XL-1 Blink?

[John Locke]

Hey gang,

Has anyone experienced an occasional "blink" while recording? I recently recorded an hour of tape. At two points in the footage the image gently fades to black and back to normal again (quickly though...like a slow-motion blink).

Any ideas what's going on?

[John Locke]

No takers on this?

Hmmm...not sure if this is a "service center" level problem, or some quirk that can be fixed easily. If you know, please pass it on...

Thanks.

[Adrian Douglas]

It's a new one to me John, sure it wasn't you nodding off after a few beers?

[Chris Hurd]

I've never heard of such a thing, either. Is this a consistent problem? Is it always at the exact same two places no matter which tapes you're using?

[Nathan Gifford]

Any chance you could have hit the iris wheel and rolled it close? Any sources of radiation (like microwave) or some wavelength of light that could have confused the light meter?

Just some thoughts,
Nathan Gifford

[John Locke]

Microwave Radiation? Nope.
Confusing light wavelength? Nope.
Consistent? Twice on one tape...mid-way and end. Haven't tested since.
Too many beers? Most likely of the theories...but in this case the beers came after, not before shooting.

Luckily it happened during non-crucial segments...the rough stuff between shots. I put together a sample showing both blinks. Check it out if you'd like at

http://zchildress.com/blink.html

[Chris Hurd]

Okay, this is very strange. Thanks for uploading the sample. To me it *looks* like *maybe* you had the Fade trigger enabled? Any chance of that?

[John Locke]

To be honest, I've never used the fade trigger. Never even read up on how to use it since I prefer to do that in editing.

My left hand is nowhere near any buttons during these samples. My right hand is controlling everything through the Varizoom Pro LX. Is it possible to activate the fade trigger by hitting one of buttons on the Pro LX? If so, I guess that is a possibility, but I usually just have my right thumb prepared to either zoom in or out and my index finger on the zoom speed knob.

Other factors...had lots of battery left. Tape was new. It was cold, but not *too* cold, I don't think. Around 38° F. In both cases, the camera is simply recording, with no other adjustments going on at the time.

Guess I'd better get out and do some more testing to see if and how often it happens again. Was hoping this wouldn't be anything serious. God knows where they'd send my camera here if it needs servicing. My Mac had to be sent to Singapore and was gone 3.5 weeks! I'm thinking now my XL-1 is Japan bound.

Adrian, have an extra tatami and seaweed soup for a sick XL-1?

[Nathan Gifford]

Chris beat me to it. However, you would see FADE-T in the EVF. I don't know about you, but I find the EVF a little busy and might miss seeing that. Certainly the symptom seems like the cam at least think FADE-T is active.

Short of that, I would pull out all the batts, including that memory battery overnight then try again.

Nathan Gifford

[Adrian Douglas]

Always room here mate, but don't expect to see your camera in a hurry. It took 6 weeks for Canon here just to do a service and clean on mine.