XH A1 Pal version. i50/60
 

Hello,
I just bought my XH A1 today, and I am a complete beginner when it comes to cameras of this complexity. (Just warning you that my question may be horribly inane..)

I live in Norway, so I live in a PAL-country. When i started my XH A1, go into the menu -> Signal setup -> Frame rate, I onyl get to choose between 50i and 25F. Now, this may seem completely redicilous to most of you, but shouldn't I be able to shoot in 60i/25F with this camcorder?

This leaves me with two options; a) I have misunderstood this whole concept of framerate, or b) My camcorder is not made for PAL...

Any help? And please don't shoot me for being stupid here, I'm just trying to get started! And thanks a lot for all the sample-footage and discussions in here that led me to this purchase! :)

Hi Henrik,

Everything seems as it should be...

Since you live in PAL-land, your XH A1 is ready to shoot 50i and 25F.

You have the option to add the NTSC-land frame rates of 60i, 30F and 24F if you want. It is a trip to Canon service and a fee of about $500 USD. I'm not sure what the cost translates to in Euros these days.

Hope this helps,

hehe Yes, now I feel even more silly than when I asked a question I thought was silly. :p

Just a little brainfart, I actually knew that PAL was 25, what threw me off was that I expected the PAL version to be able to record in both formats, since it is more expensive... I expected i50, i60, F25 and F30, so when I only got two options I figured there was something wrong.

Sorry for that, and thank you for getting me back on track! ;)

What's cool Henrik is you can have all of those frame rates if you want them... all you have to do is spend more money... in my opinion the upgrade is a little too expensive, it should not have to cost so much, but at least the option is there if you want it!

Canon in Spain asks 400€ for the "upgrade". I guess is the same in all Europe.

I patiently wait for a "leak" in internet to be able to get all the possiblities of the camera. Come on Canon! We already spent more than 3000 euros!!!

Henrik,

I just had my A1 that I bought in the US PAL-ified. Serviceproffen in Oslo can help you out - they helped me, or you can (probably) take a trip to Canon RCC in Gothenburg. Total cost for the software upgrade and shipping and whatnot was a little over NOK 5000.- for me. It took a little while for me to make Serviceproffen understand what I needed, but eventually they took care of it all. Basically I handed my A1 over to them, they sent it to Canon in Sweden. Canon did the actual software upgrade and sent it back. Total turnaround time was about a month. Slow, yes, but I didn't mind since I didn't need to use the A1 for a while. Now I have it all - 24F, 25F, 30F, 50i & 60i.

Ah, thank you for the information.

I don't think I'll be doing that upgrade for a while, as my use won't require much apart from what I have. Do you use the other framerate/modes? if so, what for?

Well, I have no plans. But I go to the US on a regular basis, and if I do bring it with me, at least I'm ready for those fluorescents. ;)

Also, a friend in the US has one, so if we need to cooperate on something, I'm ready to use the same frame rates as him.