2 XL2's for 1700

D

darkcatt

Is it worth doing it? I found someone on CL that was willing to sell them, but they don't do HD. I figure with the rich feature sets (interchangeable lenses, light sensitivity, and compression) it maybe worth going after.

I will be shooting some short films, doing interviews for a documentary, and so artsy weird stuff. If figure this would be a good starting point.

Thoughts? Other camera suggestions?
 
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XL2 is almost 10 years old.
The lenses are light sensitive; that's true.
But present camera's have chips that have less noise and need less light to produce an image.

Can you still get tapes?
When was the tape-engine revised for the last time?

Do you want to put your projects on the web? In that case SD is old-fashioned and a pain in the a..: de-interlacing will result in an effective resolution of less than 360 pixels high.
 
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Just make sure you buy lots of tapes online, because if you run out during a shoot it's difficult to find a store that sells them.

The only other thing I didn't like about them is that capturing the video on you computer happens in near real-time, so if you shot 4 hours of footage that day, don't expect to start editing until 4 hours after you start capturing.
 
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darkcatt said:
Is it worth doing it? I found someone on CL that was willing to sell them, but they don't do HD. I figure with the rich feature sets (interchangeable lenses, light sensitivity, and compression) it maybe worth going after.

I will be shooting some short films, doing interviews for a documentary, and so artsy weird stuff. If figure this would be a good starting point.

Thoughts? Other camera suggestions?
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They were great in their day, but not worth more than $500 each, or so, and you don't need two. Check to see if Canon even services the XL anymore so you don't end up with a paperweight that looks like a camera.

For $1700 or less you should be able to find a used XHA1s with accessories or go the DSLR route with separate audio.
 
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darkcatt said:
Is there a DSLR that can take audio?

Camera suggestions would be appreciated. If I had the bread I would get the XL-H1 and call it a day
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Many DSLR's can take audio but from what I've read they don't do it very well. You'll have to buy an H4N Zoom for around $300, or a Tascam DR-40 for about $160 and record audio separately and sync it up later.
 
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As someone who's shot mini DV and DVCam for the past decade (and my last miniDV client quit around December), there's no way I'd buy a new MiniDV camera. DV was a fine format, but it's old now. MiniDV always had color compression issues even on the nicest cameras anyway.

It may be a bit of an exaggeration, but would you buy a Hi-8 or VHS Camera now if there were brand new cameras that shot HD formats (and HD/Memory Card formats) available for the same price that was current tech and under warranty, etc?

I remember using an XL1, it was a fine camera, and is a fine camera, but MiniDV is quickly becoming completely outdated, if not completely outdated already.
 
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darkcatt said:
Whats everyone's thoughts on the XF100?
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Funny you should mention that. In another thread I was asking for camera recommendations for a friend, and someone suggested the XF100 (among others). I researched several cameras in the 3k price range and determined that the XF100 was the best. He's ordered 2 of them but they haven't arrived yet so I can't give you a review, but there are plenty of other reviews out there. Philip Bloom's review of this camera was extremely helpful.

http://philipbloom.net/2011/07/09/video-review-of-the-canon-xa-10-xf100-and-xf105/
 
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