XL2
First Impressions
by
Johnnie and Jarred (mostly Johnnie)
This is a short personal opinion regarding
the XL2 pre production model I had for the last two days,
given by the kind people at AVISYS Austria.
Build quality-
just phenomenon. Camera feels great in hand
Shooting with it on the shoulder-
Very comfortable if you get the right balance,
a battery brick is the answer for both, long working hours
and well balanced camera.
Viewfinder- Very
easy to focus, big and bright LCD viewfinder, sorry could
not find any use for the “Canon open LCD/viewfinder”
version.
Picture quality- Quit
amazing in the 16x9 format. Noise free and nice color balance
but LACK the “film look” or should I say, the
different look we have with the DVX100.
Lens- Very
well build, very sharp and have an amazing tele. From the
other hand, hey Canon you are a world leader in lenses manufacturing,
and I understand the need to sale more goods, but this endless
focus twisting lens, no marking no real manual zoom, is
not in the class of the camera.
White balance-
Nice to have 3 extra memorized users options next to the
indoor/outdoor/auto mode.
Black Balance-
Non exists.
Iris- Back
to the steps days, thou not as bad as with the Sony cameras,
the Panasonic almost steps free solution is better. One
thing I could not figure out is how to switch between manual
and automatic iris settings. Let say I am in a run and gun
situation and want to know what the camera iris reading
is before overriding it, just can’t do it. Canon users
Am I missing something?
N.D- The camera
will not worn you for the need of changing N.D filters,
for some of the less experience cameraman it might be a
problem, you neither get the information inside the viewfinder
which N.D settings is engage.
DVX100 N.D 1/8 1/64
XL2 N.D 1/6 1/32
Menu- Very
extensive, some of the functions will not work on the demo
version, MATRIX cine setting for example, but the biggest
problem if the “bar” instead of a real numbers
setting in most options (pedestal, R G B, hue ext. How on
earth can you set 2 cameras on the same set to give a close
picture look, or share valuable information between colleges?
Calling a setting is not like turning the knob for a different
scene file as with the DVX, you actually have to “call”
your setting after adjusting the different parameters in
the men, other wise you will end up shooting in the camera
default mode.
It would have been nice and logic having
another start/stop button behind the “iris set”
location (see picture). When the camera was on the tripod,
when setting the iris I was looking for that missing button
the all time.
Other connections- The DV in/out socket is located just
behind, screaming for a hard disk to be connected.
Images-
Video-
Here is a quick interview shoot-out type
test I did with both the XL2 and the DVX100, and a grab
from some random footage exteriors. If you have time, you
get a much better Idea by watching these WMV video slices:
DVX vs. XL2 Interior Interview setup:
http://www.24puser.com/xl2dvx.wmv
XL2
default footage:
http://www.24puser.com/XL2Video.xwmv
<- Take out the X after download
XL2 Nightime Footage:
http://www.24puser.com/nightxl2.xwmv
<- Take out the X after download
when you are done, we would love to hear your thoughts in
the forum!
Click
here to discuss this in the forum
