I am looking for information (hardware and software) on how to use a Canon GL1 as a live web cam. Any thoughts/suggestions will be appreciated.

Beleive the adapter is still 1.7x on the GL1 as it is a multiplier applied to the basic camcorder lens.

I don't know of a way to get video live through firewire, but if you use the RCA analog video out to a video capture card like an ATI All-In-Wonder, it should be possible.

I have heard from a dealer today that Canon is coming out with an 's' model version of the GL1 - does anyone know how the camera is being improved?

Does anyone have any comments about shooting with the built in 16:9 mode or using an anamorphic lens?

You'll get better overall quality using the anamorphic adapter, I believe. It's a bit expensive. Plus if you're going to view this video on a normal 4x3 monitor, you'll still have to add a letterbox matte in post-production.

Can you say exactly who you heard this from? Any speculation about new features will be just that -- speculation -- until such a camera actually becomes a reality (i.e., available to the public).

Yes the dealer at BestBuyDV - he said they were going to announce it this week at the Las Vegas tradeshow. He said Canon was offering a discount on the GL1 now that the 's' version is coming out.

Well, there is no DV-oriented trade show in Las Vegas this week. There's a big one called NAB in April, and if there were to be any sort of new product announcement, it would most likely happen at that show, at that time. And... I have a *feeling* that any successor to the GL1 most likely will not be called the GL1S.

Again, in my opinion it may be fun but ultimately rather pointless to speculate on new camera features until such a thing is announced and made available, which ain't happening yet. Hope this helps,

No press releases from Canon on a Gl1 successor so far. If there is a significant rebate on the GL1 (and not matching rebates on other models) then look for an announcement shortly after the end of the rebate period.

Well, Chris could be right about it only being a rumor. But the dealer I talked to said the scramble was on for dealers to buy up the GL1 at a reduced cost to finish up Canon's inventory on that model. That being said, and despite the verification of events to prove it - it was enough for me to hold off buying the GL1. So, instead I just bought a XL1s from Zotz thanks to this excellent site. (I was considering going the JVC route). I will buy the improved GL1 when it arrives - i.e., whenever! ;-)

BTW - I love this camera!

Hey, anybody know a good website for buying accessories specifically for the GL1? Can you pass it on. Thanks.

i've bought new canon xm1 and had a problem with red colour - so i changed the camcoder but the problem is the same:

filming red colour plain shapes - things get blurred and pixellated - i've put some examples here:

www.uho.iq.pl/canon/canon.html

is it a problem of all xm1s or just my lack of luck?

lukas

Lukas,
Your photos certainly suggest a red bloom. While the GL1 leans towards a warmer (i.e. reddish) image it's not normally as heavy as your photos suggest. Other than making sure that you manually adjust white balance and experimenting a bit with menu and ae (try a notch lower) settings I'm at a loss. I've not seen such a marked bloom with my GL1 or XL1 (NTSC) cams.

BTW, the pixellation phenomenon you show appears to be due, at least in the photos, to your use of the JPEG compression algorithm for the photos. Try grabbing the pics in an uncompressed format such as TIF to get an accurate representation of the situation.

Thank You for your answer.

White balance doesn't help and it's not a matter of JPEG compression (just used it for internet, orginally I'm capturing to TIFs).

So I think it's a matter of a XM1 camcoder. I'm just curious if the same problem exits with other DV camcoders (in Canons it's especially visible with zoomed black text on red background - the edges are always blurred).

Lukas

I must agree with Ken that in all of the times I've shot with a GL1, I've never seen a problem as severe as your examples. Can you go into the camera menu, select C. PHASE (for color phase) and dial out some of that red. If you've already done this, then the camera probably needs adjustment at a Canon service center. XL1's and GL1's lean a bit towards the red but they're not supposed to do what your images show. Be sure to include your sample images if you send the camera in for service.

Yes, see my site sponsor ZGC at www.zgc.com -- hope this helps,

The GL-1 doesn't specifically say this is a feature (frame-by-frame)...but to all you people that already own a GL-1...is it possible to do stop motion animation somehow?

This thread is concerning the types of anamorphic widescreen adapters out there for the GL-1. I know there are at least 2 types out there right now.

My question has to do with the actual anamorphic widescreen ratio. Can somebody tell me what the actual widescreen ratio is for a certain adapter?

As you know 16x9 widescreen TV's are in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. But I'm guessing the anamorphic adapter will create either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 widescreen video since that's the most common. Anybody know for sure? I couldn't tell from the sites that sell these adapters.

I'm hoping it's 1.85:1 just because I can use the full height and width on my widescreen TV. If it's 2.35:1 I still have small black bars on the top and bottom.

By "stop motion animation" what exactly do you mean?

It's also called Frame-by-Frame recording sometimes.

Basically, on cameras that support it you can press the record button and it only records a single frame. The recording turns on then off really quick.

This feature is used mainly for animating objects.

For example, you can animate a toy action figure. By capturing one frame of him standing. Then move an arm, capture another frame, move the arm some more, capture another frame, and so forth. When you play back the recorded footage...it's played back smoothly so it seems as though the action figure is moving his arm by himself.

Aha, that's what I thought you meant. No, the GL1 can't do this. The XL1s has a pretty cool time-lapse shooting function. Perhaps that would work for your needs.

A solution to your problem might be lying inside your
computer! I recently did a test run and as long as my
XL1S is in a recording program (WITHOUT ACTUALLY
RECORDING!!) it will pass the signal down the firewire
cable. So I could record what the camera sees in
Adobe Premiere without the camera actually recording.

Now I have not checked my programs for the following
feature or any other programs. But I assume there must
be a capture program available that can also grab a
single frame from this stream instead of a whole movie.

This way you have it digital directly, without stressing
out your tape heads and you can do it without needing
to resort to expensive stop motion cameras! Since you
will probably not be moving the camera alot around your
set it might be possible to bring your computer (or perhaps
laptop as I have).

I just checked my Adobe Premiere 6.01 editing package
and it has a Stop Motion option under his File -> Capture
menu!!! What you think this will do?

Hope this helped you out

Thanks for the replies! Sounds like software is the way to go. I'll try it out and see what I can do.

cool, just read over some of the documentation on adobe premiere...and looks like it does exactly what we were talking about. Don't know how good it is but I'll find out soon.

You can also adjust how many frames of the still image you would like to capture.

For instance:
If you plan to shoot an animation, which you want to be nice and smooth, then you can capture at 1 frame per image (saved as *.BMP)

Or

You can ask it to capture as many frames as you wish to determine the length of the Image in premiere. 25fps would capture 1second worth of image.

This is done via the Edit menu> Preferences >> General and still image...

Hope this helps,

Ed Smith

Thanks! Been fooling around with this since I got my camera and it's working great.

You can do time lapse which will allow you to capture frames at certain times.

You can specify how many frames to capture.

OR you can do everything manual...which is pure stop motion animation which is what I like. When in this mode, you just press the step button each time you want to capture a single frame. It automatically puts all the frames together into movie format. Once you press 'done' then you have your finished clip of stop motion animation.

the most common is the 16x9 somewhere around the 1:77 or 1:78 .. there is NO 1:85 anamorphic ... the true 16x9 CCD's camera out there when transferred to film are projected at 1:85 ( projector gates cuts a little off top / bottom

there is a 2:35 anamorphic which i believe you have come across and it is always 2:35 ..can't change it ...

i think the confusion you are having concerning 16x9/1:78/2;35 is that if you use the 16x9 anamorphic PLUS use the camera's fake 16x9 the use of BOTH will equal 2:35 ....

Battery usage on the GL1 seems kinda low. Only 1 hour with the standard battery that comes with it.

How does that compare to the XL1s and the Sony cameras

Clever, those Canon market types- Was weeding out the junk mail and a nondescript letter from the Advertising Checking Bureau contained- my $100 rebate. Same deal with my Apple G4- the rebate looked like junk mail- How many folk's checks ended up in the round file no one will ever know.

That's about right for the BP930 battery in the GL1. Your manual should tell you what to expect. It really depends on how much you zoom, how much you rewind, whether you use the lcd screen or viewfinder, etc. All of these functions draw power. If you plan to do quite a bit of shooting I'd recommend getting a couple of the BP941 high-capacity batteries (or its Lenmar equivalent).

hi all, very soon i'll be buying a canon gl-1. i plan on making a dv feature in my hometown back in georgia (i just found out they have electricity there now). i would much rather get an xl-1 but if i get a gl-1 i can get many other things with it (bogen tripod, sennheiser shotgun mic). what i want to do is get the best picture out of the tiny camera. i'll be doing this with filters and such. i would like to get a wide angle attachment. this means that i cannot use an anamorphic attachment i assume. because they both screw in the front of the lens. what i plan to do is tape off my monitor to 16:9. that way i can keep letterbox composition and simply crop off in editing. now i'm hearing that an anamorphic attachment is a better idea, but i don't want to go without a wide angle adapter. what am i to do?

There might be a way to have both...you should research on that. I'd like to find out myself. Does anybody know for sure?

From what I understand there are three ways of creating widescreen footage to be played back on a widescreen TV.

1) Simply film in 4:3, leaving the most important aspects of the video in the middle. Then crop the footage later in Post-Production. Then on playback, you would have to blow this up on a widescreen TV.

2) Use the Electronic 16x9 squeeze mode on your GL-1. This electronic stretches the image, which can then be unsqueezed in regular widescreen mode on a widescreen tv. OR it can be unstretched in Post-production with bars added if needed.

3) Use an anamorphic attachment

You get better resolution going from 1 to 3 with 3 being the best with no resolution loss. 2 is better than 1 but you still get some resolution loss because it's not a true anamorphic effect.

If you want to have both 16x9 and the wide angle adapter (and you can't have both the anamorphic adapter and then wide angle adapter), I would go with number 2 and the wide angle adapter.

By the way, let us know how things go. I just bought a GL-1 myself and so far things are going great.

Cute!

How long did it take for your rebate to arrive. I think I sent mine in about a week ago.

yeah, but i've heard that the 16:9 mode on the camera is something not to be used for some reason. it's a cheesey effect, not a true one. or something like that.

Congratulations on getting a GL-1. It's really a fine camera and I'm sure you'll get alot out of it. For ad-hoc shooting its small size makes it handier than an XL1 and, since it uses basically the same imaging technology as an XL1 you can get very ccomparable footage from it.

Canon's wide-angle adapter for the GL-1 is a very good piece of glass. I think you'll want it regardless of your 16:9 plans. It's very handy for shooting in tight environments and, by nature, can tend to smooth-out some of the normal jitters associated with handheld shooting. As you noted, however, you cannot mount anything in front of it.

But optical anamorphic adapters are, by nature, wide-angle adapters in themselves. So you really wouldn't need to use an additional wide-angle adapter with them. But these gizmos are not inexpensive; Century's weighs in at nearly $900.

My suggestion: Get Canon's wide-angle adapter and play around with the in-camera 16:9 feature while you're learning the camera's basic handling and while you're still discovering/collecting the many incidentals of your kit. The built-in 16:9 facility does indeed basically mask-out and squish the image to the wider aspect ratio. But with a wide-angle adapter you can come reasonably close (for non-professional and less expensive purposes) to the effect that you might see with an optical anamorphic adapter. Yoo can always pop for the 16:9 adapter later if your needs really dictate it.

Have fun!

bokkus, you can use the in-camera 16x9 mode if you want. People are probably saying not to use it because it's not a true anamorphic stretch...which is absolutely true. No consumer/prosumer level dv camera has a true 16x9 anamorphic in-camera effect...yet!

BUT...the built in 16x9 mode still gives a slightly better resolution than cropping.

Go to this guys website who might be able to explain it better than me.

http://members.macconnect.com/users/b/ben/index.html

Been so long I forget- think I sent it in around Christmas

much thanks to you guys. i just got word that my gl-1 will have to wait a little longer but when i get it, i'm shooting a digital feature. i'm on the verge of graduating from fullsail down in florida. so i'm not exactly an amateur. the gl-1 is all i can afford right now but i want to get the most film image possible.

What's "fullsail"?

fullsail is a mulitmedia school in orlando florida. they offer degrees in film/video, audio, show production, video game design, computer animation, and digital medias. it's a two year degree that you can complete in 13 months. www.fullsail.com

How would you rate your experience at this place? If you had it to do again, would you?

Eight to 10 weeks is typical for rebates.

i paid 30 thousand dollars to go to this film school for 13 months. their motto is "we take your dreams seriously". what a load! while i was in the scriptwriting class i wrote something. a script about a magnet school soley dedicated to young evil kids. a school to teach them how to be overlords. it was funny too. most of the scripts that get made into movies here are all about violence, lesbians, and the mob. and mine was picked to make into a 16 mm film. then i failed a 32 hour film history class. the teacher couldn't teach. you would think that i could make it up since it was so small a class. no. they yanked my script. then two months later the same exact thing happened to a friend. got his script picked and failed the same damn class. but he bitched enough and got it made. this school sucks, and would advise anyone reading this to go somewhere else.

i'm still venting.

If you feel strongly that the school misrepresents itself and that you have a truly legitimate basis for complaint (other than just failing a class) you should consider "venting" to the Florida States Attorney's office by filing a formal complaint.

WOW!!! and I thought I got shafted with my "education". Compared to you, my experience is almost not worth mentioning. I just graduated Dec, 2001 from the University of Utah with a BA in film studies. They don't have a motto, I don't even think they have a film department. If they can call that a film department, I think any Kindergarten in the coutry could have one. Complete waste of time and money. Of course I *only* have about $4,500 worth of debt left so I guess I don't have as much to fume about. I'm glad to hear that you're determined to make the feature, many people wouldn't be after going through this. You see for many people the excuse you have is better than an achievement, because an achievement no matter how great leaves you having to prove yourself once again in the future, but an excuse can last for a lifetime. Good luck with it.

Excuse me, Ken, but I think you might be referring to the BP915 included with the GL1 kit. The BP915 will barely last a little over an hour. The BP930 will give me more than three hours on the GL1, and I've shot with a single BP945 that literally lasted all day long with the GL1.

Quite right Chris. My error. I was thinking of the "standard" battery (knowing that mdreyes23 just got a new GL1) but referenced the 930. My apologies for the mis-reference.

FYI,

Sabah Oceanic (http://www.sabahoceanic.com/vcanon.html) has incredible prices on Canon replacement batteries. Ordered two BP-924s for $65.60 (includes shipping, no tax). I've used one and it seems to last as long as the AC-Delco 924 I got with my GL-1 package. It's brain-dead (no intelligence) but quite servicable.

These are obviosly Japanese 924 knockoffs from a Malasian reseller and caveat emptor, but at these prices it's hard to resist. Also, shipping took 2 days. These guys are good.

Cheers,

Bruce

Hey, I just found a local Canon dealer which is great. They pretty much have all Canon accessories in stock.

Quick question for you guys. Their website says that the BP930R has to be used with the CH910 Dual Battery Charger/Holder. Is this true?

I bought the bp930r anyway and have been charging it on my CA-910 which came with my GL1. It seems like it's charging, but thought I'd ask anyway because it's been on single blink for a long time.