XL2 System Isolator

[Paul Gallagher]

Hi all,
I was at a wedding yesterday as a guest, and of course got talking to the video man, he too had a XL2 and I was talking to him about how front heavy they are and he showed me 2 things he had done to help centre the weight more.
1) He fitted the CH 910 dual charger to the back and
2) he owned from his earlier XL1 and 1s models an adaptor that fitted onto the viewfinder that put the view finder more towards the front of the camera so the weight at the front can be centred more and it sat on my shoulder great, very well balanced.
He couldn't remember were he bought it and I wanted to ask if any of the forum members had one of these or knew were one could be bought, I've already ordered the Dual charger.

Thanks
Paul

[Daan Bras]

i've seen those come by on ebay a while ago. Looked a bit fragile to me. Actually i think there were ment to keep what's left of the motornoise away from the microphone.
You'd be better off with the ch910 and some batteries in my opinion.

[Josh Bass]

Do you mean the system isolator? It's a little piece that goes between the viewfinder assembly and the camera body, and essentially pushes the camera body back, so when you're handheld, more of the cam sits on your shoulder. I have one, got it a long time ago. I kept it when I sold the XL1s to get the XL2. It shouldn't be that fragile (though, for me, the viewinder tends to slide off during transport, not really a big deal); it's a Canon product.

I don't know where you could get one. . .ZGC, B&H, etc.

[Paul Gallagher]

That must be it Josh, it pushes the weight more to the back when using the camera by hand. Did you not fit it to your XL2?

[Daan Bras]

article:

http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/articles/article45.php

[Josh Bass]

I DID fit it to the XL2.

In addition to using the system isolator, the viewfinder assembly on the XL2 has it's own adjustable. . .thingy. . .where you can move it forward. Once the isolator is on there, you won't be able to move the part that's on the XL2's viewfinder all the way forward (the cable the connects the viewfinder to the body isn't long enough for both adjustments at the same time), but you can get it mostly there. The two combined should change the weight distribution quite a bit.

The isolator WAS around $100, when I bought it, by the way. No idea what it costs now.

I also have some rods and handgrips from a matte box system (I sold the matte box itself). Those are quite nice for handheld work, though it makes zooming and focusing difficult in that you have to take your hands off the grips to adjust the focus/manipulate the zoom rocker. Maybe you could adapt one of the zoom controllers to have the same function.

Those handgrips were from Cavision, and were about $90. Don't remember the cost of the rods system.

[Paul Gallagher]

Thanks for your help Josh, what do some of the rest of the forum members do to help distribute the weight of the XL2 more evenly while using handheld?
Paul

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Paul Gallagher

Thanks for your help Josh, what do some of the rest of the forum members do to help distribute the weight of the XL2 more evenly while using handheld?
Paul

Hi Paul,

FYI, I still have a System Isolator for sale. I also have a MM-1 mic mount and Lightwave Equalizer in the classifieds. These three items together give you robust, isolated, wind protected audio from the on camera mic.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=69089

-gb-

[Chris Hurd]

To avoid confusion, I've renamed this thread from "viewfinder adapter" to "system isolator," since that's what it's about.

[Craig Greenwood]

I have the System Isolator, MM-XL Minimount, and Equalizer EQ-XL1 on my Canon XL2 rig. All three of these are made by Light Wave Systems. I purchased them to improve the quality of audio for my on-board mic. They certainly do help.

A major advantage of the System Isolator is pushing the camera back, or pushing the VF forward depending on how you look at it. This puts the camera farther back on my shoulder. The down side is that it also pushes the right hand grip with the zoom rocker back toward my shoulder. This forces a tighter bend in the elbow, leading my arm to fatigue faster. To compensate for this I have built a shoulder mount from parts of an Image 2000 shoulder mount and a Canon TA100 Quick Release Tripod Plate. I just ordered a pair of Bogen 521 rocker controls to put on the shoulder mount grips. I'll use one for zoom and the other for focus.

Also I have the Canon CH-900 Dual Battery Charger and a couple of aftermarket 6000mAh batteries on the accessory mount, besides a couple of Sennheiser EW100G2 wireless receivers.

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

I've been using the system for quite a while now on my XL1s and XL2 systems:

http://www.wilderness-photo.co.uk/di...up&cat=1&pos=5

The only problems I've had with the SI-XL1 is that the hard-rubber absorption pads have cracked (mainly due to heavy weight when two AT-805 mics have been used on-camera), but this has easily been repaired (several times over the years) with a few dabs of super-glue.

[Paul Gallagher]

Thanks all for your help.

Paul

Now onto my audio problem

[Chuck Lozano]

i think this was originally about centering the weight better??

if you got cash to spare try hooking up your xl2 with anton bauers at the rear

[Paul Gallagher]

Thanks Chuck,

Its centering the weight I wanted the isolater for.

Paul