Brand New XH-A1 - What Not to Do
 

Just returned from a shoot in Emerald which is located in Central Queensland, Australia.

My almost brand new (2 or 3 week old) Canon XH-A1 is a little worse-for-wear. I don't want to give too much away so you'll have to watch the video ....

http://www.vimeo.com/1325720

All I can say is "Ouch ...."

Props to whoever can come up with the best title for this .... Mine is:

"2nd Hand Camera For Sale - Hardly Used"

Cheers,

Matthew.

Great video...........
 

Lousy location.

Heck, just give it a shake and a brush down, be as good as new.

Well, ok, slightly second hand, but hey, use it or lose it!


CS

"from dust till dawn" might be a nice title. Did the camera suffer any damage from this? I can imagine you should get a "cleaning tape" message after this :)
It was nice to see the 20x zoom in action in the beginning though.

How did you get the sound level right? Presumably you couldn't do a sound check beforehand. Or was it just on auto?

Great video!

Ian
www.festivalpreviews.com

Bugger................
 

I missed the "title" bit (when will I learn to read all posts to the end?).

Hmm.......

"Did you just fart.....?"


CS

I would suggest you post it for the grain complainers with a remark to look at
the imagery after the dust settled. Pretty good colours and clarity after such
an abuse. Impressive footage - hope you get it back to life.

"Mint XH A1 - Low Hours - Never Used for Capture"

It should be a lesson to all those who don't believe in using a UV filter for lens protection! My usual problem is slow accumulation of salt from sea spray.

"Have'n a blast with my new XH A1"

Canon!!! Thats what I love about them. They are Built like tanks, does it still work? You may want to send it in for a cleaning. HA

"Done blowed up!", although it might lose something in translation for those not familiar with the southern US racing vernacular. There's always, "Ka-blammo!" but I must give credit to David Hobbs for that one.

To follow up on the camera protection comments, in addition to a clear or UV filter this A1 would have benefited from a full camera cover. Could be either like the Porta-Brace product I think they call something like body armor, or even a simple rain cover.

Doesn't look like your A1 took it too badly, but you might want to spend some quality time with a can of compressed air to get the grit and dust out of the tiny places. You might also want to keep a head cleaning tape nearby.

I'm rather anal about dirt and my A1. I just threw away a brand new tape because I dropped it in a dirt parking lot.

Canon XHA1... it's da bomb! *groan*

I think you need to double-check that cam anyway, the footage was a little grainy. Did you make sure the AGC was turned off?

Personally if I was selling, I'd just spin it. "Real man's camera - not for wusses." I got a couple of hard-headed manly pollacks in my family that would buy it just on that alone. As for me, I'm going to run over and cradle my XH A1 like a baby.

The A1 really rocks!

A good case for using a full rain cover and some foam protection for the on board mic. I'm paranoid about dirt too, it causes tape dropouts. Out on airfields I cover all the switches with black low adhesive tape.

I'm somewhat surprised they let you set up that close. Not the same situation, but years ago in Canberra shrapnel decapitated a young girl watching the old hospital during a *controlled* blow up.

Cheers.

Dust in the Wind

Funny... someone told me recently that there's a lot of dust on my A1... thanks to you maybe i'll find a minute to clean it up :-) and i've finally decided on buying UV filter :-).

Wow.
Excellent shots, I'm sure the A1 will live to shoot another day.
The wide angle recap shot from the side showing the A1's location amidst the raining dust was amazing.

Awesome shot! Next time, I'd suggest protecting it with some Camera Body Armor from Portabrace (CBA-XHAG1) and it would be no worse for wear!

And keep a spare UV filter handy in case you scratch the existing one when trying to clean off the dust!

Would it be insensitive for me to ask what preset you used :) . Footage looked great though.

Now THAT was some dynomite footage!

I think it should have survived just fine... Watch dirty jobs... They put there Z1U's through some serious crap... (No punn intended..)

Hey everyone,

Thanks heaps for all the comments and the great title suggestions. I'll try to answer most people's questions ....

In terms of damage, my thoughts are that the camera is a write-off. It's not just dust but dirt, grit and acidic chemicals used in the explosion that are in every crack and crevice of the camera. I would think the camera would have to be stripped bare and every inch of it cleaned - even then it'd be tough to trust it for future work. Check out the photos attached to this post.

The function wheel is almost impossible to turn plus all the rings (focus, zoom, iris) crunch a bit when used.

It still seems to work - i.e. turn on - but I'm not wanting to mess with it too much until I sort out the insurance side of things.

Regarding protection for the camera ... filming the blast was a last minute thing that wasn't planned for so there wasn't much we could do .... and we didn't really think it would be that bad. We were also about 10 hours from home in the middle of nowhere with no nearby camera shops ;) The UV filter most definitely saved the lens I'd say - if it can be taken off without scratching the lens.

Safety-wise, only the cameras were allowed within the blast exclusion zone. Everyone else was at least 1km away from the blast. I watched the mushroom cloud come over the horizon from my position.

Technically .... No preset used, all raw from the cameras. Auto sound levels with some limiting in post so as to not blow up people's speakers. AGC was turned off - gain set to -3db.

Here's a list of all the title suggestions so far ... feel free to add more:

"from dust till dawn"
"Did you just fart.....?"
"Mint XH A1 - Low Hours - Never Used for Capture"
"Have'n a blast with my new XH A1"
"Done blowed up!"
"Ka-blammo!"
"Canon XHA1... it's da bomb!"
"Real man's camera - not for wusses."
"The A1 really rocks!"
"Dust in the Wind"
"Now THAT was some dynomite footage!"
"Another One Bites the Dust"

Hey Matthew...........
 

The one on the left sort of looks like mine after sitting around for a few weeks, cleans up real good wth a half hour of industrious vacuuming and brushing.

My rarely used XL1s looks heaps worse and still works like a charm.

Don't be too quick to write it off (unless the insurance company is willing to play ball and replace it with a new one).

Camera abuse?

Nah, benign neglect, coupled with complete indolence.


CS

That's a lot of effort to make a camera looked aged :P just kidn!.

Wondering what was going through your mind watching your cam disappear in the dust?

Yep, hours and hours in Photoshop to achieve that ;)

What was going through my head ....? Well, initially as I felt the ground shake from the blast, felt the air move and watched the mushroom cloud billowing over the horizon I was thinking "Oh man, that's cool".

After a moment it was ... "Oh man ... my camera is right in the middle of that mushroom cloud ... and there's nothing I can do about it. As long as the tape survives it won't be for nothing."

I think that's about it :)

I think in advertising it for sale you need to just be careful were you put comma's and full-stops etc:

Canon XH - A1 condition, fair offers considered

or is it...

Canon XH-A1. Condition fair, offers considered


The Canon XH-A1 - it's a blast!

That's pretty funny... How long were you sitting there coming up with that one? Ha.. Thanks for the laugh...

That was pretty sweet, I'm not gonna lie. Sorry about the camera!

Rub some dirt on it.

The shot reminded me of spaghetti westerns by Sergio Leone.
The Good the Bad and the Ugly has a shot like that and also a Fistfull of Dynamite i think.
I don't know if its the Ed Wood in me, but I would have been so tempted to use the shot in a movie. Build something around it.
Show the explosion and the a reaction shot, kinda like:
"Think you used enough dynamite there Butch?"
:)

The Director said: "Get in the action, I want a CLOSEUP!".

Great footage!!!! Shame about the A1 but hey that's what insurance is for!

At this point, I'm thinking that you should give it to the local school board as a donation and write it off on your taxes...

Very cool explosion there, looks sweet...

Meh just throw that A1 in the washer...then in the dryer, you'll be all good.