in the USA). I don't think three days is long enough... you'll have to allow for a turn-around of about five days. In short, don't bid on an online auction if you don't feel like taking the risk. Instead, consider buying a used camera from one of our members in our Private Classifieds forum here on this message board -- it's a much safer way to go. For instance, I'm about to sell my own 1998 XL1, but it'll have the documentation that shows it's been to Canon Service for a final pre-sale check-up. You can't get that from an Ebay auction. Pay the extra two bucks and avoid the hassles. Hope this helps,

[Kevin Shilts]

Was trying to do some time-lapse (interval) photography with my GL2 over the weekend with the settings at 1 min. intervals and then .5 sec. of record time, but the blasted "auto power off" kept shutting the camera off before it could get to one min. What's up with this and how do you work around it? No mention in the manual about disabling "auto power off" or how it affects interval photography. You would think that Canon would have Interval mode disable the "auto power off". Help!
Kevin Shilts

[Rob Wilson]

Kevin,

Page 36 in the users manual explains how to disable the power save function. That will keep the cam powered up but stop the drive. Might be the issue. I've done time lapse and not experienced your problem but my power save is disabled.

[Kasey Cotulla]

Manual mode questions.

I basically understand setting manual mode for shutter speed and aperture from photography. However I don't understand the gain setting on the manual screen or the bar that shifts back and forth at the top of the manual screen. Can anyone offer some instruction?

(I am trying to shoot soccer games that are in typically bright sunlight, so I've played around with setting the aperture open around F2.0 and the shutter speed around 1/2000. I'm not certain if there is a better suggested setup than opening up the iris and shooting at a fast shutter speed.)

Thank you for any expertise,

Kasey

[Rene Severs]

Hi there,

I am new to this forum and just ordered a xm-2 (the gl-2 equivalent for europe). I will be using it mainly to film fireworks and pyromusicals. My question is, which microphone will best fit this application ? Since it is mostly fireworks synchronised to music that I will be recording, I think the dynamic range of the mic is very important (correct me if i am wrong). And how can I solve the problem of the mic that'll get overloaded by high volume and shutting down.

Thank you in advance,

Rene

[Graham Bernard]

Excellent question!

Think about how the final video will be viewed and HEARD! - Alot of the issue about major event filming impact is bound up with the audio. Stereo, surround etc etc . .. .

Make a list of whayt you want to record:

1 - Audience comments - Wireless Mics

2 - "Loudspeaker" pa stuff - Ambient ??

3 - Clapping and OOhs and Ahhhs of the audience

4 - Woooshes of the fireworks

5 - Very noisey "music"

Now mix all this up and think what and how you could record it. Goes back to what and how you will go about "showing" the video when completed.

Could be that your local to cammie soiunds could be covered by a decent ambient on auto and some other stuff like radio miked-up to another channel.

Have a separate tape runing to capture all ambient big sounds and maybe get some stuff from a PA that is running.

Others will chip in here. But this is my non-pro approach. Maybe get yer hands on a simple mix desk - yeah?

BANG . . WWWWhhhooooossh . . .wwwwiiiiiIIIIIZZZZZ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> BANG!

Grazie

[Ken Tanaka]

Hello Kasey,
Turning-up the Gain basically increases the camera's light sensitivity. Be careful, though. Cranking it up too high will introduce noise into your image.

The bar at the top of the viewfinder display shows your exposure. "Correct" exposure, from the camera's point of view, is indicated when the arrow is in the midddle of the bar. Of course, you may have reasons for under/overexposing your image for particular purposes.

For shooting field sports action you probably want the your iris smaller to ensure that your depth of field remains large. (Ie. the amount of the playing field that remains in good focus.) That shutter speed is extremely high, too.

Good luck.

[John Aoki]

A product name and number would be great...

And also a website where I can find a good deal?

Thanks in advance!

[Frank Granovski]

You can buy these almost anywhere. Leo's Camera sells them in several brands, including Heliopan, B+W, Hoya (etc). peter@leoscamera.com - ask for pricing.

[Raj Anish]

Hi,

Has anyone successfully used GL-2 as webcam on Windows 200?

I know the canondv site says it works only on XP. However, I installed their DV Messenger on Windows 2000 just fine. I can also use it to directly record video to hardware using say, Windows Media Encoder software. So, the video stream capture seems to work. However, I can not use it either with MSN Messenger or Yahoo messenger as a webcam.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

thanks,
Raj

[Bud Kuenzli]

I also wondered about that f2.0/2000 setting. Unless you are specifically trying to limit depth of field for creative reasons, but your focus needs to be spot on and in a fast paced soccer match I doubt it's the thing you want. Bring your aperture up to something like 4 or higher and see if you get a reasonable shutter speed. I'll leave reasonable to you. If you're shooting with the neutral density filter now you may be able to go up to f8 which may be advantageous in keeping depth of field.
Youu would only need to increase the gain if you were in low light. With adequate light I doubt you'll ever have need to adust the gain.

[Dave Schultz]

When taping at horse shows my GL-2 will lose focus when the horse is moving away from me in the arena and I am zooming in to keep it at constant size. In talking to other videographers at the shows I was told that Sony used to have the same problem but has now solved it (don't know if this is really true). I contacted Canon and got a totally useless reply.

Are there any techniques / workarounds that I can try to fix this? Thx.

[Rob Wilson]

Dave,

First, using manual focus would probably be better than letting the Autofocus hunt. Second, be sure that the apature is as small as possible to increase your depth of field. You'll need to use manual setting for that but it can make a big difference.

[Barry Goyette]

Dave

Rob's comments are right on, but in addition I would add this:

If you are zooming to keep the horse a constant size, then set the camera to manual focus, and prefocus during warmups at the maximum distance and max zoom that you plan to use. Now as you zoom wider -- or de-zoom in technical terms :), your camera should stay in pretty good focus (on the Gl2, the depth of field increases dramatically the wider you go, and should hold focus at virtually any distance shorter than prefocus distance)...as long as you are zooming wider as the horse gets closer.

The situation as you describe it is not really a fault of the camera, the 20x lens on the gl2 requires a lot of focus travel at the long end of the zoom (exponentially more than a 10x zoom would), and with a fast moving object like a horse, the lens is likely to fall behind, and once it does...the AF will start hunting and then the situation will usually get worse.

Barry