Great sticks for the money
 

I love mine. They're lightweight but solid enough for an XL1.

Yes, they have a spreader and adjustable head.

Mike Avery

Good good. Anyone know anywhere in Houston where I could try one out?

K6/ME66 AA 1.5 vs 48v Phantom and SKP100
 

I was wanting to ask you all several things...

1) When using the K6 Power Module on say a ME 66 Sennheiser, is there any quality difference in using the AA 1.5v battery vs. running 48v phantom power up through the XLR cable?

2) Will the SKP100 plug-on transmitter work with the ME66/K6 setup to make a wireless boom? I think someone said they were doing that.. not sure.


I found a company selling the Evolution wireless 100 System that comes with :

* EK100 portable camera mountable receiver
* SK100 body pack transmitter
* SKP100 plug-on transmitter
* ME2 omni lavalier microphone
* CL100 output cable w/XLR connector

All for $499

I haven't seen a Evolution package like that, that came with the SKP100... I was wanting to purchase the ME66/K6 combo slap it on a boompole with blimp/deadcat, and wireless transmitter, and sidestep the need to buy the ma-200 box for now as long as the SKP100 will work on that mic, and that there is no terrible quality loss running it off the AA 1.5v vs. the Phantom.

Hope you all have some input. Thanks!

-Brad

Black Bars in XL1s veiwfinder
 

Hi All,

My wife is filming in Yugoslavia and is reporting problems
with her Canon XL1s.

Here is what she says
", the camera has four large horizontal
stripes in the viewfinder when in playback mode.
Miodrag found a place that can play the mini dv and
said that the picture is fine, great. We cleaned the
heads a bunch of times and that's not it. The crazy
thing in today when we were filming in Kalegmegdan a
Russian had my same camera. When we looked through
his viewfinder with our tape it too was a bad picture.
Crazy! Miodrad is going back again tomorrow to check
our filming from today. I have been very stressed over
this situation. "

I've recommended that she import to an NLE to check
the footage.

Any other ideas regarding likely problems/fixes etc would be
very greatly appreciated.

matt

This might sound dumb, but is the viewfinder cable securely
attached? Try wedging it a bit to see if it goes away. Other
than that, it might be a good idea to send the camera to
Canon for a cleanup and checkup?

Hi,

You might want to check out http://www.singh-ray.com/index.html they make custom filters etc. They have great phone service.

Jeff

Hi,

Usually the lower voltages causes a slightly lower S/N ratio and a little loss on the high end. I wouldn't worry unless you're doing very critical digital audio mastering.

Jeff

XL1 sunshade
 

does anybody know where I can find the lens shade that comes standard with the XL1. I lost it at a shoot and have been looking for it, but I can't seem to find it for sale by itself. any info would be much appreciated. thanx

Call up Canon Service (contact info and phone numbers on the Watchdog under the XL1 Skinny page) and request a replacement lens hood -- be sure to say "lens hood for the 16x lens," that's what it's actually called -- I don't think they'll charge too much for one. Hope this helps,

Struggling with XL1S and Shure Field Mixer
 

I'm not having much luck "riding" audio levels with a Canon XL1S camera linked, through the XLR ports, to a Shure FP24 field mixer. I want my audio person, holding a boom mic, to adjust for optimum audio by 1) monitoring via headphones and 2) watching the Shure's LED meter. Of course, all of this could be done with the camera's level control and meter but the boom person isn't close enough to see the camera meter nor adjust the camera level control. So, here are my questions if I use the mixer:

1. Where should the XL1S audio controls be set? Manual, I assume, but at what level? Anything just a hair above "on" quickly distorts the audio.

2. How does one then set the Shure level controls? For example, it seems that setting the XL1S level control at first two or three markers gives best sound quality but the Shure meters never register much past one light on the LED with the Shure level control just barely turned on. I can't figure how the boom person would ever be able to accurately monitor audio via the Shure meter.

3. And which headphone "out" should we monitor? Logic suggests it should be the one on the camera but, again, the boom person may be too far away. But monitoring through the Shure seems one step removed from what's actually being recorded on the tape?

Help!!! Thanks. DCS

re: using Shure58
 

Is it possible to use a mic. like a Shure 58 for live recording on an xl1s?
I have tried but can't seem to get enough level?
Regards
Rick Banfield

Rick,

How are you connecting the SM58?
Are you using the MA100 or 200 XLR adapter?

The SM 58 is a good dynamic vocal performance mic designed to be used fairly close to the sound source. It may not be sensitive enough or have enough output for your application.

I have used similar dynamic mics (A-T ATM 41a's) for handheld interviews where I needed close micing to help minimize pickup of background noise. I used a good XLR - XLR cable and the MA100 adapter.


Hope this helps.
Cheers

David,

A couple of questions... Do you have the XL1s inputs set for line level. It sounds like you are using the mixer line level outputs (XLR-M) and the camera input set for mic level.

This would explain the reason you can just barely crack open the levels on the XL1s before it distorts.

I find the key to good audio is a balanced gain structure.

I would start by setting the mixer controls to achieve "0 VU" or optimum audio and then match the cameras inputs.

To do this, first, turn on the "Tone Osc" in the mixer to send a 1KHz tone through the system. (This tone should register "0 VU" on the mixers meters.) Then, use the gain control on the camera to set its level meter to the "0 VU" position. Finally, using the input controls on the mixer, set your mic levels so that they average "0VU" on the mixers LED's with your desired source audio (be sure to turn the tone generator off as it mutes the mic inputs when it is engaged.) If all is set properly, the camera's meters should read "0" as well.

This way, the boom operator can adjust his level using the mixer's LED's as a reference.

The boom op can monitor from the mixer, and I the shooter would monitor at the camera as a extra precaution.

Hope this helps...
Cheers

XL1S and Mixer
 

Buford - Your suggestion (also offered by a few others) got me up and running. I shot about three and half hours today and the sound levels seem right on the money. Thanks very much for taking the time to respond. It truly was a great help. DCS

Premiere + XL1 + Win2k Pro + Pyro DV = BOOM!
 

Ok... here's the deal. I use a ADSTech Pyro Basic DV OCHI Firewire card and Windows 2000 Pro. While my computer was in the shop I needed to edit so I took the firewire card and my camera (XL1) to my friend's house who also has Windows 2000 Pro and Premiere 6. I popped in the card, booted the system and viola I was editing without having to d/l anything. Now I get my computer back, pop in the card, computer recognizes the card, but not my camera. It knows the card is there but when I plug in the camera it tries to install it as a new DV devices, now I tried installing it the way windows wants and it doesn't work. Also tried not installing it as a new dv device and it still won't work. I can't capture or dump!! It's like the camera needs a driver... but why would it be so different on two computers that are practically identical??? I've tried all these different patches and updates with no success.... please help cuz I'm going on vacation tomorrow (WED 6/19) and want to dump some stuff to show to some people but I can't unless I get this to work!!!

P.S.
My video card is an ATI All-In-Wonder and the message Premiere tells me is, "The DV device is unavailable for Device Control"