Hi everyone, I've been reading over a lot of the threads concerning the GL2/XM2. I've read occasional posts on DVinfo before but only recently have been using it a lot. An absolutely amazing resource for a student like myself. I have a couple of general questions, some might appear obvious or stupid but i'd be grateful if you'd oblige with answers anyway. I've made several short films before but recently have decided (as a student of academic film theory) that I'm going to put some of my learning into practise. I bought a Canon XM2 for a very reasonable price (£900 for 1 hours head usage and 11 months still left on the warranty). Here are my questions:

1) I have made myself a crane for my camera and now need to hook the XM2 up to an external monitor, can anyone recommend a decent (fairly cheap) monitor for such use?

2) I've read the many threads concerned with obtaining "film look" from this camera and all seem to have different opinions. From what I can glean, 60i seems the best setting to use, and stay out of frame mode. Apart from that, can anyone give me a basic rundown of manual mode settings to start from. I will obviously experiment myself but I want to start in the right ballpark so to speak. I also noted the director of "Sundowning" 's interesting comments regarding lowering the saturation and doing it in post. I have PPro2.0 and Magic Bullet so I shall definately experiment with this.

3) Widescreen. I have noticed how much of a difference producing a widescreen film makes in enhancing the "filmic" look of a peice. It almost gives a weird sense of aesthetic credibility to it. I know the XM2 doesn't have a native 16:9 mode, but what is the best way of achieving a quality widescreen look? Using guides and chopping in post? If so can someone please just run through the steps of doing this in premiere (ie. choose widescreen project or 4:3? How to crop the video to the correct ratio? etc.) Or is it best to use the actual 16:9 mode which crops the image in the LCD but creates a distortion in the image viewfinder (and disadvantages framing). As mentioned before I have only made 4:3 ratio before and very little experience with vast amounts of post-production.

4) Does anyone out there have a full XM2/GL2 operator's manual? I have the very basic manual that came with the camera, but I have seen links to a full operating manual around but cannot find it anywhere (the link from dvinfo to the canondv.com site no longer works). If anyone has it I would be very grateful for a link or if you could send it to me.

Sorry for the essay but I want to stand myself in good stead for somewhere close to coherent filmmaking :p

Thanks in advance,

John

Welcome aboard "Norwich" John!

1/- Cheap monitor. I've used a portable LCD TV from Maplins. I've now got similar one for 16:9 from ASK in Tottenham Court Rd

2/- PASS! 60i? But we work on 50?

3/- Widescreen. Loads of Posts on this one. read 'em and make your own decisions.

4/- XM2 Manual: Halfway down the page below you'll see "Set up"

http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras/cameras_video/xm2_support.aspx

Hi Graham, thanks very much for the reply. Ye I see now that 60 is all to do with NTSC, have been trawling the GL1/2 forum for the past 6 hours!!!! (I also see that along with Ken, Robin and Rob, you seem to be one of the guys whose advice I shold heed should i want to succeed in producting quality video) Have also decided the best way to sort that issue and the widescreen one is just to shoot some footage and have a look. I'll take a look into maplin for a monitor, student discount in there and i'm a pretty regular customer in there anyway. Some cheap ones on ebay at the moment as well. Downloaded that manual as well, such a more comprehensive manual as the one it shipped with that just told me what a button was, not what it did.