LCD - good for interviews?
 

When shooting interviews alone with the camera on a tripod, I tend to have the person mostly on the right corner of the picture, since then it is enough to look in the LCD to see that the person doesn´t move during the interview. But that is possible only standing on the left side of the camera with the Sony´s I have used.
But the LCD on A1 seems to be able to flip so you can see it from the right side as well, through the handle, and do interviews with persons to the left as well?
That would be a great advantage when shooting interviews for news or documentaries when you work alone.
You lucky people that owning one, what do you think?

I am not sure what you are saying here. When the LCD is on and open normally, and you try to close it without first pivoting (turning the lcd toward the body like when closing a DVX or HVX LCD) the signal gets turned off in this position. So you would not be able to see it through the handle area. Is this what you are asking here?

I tried the XH A1 out at DVExpo, and thought it was a VERY impressive cam.
But no, unfortunately, the LCD does not work when rotated so it would be visible thru the handle. It shuts off at that point.

Does anuone know if there is a "Hoodman" like shield for use with that LCD? I shoot some sports now (my daugter's soccer team) and such a device would really help. I noticed that
Sony makes one now for the V1.

That's right, the LCD screen turns itself off at that point... but even if it stayed on, it wouldn't be very usable in that position. The camcorder's top handle blocks the view of the upper 20% of the screen. External monitor is the best way to go for someone on the right of the camera.

Chris is right.... but you can have the lcd angled out a couple of degrees and you can see the image from the right side of the cam. You have to be higher than the camera to see the whole screen. You can see some of the screen -- probably enough to check framing -- through the handle.

If it is turned completely parallel to the body when viewed from the right, it does shut off. But out a little bit and it works. The lcd hinge mechanism raises it up a little though, so it ends up in the middle of the handle -- you can't see the whole screen through the handle opening -- you have to look over the handle. But it's right side up and still useful.

When you're shooting from the left, the lcd turns nearly flat against the body, which is really useful during an interview -- you can sit beside the camera instead of behind it and still see the lcd.

Personally I'd use an external camera mounted monitor, the LCD is too small is reported to have issues with showing/judging proper focus.

If your locked off on the tripod, then a 7" marshall or the varizoom swit models with at least 480 lines of horizontal resolution will give you the feedback you need, (A 240 horizontal line VGA model won't show focus -too soft/fuzzy). The HD models cost $1200 or more however.

recommended external LCD?
 

Thanks for your replies. Too bad it didn´t work as I wanted. But I hope Canon reads this and changes it for the Canon XH-A1S or what it will be called. An LCD that is viewable from both sides of the camera is a high priority for many "one person teams" !

An external LCD would be nice, but I prefer to work with as little equipment as possible - faster, cheaper and less to carry. But If I had to buy one, what is the cheapest usable one?

Erik