XL H1 in a multi camera system
 

Hi,
Has anyone found a way to control the camera iris and paint functions in a remote fashion? I want to use this camera in a three camera system, but don't know of a way to get remote control of those functions. Without that I don't see how you could use this camera any way but as a stand alone.

Welcome to DV Info Net Robert,

The CCU for the Canon XL H1 is their "Console" software which runs on a PC platform and connects to the camera via FireWire. It gives you access to every control found on the camera body and internal menu adjustments as well, including custom preset functions. There's also a built-in waveform monitor and vectorscope. Try it out for free during a two-week period by downloading it directly from Canon USA.

Robert, we incorporated a couple of XL-H1's into our HD multicam set-up. I suppose it's different for live broadcasts, but we found that putting the camera's into the same setup (via switching the memory card) and then either leaving the camera in (gasp) auto iris or (double gasp) trusting the camera guys with the iris, kept us legal 90% of the time. There are a couple of other folks around who are doing the same thing. short of that chris' console method is more or less your only choice.

multi camera set up
 

Yeah, i thought of that, but live shows make setting the iris by the cameraman a little too tricky if they are also trying to get a quick shot.

multi camera set up
 

The problem I see with the software is trying to get three cameras up on the pc at the same time. Aslo, the cameras could be as far away as 150'. I don't know if firewire can run that far.

One PC per camera. FireWire can go for very long runs with the appropriate repeaters.

I haven't tried this, but hopefully will soon, another option may be to incorporate it into an evertz ECAS multicam system. Those backs have HD-SDI input's as well as time code and genlock, in addition, they have a firewire port, all of that info get's transmitted through a fiber cable back to a base station, with the matching ports (including firewire) you would then hook up each base station to a computer, giving you indivifual control of each camera. Of course the setup would cost you somewhere in the neighbor hood of 20k per base-station/back combo plus 10k per 500' of cable. ON the other hand you could also attach it to varicam's and f900's.

If you are looking for a cheaper route, Gefen makes FW over Fiber products. See here: http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=2808

I don't know how well these products work. Just passing the info along...

BTW: the duplex multi-mode fiber cables with LC-connectors can be had cheaper, particularly if you can get them directly from a ICT-outfit that makes their own. So you might just want to get the shortest cables from Gefen and hunt for longer ones elsewhere. I get 100' of equivalent fiber cable (spec'ed for 2.5 Gbps) for roughly USD 60 here in Switzerland. Keep an eye on the mechanical specs of the cabling, though. You'd want a product that can withstand some abuse, I imagine. Speaking of that, much more care is in order when handling fiber optics cables than with traditional copper material, just in case you needed to know...

HTH,

Ron

Ron, I think what makes the cable I've been using so much more expensive is that it has power built in as well, (it also makes it much heavier). But I appreciate the input, I think that when it comes down to just me (not me and the company I typically work for) a non powered cable will be the perfect choice.