I bought yesterday a XM2 camcorder from a local dealer with 3000 euros (all taxes included-Bucharest, Romania).
I'm a Film Academy graduated person, I've worked with lots of camcorders and I have a strong reason to believe that there is something wrong with my XM2 camcorder.

I bought this camera for personal projects due to it's "small sized but good equipped" advantages.
I've choosen the camera after a long study of all PDF materials and videos on Canon website, and after hours of testing with it I can say i know the camcorder very well.

Outdoors the camera is working fine, but when it comes to indoors it's a desaster. When I set it to full auto (green zone) there is always a green contour arround objects, specially in high contrast areas. When I capture this images (Avid xpress DV - over firewire) in the computer all the indoor images have a thin green bar on the left side of the screen (no DVD or multimedia target with this camcorder).

The colors are oversaturated (outdoors&indoors). I have to use a custom preset with the color gain turned to minimum(scrolled to the left side) and only then my colors are normal as they should be. Funny thing is that with the color gain turned to minimum I should have a black&white image....but I don't.

I've decided to make some comparation shots to show you the problem more detailed. I've chosen a 1/4" 3CCD camera from Panasonic: NV-MX500 - 1300$ camcorder.The Panasonic is a very bad camcorder for indoors too, but at least it gave a real image with real colors + a lot of grain.

From what I-ve seen after the testings I would say that I have 2 major problems:
1. I thinck that the pixel shift technology is working bad (the green CCD scan)
2. The colors are oversaturated on all images (indoor and outdoor)

So, what I would like to find out: does my camcorder have a factory problem ? (It didn't suffered shocks, at least there are no scratch on it).

Too bad I can't attach the images, they speak for themself.

Can you e-mail me this pictures Lorand? Send them to rob@ladyxfilms.com

I will put them up for others to see.

Hi Larand
I bought mine from Germany (I'm romanian) at 2500euros. I got an offer from Bucharest at 4000euros.... (two years ago, true)

I'd like to see some screen shots also
cosmin@tradelabs.ro

Vorbesti romaneste? :)

I've uploaded Lorand's pictures:

www.visuar.com/DVi/XM2vsMX500-1.jpg
www.visuar.com/DVi/XM2vsMX500-2.jpg

It's nothing I've ever seen, that's for sure!

Me neither!!!
Looks like a factory return job - there's something very very wrong with that camera.

Robin

These artifacts are the result of a signal overshoot (time/temporal domain) in the green analog channel. In a DV video camera this defect can only happen in the RGB domain before YUV component transformation. Analog preamps? initial AD conversion? Anyhow wrong and to be sent back!

Send it to Canon factory service for a complete check-up.

Lorand, if you're in Romania and planing a trip to Timisoara, we could compare your XM2 with mine. (although I'm sure you can find XM2 in Bucharest also).

But I think that you have a real problem there!

I'm just gled I went abroad for mine... I think here we get al the junks not accepted anywere else in the world, at double price :(

Cred ca ai dreptate...
Am fost azi la service cu ea si abia m-am inteles cu omu care dupa ce i-am explicat problema a inceput cu "domnule, se pare ca nu aveti deloc experienta cu DV...." Mi-a venit sa-i bag mana in gat instant. Oricum el e convins ca o va rezolva cu menu service....eu cred ca va fi nevoit sa o schimbe. Nu stiu de ce dar am o mare impresie ca o sa ajung cu OPC-ul peste ei.


I've been to service with it. The guy is sure that he can fix it with menu service....I thinck he will be very-very dissapointed .

Please keep your posts in english or provide a translation. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The english text in my lat post is the short translated version of the romanian text. I was answering to Cosmin Rotaru who is also romanian. I'll keep romanian comments in the future for the e-mail, ok?

Thancks.

Hmm, adjustable pixelshift size? :)
Looks like, you have to set to lower number in menu. Just kidding..

But, sometimes i also see this effect with my good xm2, so it would be good to switch OFF pixelshift...

How do you switch off pixelshift???
How does this affect your image in low light?
PLS answer. Do you have to reduce your color saturation indoors ? (my camera gives very saturated colors)

I mean: "WOULD BE GOOD"

Canon says the technology will increase resolution, but honestly i don't like it. Even in our broadcast sony dvcam camcorder i have found this issue. On the hard edge of some object there is some pink and green shadow. If you go out of focus, you can see this effect even more.

chroma shift, or color shift or bleed (whatever - red being the most afected) is a general issue with DV. XM2 included. I noticed it with my XM2 also. But mostly in low light, on the green chanel
But the pics you posted, Lorand, seems to be taken in good light, with TOO MUCH bleeding...
There was another discusion on this issue:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7866

Could you find another XM2 user in Bucharest? If it comes to UPC (I know in Timisoara they do a good job) it would be nice if you could show them the "normal" manifestation (with just a bit of shifting on the chroma chanels) vs. the more agravated situation you noticed on your camcorder.

My e-mail adress is cosmin@tradelabs.ro, if you need to talk this outside DVInfo.net (although I feel like is good if others know about those kind of problems, too)

What we get here is not a chroma shift problem, but a green peaking (overshoot) problem. The man's hair/background transient doesn't contain color ans so does the left side of the image (blanking signal).

You're right Andree.

Lorand wrote in romanian that the service guy told him "sir, it seems that you have no experience with DV". So he (the service guy) sugested, by that, that this is a normal manifestation of DV format!
So, I just wanted to let Lorand know (in case he didn't already know) about the 'chroma shift' - normal manifestation of DV, as opposed to the problem of his camcorder. I didn't know it is caled green peaking.
I know you have more knoledge on this stuff, Andree. Do you think it could be solved in 'service menu'?!

No Cosmin, the service menu can't correct color selective corrections.

Lorand, you need to visit canon.com and write to someone. Tell them about your problem and tell them about the answer you got from canon service Romania. Is the only way you can get somthing fixe here. I had a problem with a new Philips TV that I got it repaired only after writing to philips.com. I had some problems at BRD that I only got fixed by writing to GSG from France... people here only work when forced from outside...

I've e-mailed to Canon last week but nothing, no answer. I will mail again tomorow. I don't know where should i send the mail, Canon US or Canon Europe?

Thancks for the postings guys, it's really helping me.

CEE_INFO@canon.at

http://www.canon-cee.com/

I've wrote them about the zoom issue I have and they redirected me to canon.ro... So you should tell them that you already talked to canon.ro / canon service. Tell them the all story!