Cause for concern?

[Jeremy Harrington]

Hey guys! I have not posted on here in while but I need some help here.

Today i picked up my Brand New XL-H1a. It was on back order from the particular store I was purchasing from, and took about 10 days to get there. Anyways, I have a few concerns, and I need to be reassured that Everything is ok....or If i should return the camera. Keep in mind, I bought this camera NEW, not used, not a demo, etc.

Taking the dust cap off of the body, there is a small scratch on the inside to the left next to the "brain" of the camera.

I have 2 dead pixels on the viewfinder.

And every time in operation when the camera is tilted up or down (doesn't happen on right to left) A feint whirring sound is heard.

Should I bring this camera back as a defect? Or are those just "luck of the draw" problems I have to live with?

[Mark Watson]

If this camera was new it should have come in factory sealed packaging. If not, I'd return it on that basis alone. (You didn't buy it from a New York camera store that has really great prices, did you?)

I powered up my camera and moved it all over the place and couldn't hear any sounds. Does it only happen while you're recording to tape, or just with the camera powered on? Only thing I can figure is it might be caused by the IS function. Try turning off the Image Stabilization switch at the top of the lens and see if the noise quits. Maybe nothing to worry about.

Is this scratch inside the camera's lens mount? That's a little scary. Factory quality controls would make it unlikely that this was scratched during manufacture. I think some dead pixels might be normal now and then and wouldn't send it back for that. If you paid for new, then you should have received nothing less than a brand new, never-been-out-of-the-box, camera.

If you got it from one of the shady NY camera stores, and try to return/exchange it, you could be in for a rough ride. Check your price against the B&H price, should be close.


Good luck.

Mark

[Richard Gooderick]

I'd take it back asap.
It should be perfect if it's new.
Should not have any scratches on it etc etc

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Take it straight back. A NEW camera is simply that: "new" and should be perfect without a single defect.
Dead pixels and scratches? I'd run back to the store for a replacement. Don't allow them to send it back for repair and leave you waiting for weeks. Just ask them for a completely new replacement.

[Jeremy Harrington]

Thank you for all of your quick responses.

Ya, I called today and the guy on the phone told me to bring it in and replace it. I bought it for 5500 from a pretty reliable store...so it wasn't one of those "3200$ fell off truck models"

The retail person I talked to was more concerned with the scratch on the lens mount than he was anything else. So I'll be getting a new one :)

Thanks everyone! I may not have returned it if I did not come on here.

[Tomislav Koren]

Maybe litte OT, but just to comment on price: I checked our EU prices.
This thing costs here 8700$.

8800 US$.

Actually, it's 800$ costly than I paid for it in may of 2009.

You lucky americans....

[Jeremy Harrington]

Tom,

Its the XL-H1(A) Not the regular H1 or H1s. Both of those are 9000$ MSRP

The H1A is 6000$ MSRP

if H1A's are that expensive over in EU...that is insane. I feel bad for you on that front.

[Nick Hiltgen]

That whirring noise is something to be concerned with as it's the OIS on the lens kicking in when it's not supposed to. If it's not fixed it will make focusing a real pain in the rear, whats worse is when you send it into canon they will have a hard time "replicating the problem" and you'll be stuck with a lens that you can only use half the time until they finally fix it... not that I'm speaking from experience or anything.

[Tomislav Koren]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Harrington

Tom,

Its the XL-H1(A) Not the regular H1 or H1s. Both of those are 9000$ MSRP

The H1A is 6000$ MSRP

if H1A's are that expensive over in EU...that is insane. I feel bad for you on that front.

Jeremy, I wasn't wrong. I'm aware of H1A and H1S. When allowed, I can post link to official pricelist of one and only authorised Canon dealer here. I owe XL H1A. XL H1 was the first XL model since XL1 (not 1s) which I couldn't afford immediately after release. I waited for H1A instead. When I bought XL2 it was nearly 50.000 croatian kuna. Exchange rate is 5,3kn for 1US$. You can calculate by yourself. Yesterday I was looking at prices, 45.000kn for H1A, and 74.000kn for H1S.
Disclaimer:(for everybody) Yes, I'm aware of nomenclature. For now I owed XL1, XL1s, XL2 (still happy with), XM2 (loved it much, gone) and XL H1A (my new best friend).

Just to mention, 6x wide lens costs here 4.800 US$. Manfrotto 503HDV 500$ (with rebate).

But interesting is that those prices in HR are pretty similar to what can be found in rest of EU. So, there isn't much juice for me to order something from Germany or else.

Few weeks ago I was crazy lucky to find Steadicam dealer which sold me my new baby (FlyerLE) for merely 40% more than you can buy from Adorama or BH. And it will be in my hands in four days!

Actually, some stuff costs here so much that it is OK for me to buy something in US, pay the shipping $40-$1000 depends on what you buy, then add tax....

Flyer actually: Adorama 7200$ LEVLNN, 850$ Fedex, 300$ local Fedex, 10% customs, and 23% tax on total amount until now :-)) So guys, get a calculator an do work. I'm not responsible for heart attacks. I bought Flyer here just because I didn't want to end in an endless nightmare of customs and dealing with papers....
To our sponsors:While Adorama has more or less fair shipping prices, it seems that BH doesn't care much for us over ocean. Whether you buying one small screw or maybe flash, I haven't seen shipping lower than $70.

Let's just say that I'm one of the more expensive photo/video in my area. The most luxurious what I can sell goes for appx. $1.500. That's the margin what my newlyweds would/could afford. (oh, I haven't mention: I'm doing mostly weddings) I'm not celebrity people's videographer, (have I said it OK?), what means that I often have to deal with inadequate spaces to do work, extremely inadequate receptions, small churches, small restaurants, and most annoying of all: crazy traditional procedure. Often there's noting dreamy or nice there. I could tear myself apart when I see US style wedding photos-videos, and I know that I cannot achieve photo like this, simply because of missing architecture :-)
I don't want to post my videos to you guys, because I'm ashame of what it looks like compared to yours! Some guys speak "No, I didnt't want to go over 6dB...man, you would s*** your pants if standing next to me in a room that is lighted with one 60W tungsten bulb! I don't care for noise as far I can get image! Dude, we have middle age dated churches here, I need 1/15th on a F2.8 and ISO3200 to get image! Noise? What noise?

And I still have to pay H1S $13.000!

Maybe admin will lock this thread because of me, maybe it will move it because of me, but I find interesting to continue in comparation of what can be found on terrain.

Here's stuff I work with:
XL2, XL H1A, Manfrotto 161MKII, Cullmann chestpod reworked camera support
Canon EOS 450D 2x, 500D 2x - cheap bodies but at $1300...
lenses: 17-55 F2.8 IS 2x, Sigma 18-50 F2.8 2x, 70-200 F2.8 2x, 10-22 F4.5-5.6 2x, 50mm both F1.8 and F1.4 (besides 10-22 I don't have lens that is slower than F2.8)
flashes: 580EX, 580EXII, 430EX 2x
Pocket wizard TT1 and TT5 (bunch - those were helluwa ride to buy)
Flyer LE (in four days, but already paid for)

Other tripods and various stuff I don't want to mention (ball heads-almost all Manfrotto), umbrellas, softboxes and other things you can't live without....

Actually, the only cheap thing I owe is Canon's small MD101 camera which I use for capturing after my Panasonic DV deck died two years ago. $4000 died month after warranty expired, nobody here wasn't able to fix it. Besides phone, that was the last thing that had Panasonic logo on itself.

Phew, I'm angry now and what I wrote doesn't make me calm down...
You can spit on me now. Go ahead.