Anyone notice a flicker during playback?

[Rich Prepuse]

Has anyone who uses XL1 (not s) notice a slight flicker on tape during playback? I don't notice it during shooting; just got it back from Canon for tune up and repair. I also noticed it on another XL1. Doesn't happen all the time, but is noticeable when it does. Is it something I'm missing? Is it the shutter telling me it's overexposed? Need help. Thanks in advance.

[Rob Lohman]

That can have a zillion causes, like:

1) using a bad cable / connector

2) using composite out (which is prone to such things)

3) watching footage shot at slower shutter speeds (1/25 or 1/30th or lower), especially with frame mode

4) (light) reflections

5) overexposure

6) some auto function (like auto gain, focus etc.)

In my opinion your question is way too broad to be answered.
It would be best to see if you can pin it down to a certain type
of footage at specific settings.

I've done some shooting over the weekend at 1/25th shutter
speed (I'm in PAL land) and when panning the camera some
(severe) strobing could be seen. Sometimes across major parts,
but mostly in the cornerns where vertical lines where moving.
But sometimes it didn't happen. It depending on how lines where
running accross the frame, light and other things.

I shot in frame mode and mostly at +6 DB gain with a full open
iris. As you can probably guess it was pretty dark and I did not
have any lights with me. So this called upon some less than ideal
settings.

[Rich Prepuse]

My guess it's either item number 5 or 6; Overexposure or some auto function. Those sound right, but...

I go fully manual, or sometims Av (aperture priority) setting..would that trigger the auto gain functioning? Or if it's overexposed, why would it do that? What is the camera telling me, assuming that the reason behind the strobing. Thanks in advance.

[Rob Lohman]

If you shoot manual or AV priority the following things can STILL
be set to auto (which is the default):

- auto focus on the lens (see switch on the lens)
- auto gain, see the gain knob on the side of the camera
- auto white balance, see the gain knob on the side of the camera

Basically it should not overexpose if you are in AV mode and
definitely not in manual mode (if you have gain NOT set to auto!!)
since you control most settings. But the camera tries to get the
overal level of light up and that might overexpose small areas
(like windows).

The best way to test is to set everything to manual (including
gain, focus, white balance).

[Don Palomaki]

What is the lighting and what are the camcorder settings (shutter, etc) when you see the flicker? What kind of flicker is it - that is how fast, etc. A fast shutter speed and discharge lighting can cause a slow flicker in NTSC land.