Dirck Halstead's XL H1 review

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Vince Gaffney

The lack of TC and Audio over SDI was strictly budgetary. The licensing cost for embedded audio and TC would have added around $1500.00 per unit.

Thanks Vince -- now I can retract my "political reasons" theory. Much appreciated,

[Nick Hiltgen]

I agree with Ron on this one.

But first lets all remember that no one is saying the camera is poor quality in any respect.

I think though that not having embedded time code and audio in the HD-sdi cable is a little bit of a pain, in the editing world. It's all fine to have everything travel seperate but when you have to go and hook up another set of cables in order to take the audio/timecode in, and you can't just play everything back through a deck (because there still isn't one that plays back HD 24F) the cripple ware of the HD-sdi port is a real nusence. personally if it would have added only 1500 to the cost of the camera I would have paid to have everything through the one cable (hell I would pay 1500 for an update that put everything through the one cable). If only for the reason that I'm not mixing analog audio out with a digital video signal.

And who hasn't had an issue with the viewfinder?

[A. J. deLange]

Originally Posted by Ron Pfister

Interestingly, AJA does not seem to offer a TC-embedder product (I have no idea if such a device would even be technically feasible).

SDI has packets reserved for up to 16 channels of audio and for "ancilliary data" which can include time code. But the XL-H1 produces LTC which is an audio signal and which, if connected to one of the four inputs on the AJA box effectively multiplexes time code into the SDI stream.

[Bob Fierce]

Nick-
I'm trying to understand this "cripple-ware" theory. Do you believe Canon has deliberately dumbed down the TC and audio software on the H1 so that it doesn't have all the features of some higher end camera? Like some secret agreement with Sony not to step on the XD's toes? I'm just trying to understand Canon's motivation to do something like this.

[Chris Hurd]

That was my suggestion, and now that I think about it, I've gotta retract it. Too much like a conspiracy theory even for my blood. However, the "cripple-ware" aspect of this industry is very real and all the major manufacturers are guilty of it to one degree or another.

[Ron Pfister]

From a marketing perspective, the cripple-ware approach makes perfect sense, IMO. Many professional camcorders with full-featured SDI-out are outfitted with Canon lenses. Why cannibalize sales of these lenses by releasing an all-too-competitive camcorder that costs less with lens included than one of the pro lenses alone?

[Alister Chapman]

It is my opinion that the primary reason Canon added SDi to the H1 is to feed an SDi equiped monitor, therefore Canon didn't bother embedding TC and Audio.

[Lauri Kettunen]

If Canon really left the TC and audio away to protect their own business, that sounds like a rather risky move. For, if Canon could have incorporated TC and audio in the HD-SDI with no extra cost, then it's like deliberately leaving the other manufactures a chance to hit Canon. Just look at today's news of the new SiliconImaging camera. It's tough competition and no company has a granted profit or competitive edge over the others for a long time.

[Nick Hiltgen]

Yeah I'm sorry, I don't mean to say it was because of some sort fo sony alliance (though I'm not saying that isn't the case) more likely it would have, as vince said, added 1500 to the price point and that would have put them over a 10k price point, and they wanted to really just market the port. That being said I still wouldn't have a problem if there were some magical upgrade you could send the camera in to have done paying at least 2k for the option to have them all in one cable.

... But yeah, I mean come on, that viewfinder though, eh?

[Greg Boston]

Let's not forget about the notion from Canon about using the XLH1 as a studio camera in small market tv stations as a way to transition to HD. Not much audio being captured on studio cameras afaik. So, no need for audio in the SDI stream.

If this was more of a ENG camera, it would make more sense. But it seems destined for indie film makers and small market broadcast stations. But all the other reasons mentioned have merit as well.

-gb-

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

"...Canon has designed a new lens for the XL H1, a 20X fluorite L-series lens. When shooting in the 16:9 mode, it actually duplicates the wide 20mm angle of their former wide-angle 3x lens..." ???????!!!!

I think Dirk needs to sometimes read through his own Camera Corner Reviews and check for mistakes, and do some simple edits before pasting them on the Internet...

[Chris Hurd]

Yowza! That's a serious mistake. Remind me to admonish him for that, the next time I see him.