Don, good luck and I'm glad you found a good past time (still photography) in your retirement. But you don't need to be a stranger here and bid farewell. We have our own, small still community here at Dv Info. Many of the same familiar names are there and plenty of experienced photo people too (most of them Canon shooters, by the way). I teach digital photography at a local art school and college. I welcome any of your questions and comments on our forum.

Jim,

The increased sensitivity was one of the selling points on the XL1-s. I believe the figure was around 4db increase. The XL1-s also has true SMPTE bars and an improved IS II lense just to name a few.

So, you should definitely see a difference between the two cameras. Also, keep in mind that the original doesn't allow picture setup controls and you will have to color match the XL1-s to the XL1. Fortunately, they tend to run pretty close together in that respect.

regards,

-gb-

Many thanks Don, as Jeff says, we hope to see you in our Still Crazy forum. Best of luck!

Your right about matching. The XL1s had no problem matching the XL1 which was the "A" camera. But I was surprised at how the XL1s was always closed down about a stop more than the XL1.

I also jealously noticed it didn't shut off automatically.

Audio monitoring
 

Is there any way to monitor the audio on the XL1 through the viewfinder? I've been shooting non-stop on a doc and several times we had sound malfunctions. Human error and technical problems caused several interviews to be lost. It was very frustrating.

On many occasions I cannot wear a headset because I'm operating in a car or such and it is impossible. Hand held shooting makes it difficult to wear a headset. Plus, very often, I cannot hear much through the headphone output anyway.

I have a sound mixer but he only monitors the mix and not whether the sound is actually getting to the tape from the wireless when he is booming. The responsibility seems to lie with the camera op but very often I am busy operating handheld and all too often don't consider the sound.

I realize I can look look out to the meter on the body but many times I don't until we are well into it. Is there another technical way for the SOUND person to monitor the audio when transmitting a wireless to the MA 100?

Any ideas??

Try a second wireles on a different frequency and transmit from the camcorder headphone jack output to a receiver at the wireless operator. You will have to match the headphone jack output level to t he wireless transmitter input, which often is MIC level.

Battery Packs for the xl1 (generic)
 

Does anyone know about anything negative coming from using generic battery packs? you can get 6000mAh by going with a non canon battery. They claim to be 100% safe and compatible with the xl1s. claim... psht. i need facts.

I don't know anything about generic brands if that is the same like
unknown brand.

I do, as have others, experience with Lenmar which has worked great.

A search yielded this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=27342

Sennheiser on Canon GL2 (XM2)
 

Hello from sunny Devon in SW England, this is the first time I have posted here, although reading many of the posts has been most enlightening.
I read here about Sennheiser ME66/K6 being a good combination to use with Canon XM2. I think I will go in this direction. question I have is this: If I use Beachtek DXA4 to connect it to camera, it uses internal power, with limited XLR lead length/performance. If I use Beachtek DXA6, I will get phantom power with all its advantages, but have to keep buying 9volt batteries.
Opinions, anyone?
tia,
NigelCH

It Ate My Tape!
 

Now what...
I'm just rewinding my standard Sony PRL-60 single use tape and the XL1s stops and the power light is flashing.

I go to open the tape door and the tape lifts out with a tape tail going into the drive.

The edge of the tape is wrinkled for about four inches, can I still use this tape to get the images off it? If not, does anyone have any idea how to retrieve the video by another method?

More importantly, what would cause this to happen?

I have only run about 60 hours of tape through it so far and have never used a tape a second time or used any other tape than the Sony.

I played another tape and rewound it in the XL1s without incident but now the timeline counter flickers during the rewind.

Thanks in advance for any information.

Brian

any way to modify VL mounts to use on xl's?
 

just wondering out loud if there is anyway to modify the old VL lenses to use on th xl1's?
(theyre so cheap on ebay!)

probably not but i thought i'd try!

thanks
marc

No. See this page for an explanation.

camera backpack
 

Hi there

I am about to embark on a 3 month backpacking journey from Australia to Mozambique, South America and Nth America then home to New Zealand. I have recently bought a CANON Xl1s to document my trip and am looking for a suitable travel backpack for my camera. I want to look as poor as possible during my trip so my gear doesn't get stolen. Does anyone know of an excellent backpack for this particular camera? I have been to the LOWEPRO website but there packs look a bit small. Any other travel advice would be much appreciated as well.

Thanks Krissy

Do you want something for your camera and your regular gear or just the camera?

For just the camera I have the Lowe Photo Trekker Classic and it has carried my XL1 since 99 with no problems. You have to break the cam down but everything fits inside as well as tapes, extra batteries, cables, and, headphones. There are also two pockets on the outside for other gear and plenty of straps and loops.

Where is the Serial # located?
 

Well, it looks like I'll need to send in my XL1S for some type of service. I need to find the serial number for the camera, but I've looked an can't find it.


Does anyone know where the serial number is located on the XL1S?



Thanks,

Erik