Initial User's review of the Canon XH-A1

[Evan C. King]

Originally Posted by Jason Strongfield

The Unboxing Ritual :)

My god I'm so jealous I could *beep*ing *beep* myself.

[Bill Pryor]

So you have to flip open the screen to get to the switch...a little annoying. It would be better if it were on the side, but there's only so much room on a small camera. On most ENG type cameras you flip the switch to preset, but then you have to go crank the filter wheel to get to the daylight filter. If you have to have a choice of whether the tungsten/daylight switch or the A/B/Preset switch goes on the side, I'd take the latter.

Speaking of opening the LCD...I don't remember reading if it will leave the viewfinder on when it's open. Would be very nice if it does. Turning off the viewfinder when you open the screen is one of those more annoying annoyances some small cameras have. I can live with the switch thing but I'm not sure about the other.

[Marty Hudzik]

Originally Posted by Bill Pryor

Speaking of opening the LCD...I don't remember reading if it will leave the viewfinder on when it's open. Would be very nice if it does. Turning off the viewfinder when you open the screen is one of those more annoying annoyances some small cameras have. I can live with the switch thing but I'm not sure about the other.

Fortunately for you Bill, this is completely configurable. So you can tell it to have both on at the same time if you'd like. In fact....you might be able to have it only turn off the EVF when the LCD is opened on the 3rd Tuesday of every other month between 4-6pm eastern standard time if the temperature is below 60 but above 42......that's how deep these cutom option appear to be.

:)

Also....if you have the LCD open and you swing it closed without pivoting it horizontally first, when it gets to the body it turns off and turns on the EVF.
The LCD is not touching anything physically to scratch the screen so this could be a possible workaround.

Peace!

[Marty Hudzik]

I just noticed that there is a standby switch that you rotate near the record button that seems to put the camera to sleep similar to the button that was on the XL-H1.

You can slide it from standby to lock. I haven't read the manual.....what is the purpose of this? I assume when you are recording, lock secures the button from accidentally being turned off. But when not recording it appears to put the camera to sleep. Anyone?

OK. Just tested and when I moved it to lock while I was recording it turned off the camera. Hmmm....

now I am really confused. I might have to read the manual here pretty soon.

Peace

[Bill Pryor]

RTFM, as they say:).

I shot for 2 days with a Z1 thinking that the VF wouldn't stay on when the LCD was open, and when I was complaining about it to the camera's owner, he said, "Oh, it'll do that--I turned it off to save battery." RTFM.

[Daniel Boswell]

Originally Posted by Dave Lammey

Thanks for the reports, guys. If it's possible, can you compare the lowlight picture of the Canon with the Z1/FX1?

Al -- you said you sold your FX1 -- why do you think the Canon is superior?

Coming your way shortly Dave. Mine is arriving this afternoon and that is the first test I will do.

Do you have any specific tests you would like besides a low ligh tcomp between FX & A1?

[Tom Roper]

Gorgeous Waterford Crystal clear Fluorite L-series glass, what a sight.

[Al Woodard]

Dave,
For me, I sold the FX1 mainly because I have a personal bais against the "Sony Bronze" color profile. The Canon cameras tend to have much more vibrant colors ever in lower light situation. The other thing I did not like about the Sony was the LCD placement on top of the camera. I just could not get use to that, but many actually prferred it up there. Lastly, but certainly not least, IMO the FX1 was a real dog in low light. Yes, you could shoot everything at 15db gain, but I did not like shooting it like that.
I only kept the FX1 about two months, then traded it back to the dealer for a DVX-100B, which is still on my list of best small cameras ever. To bad it
never came with native 16:9 included. Well, the A1 takes care of all that.

[Dave Lammey]

Originally Posted by Daniel Boswell

Coming your way shortly Dave. Mine is arriving this afternoon and that is the first test I will do.

Do you have any specific tests you would like besides a low ligh tcomp between FX & A1?

Great, thanks Daniel ... that's pretty much the main thing for me -- how good is the lowlight performance, and how much grain is introduced when the gain is cranked up ... though it will also be interesting to see what you think of the color warmth compared to the Sony picture.

Are you thinking of dumping your FX1's if the Canon has better lowlight performance? Or would it just be another weapon in your arsenal?

[Dave Lammey]

Originally Posted by Al Woodard

Dave,
For me, I sold the FX1 mainly because I have a personal bais against the "Sony Bronze" color profile. The Canon cameras tend to have much more vibrant colors ever in lower light situation. The other thing I did not like about the Sony was the LCD placement on top of the camera. I just could not get use to that, but many actually prferred it up there. Lastly, but certainly not least, IMO the FX1 was a real dog in low light. Yes, you could shoot everything at 15db gain, but I did not like shooting it like that.
I only kept the FX1 about two months, then traded it back to the dealer for a DVX-100B, which is still on my list of best small cameras ever. To bad it
never came with native 16:9 included. Well, the A1 takes care of all that.

Thanks Al -- I agree with you about the DVX, it's too bad Panny didn't just introduce an HD version of that cam, they would have really cleaned up. Though perhaps Sony did it with the V1 (1080i with 24p)?

Let me know what you think of the colors and lowlight/grain with the new Canon when you get a chance to evaluate it.

[Daniel Boswell]

Originally Posted by Dave Lammey

Great, thanks Daniel ... that's pretty much the main thing for me -- how good is the lowlight performance, and how much grain is introduced when the gain is cranked up ... though it will also be interesting to see what you think of the color warmth compared to the Sony picture.

Are you thinking of dumping your FX1's if the Canon has better lowlight performance? Or would it just be another weapon in your arsenal?

I have always been a proponent of the Sony picture versus the Canon except when I saw a friends GL2 footage in good lighting with the frame recording mode on. I was blown away by the look but heard about how terrible they were in low light so I stayed away from them as I am primarily an event videographer who cannot control the lighting.

I am VERY anxious to see how these look in the same light as the FXs which have been great for me but the 12x zoom is just completely unacceptable to me..

I agree with that other poster though..it definitely has a "bronze" to it compared to the Canon image.

Yeah, if these things are even remotely close to the FX1 in terms of lowlight I will definitely be unloading them and picking up another A1 along with the little HV10. (right now I use 2 FXs with an HC3 as my tripod cam/deck)

The 12x zoom, no XLR and no 24f (or p) are the main drawbacks for the FXs and the main attraction for the A1's IMO.

[Jerry Gordon]

did it come with some sort of lens cap?
Jerry

[Henry Cho]

i've been going through the manual a bit and i'm impressed by the camera's customization capability. based on looks alone, this thing seems to scream point and shoot, but there seems to be so much underneath it all. using the custom functions options, you can basically dictate how the camera responds on some very tactile levels. customizations seem to include everything from direction of the zoom, focus, and iris rings, to setting "shockless" white balance and gain, resulting in softer transitions between settings. really cool stuff. however, i wish there were a custom function setting to put a toggle switch for IS and mic input on the camera body :).

[Bogdan Tyburczy]

Originally Posted by Jerry Gordon

did it come with some sort of lens cap?
Jerry

Yes, it's in the first picture posted by Jason.

Thank you all for your first reviews!

[Jack Jenkins]

Great to get all these instantaneous impressions of the camera. So does it come with the console software? (as seen in pic)

-very jealous