Need advice from DV camera experts/ media experts

[ab]

What do you guys think of the Canon DV XL1 Camcorder?

Tell me the good and the bad. What is a fair price for a used one?



Also what is a good video editing program to go along with this camera? Is studio 7 or 8 any good from pinnacle? (Looking for a semi pro program)The capture resolution is 720x480 I think. The camera above has 2500000 resolution I think? Any advice is appreciated.

Oh, what is the difference in the Canon XL1 and the Canon XL1S??

[Eddie N]

the xl1s is the replacement for the xl1.. both are great cameras, and i believe the S has a few more features that make it better than the regular xl1..

try the below link..it has lots of great info on the xl1s (look for the xl1 watchdog link), as well as message boards just like these..
www.dvinfo.net

- eddie -

[cstegall]

ab,

We owned an XL1 about two years ago. Great camera but did have some sound "pickup" problems that I understand was fixed on the new s model.
As far as Video editing..you can't go wrong with Premier,etc. There are so many low-middle-high end programs out there that will do a good job that you ought to speak with some people local to you that work with the different programs. The higher end programs will have a much longer learning curve.


No Flame Intended...Just Observation,
CStegall

[prohydro]

I shot exclusively with those for about a year and a half when I was working for a production company. Awesome little camera. Great picture quality, while not Betacam quality, it's still way better than a lot of studio cameras we used. The 2 real negatives that I found were that the camera would go to "sleep" too often when it sat on standby, and focusing on the fly can be a pain. If you are shooting a static shot, or handheld with a static focus, great; if you are trying to pull focus as you shoot it can be a pain. We did find a workaround for a really complicated shot, but it requires two people, a roll of masking tape, and a clothing measuring tape...

But an excellent choice in cameras. If you are going to do any type of heavy editing, beyond just pulling footage off and adding titles, consider spending some money on a quality mini-dv deck. If you use the camera as a tape player/recorder (pull clips off, edit, then lay them back to tape on the camera), the heads will burn out faster than the rear tires on your Viper. I had a friend go through two cameras that way.

Although I never tried it you can get an adapter so you can use Cannon still camera lenses, giving you a big option in lenses. I have heard that works well, but have no experience with it. If you were to get a steady-cam rig (actually in this case the mini version, I think they call it Steady-cam jr.) you would be sitting pretty.