Hi,

My XL2 has died mid-shoot. It's the biggest shoot of the year for me and I nearly cried when it happened.

I am appealing to any XL2 owner within a sensible distance from Farnborough/Basingstoke in Hampshire (say 50 miles?) who doesn't need their camera between now and close of play on Friday and who is willing to lend or hire it to me so I can finish this shoot. It's all indoors and there are three crew in total.

I will gladly pay a sensible hire charge in cash, leave my passport with you, a credit card, my children (well, one of them), my birth certificate - anything you need for security.

I am fully insured against theft and accident (with Photoguard) and can let you have copies of those documents if required.

Is there any kind soul who can help me out? I really am desperate!

I can be reached on 07900 904721 any time.

Still don't have my camera back from repair and looks like it's going to be another two weeks which is killing me and my business (which is all SD, by the way, contrary to the suggestion of another poster who said SD for corporate is dead. Simply not the case).

If anyone can find it in their heart to help out a fellow DVi-er they will forever be my hero. (Doesn't have to be an XL2, I should add).

Hopefully,

Ian . . .

Hey Ian,
I presume you are referring to my post. I didn't mean to say that people aren't still making money shooting SD video. Heck, I am. What I did mean is that on corporate shoots with a significant budget, namely, a team of grips and lighting people and a dedicated sound guy (that's where I come in), I haven't seen an SD camera in years.

Would love to help you out with an XL2 (which I have and love), but obviously I'm not in the UK. But if you could afford the air fare .... :)

Well, yeah, I may have been talking about your post!

I sort of agree with you, but even so, I still make larger budget productions where I will have a lighting guy, a sound guy, a DoP etc and still shoot in SD. The point for me is that almost everything I make ends up on the web and I shoot it accordingly, knowing that it will have the hell compressed out of it. The only single advantage I can see for me to shoot in HD/HDV is the ability to zoom in to the frame without pixellation. Other than that it just adds another layer of potential grief and expense!

I completely agree, though, that if my productions were ending up being shown elsewhere then SD would be less in demand. My clients simply aren't asking for it, and on the extremely rare occasions they do, I hire.

I would hire to get me through this current nightmare, but the security deposit is £1000 and I simply don't have the available credit on the card or the cash in the bank at the moment :( The project I am working on is a deferred payment job, charting the restoration of a steam locomotive, a Battle of Britain class engine called 'Sir Keith Park'. I won't get anything from it until next September so I am having to keep my costs waaaay down!

Your offer of an XL2 loan combined with a trip to NY is tempting! It's one of my favourite cities, but I won't be there until January, by which time I sincerely hope my poor old XL2 will be back with me!

Cheers,

Ian . . .

Hi Ian,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. But if you don't mind me asking, what happened to the cam?

(Makes me worried that I haven't sent mine to Canon to be cleaned and maintained...)

Best,

Hi Jeff, thanks for the vote of sympathy! I am delighted to report that I got a call from a very kind and trusting soul last night who is hiring me an XL1 at a very reasonable rate. My deep thanks to Richard Goodrich who saw this post and contacted his friend who called me.

As far as what went wrong with the camera . . . no idea yet. The audio died halfway through a week of almost non-stop shooting and a couple of days later it wouldn't even power up.

It's off to H. Lehmann for diagnosis and (hopefully) repair. I'll report back when I know more.

Cheers,

Ian . . .