If you are looking for a digital camcorder that offers a lot of flexibility as far as manual control, the Canon XL-1 deserves a look.

When I use this camera, I operate it in the fully automatic mode and use it only casually, but my husband, who uses it professionally for weddings, musicals, proms and making picture videos, needed something that allows a wide range of manual features. He had been shooting in super-VHS since about 1988, and the digital quality has proven to be superior to that.

The camera is very stylish and unique looking, so you aren’t going to blend in to the crowd if you are trying to go unnoticed. You will be sure to get attention and comments on your camera.

FEATURES

This camera offers many nice features. We bought this camera almost a year and a half ago, and at that time, it had the highest resolution for a prosumer camera, having over 500 lines of resolution. It puts out high picture quality with extremely good color. The camera offers interchangeable lens capability. There are a variety of lenses, adapters and filters available for purchase, depending on your individual needs.

There are 6 different shooting modes, ranging from fully automatic to fully manual.

The camera has stabilization while zooming to help get rid of the “shaky hand” problem. That feature works very well.

The manual settings are very easy to reach with your left hand and have proven to be user friendly.

The battery life has been acceptable at around 1-1/2 hours. We bought a spare in the same size as the one that came with the camera, and having that as back up has been sufficient.

The camera records on tapes that are 60 minutes long in standard recording mode. When recording on long play, you can stretch that out to 90 minutes. There are now tapes available that are 120 minutes on standard play, but we haven’t tried those out yet.

The camera comes with a remote control that lets you either record by remote if you have it set up on a tripod, or control the playback when you have it hooked up to a TV to watch your video.

There is a dial on the side that is backlit, which is helpful when shooting in low light situations. This dial will show you the information you normally would see through your viewfinder. You can shoot in very low light levels and when you play that back, it looks as though you were shooting in light. It does give it a different look, somewhat grainy, almost “dreamy” in appearance, but does allow you to film under low light circumstances should you need to.

The audio quality is another plus. It records in 16-bit stereo, which is CD quality sound. There are 4 separate audio tracks, so besides the camera’s microphone, you can also use a wireless microphone. For example, if you wanted to attach one to the groom during the wedding ceremony, you could hear the voices loud and clear on the playback instead of just a muffled sound you would hear by relying on the camera microphone picking it up from the back of the church. There is an audio VU meter so you can monitor the sound level you are recording at.

A neutral density filter is built in and can be activated by a switch. This is to be used in situations of extremely bright lighting. It lets you continue to run your manual settings in the usual way instead of having to keep adjusting them due to the extreme brightness. This would be similar to the effect when you are sitting in a vehicle with tinted windows. You look out through the windows and you still see everything normally, but the glaring brightness is reduced.

You are able to shoot still shots with this camera. You can fit 500 stills on one tape. A nice feature is that the stills are searchable by either fast forwarding or rewinding. You can shoot a still and then continue filming in the regular mode, and be able to back up and find a picture without having to manually look through all of the footage to get there.

The camera can be hooked up to a computer via a firewire port for editing of your videos. We have Digital Origin Studio DV, which includes Moto DV and Photo DV. The software we use with this is Adobe Premiere 5.1. The Photo DV lets us take footage and capture a still picture out of it anywhere we’d like and edit it. The still pictures aren’t the highest resolution, because they aren’t mega pixel, but are fine for general purposes when you don’t need professional quality. Moto DV is for editing the footage and creating titles and putting together video projects. These applications work well with the camera and even have the capability of the computer controlling the camera during editing. A click of the mouse can do the fast-forwarding, rewinding and playing for you.

THE DOWNSIDE

The camera does have some disadvantages. It is front heavy because of the big lens. I wouldn’t recommend shooting over half an hour without a tripod, as you would certainly be noticing arm fatigue. They do make braces that you can use to mount this camera on your shoulder, but we have not tried that.

There is a focusing problem that we have noticed. It’s difficult to get used to how the camera focuses when zooming in and out. During zooming, the picture turns soft looking instead of maintaining sharp lines.

Also, use caution when using this camera outside. The viewfinder needs to be turned down away from sunlight. If exposed directly to bright sunlight, the sun can burn spots right into the viewfinder.

The digital tapes are expensive, running about $10-$12 each at the present time.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

We have been happy with this purchase. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it if you just need a camera for family get-togethers and vacations, but if you need a blend between high-end consumer and professional, this would be a good bet.

You can find more information at the Canon XL-1 Watchdog site at:

http://www.mediadesign.net/canondv.html

If you demand the flexibility of having control over all camera functions, both in audio and video, this camera is a good buy for the money.




Recommended: Yes