Lack of reliable info
 

Well I hired an XLH1 for a shoot and was very impressed. Grateful for the advice and knowledge of this forum. But I would like to bemoan in general the lack of reliable info about this camera that is available online. I read half a dozen reviews of the camera talking up the "magnify" feature as a focus aid. Not one of them mentioned that it was inoperable while recording to tape. Man I miss the old XL1 watchdog it only provided 1% of the info available now on the XLH1 but you could rely on 99% of it.

The old Watchdog was the result of many experienced shooters sending in tips for the site. Our message boards have more or less replaced that process, so consider this forum as your new Watchdog.

The user manual is always a good place to start. Although I wouldn't give particularly high marks for the user manual of any Canon camera I've owned, the magnify feature, its use, and the limitation you mention are all there in the XL H1 manual (which is also available online), pages 53-54. Between the Watchdogs and the DVi forums, there aren't very many questions that don't have ready answers. And as Chris pointed out, the forums are ideal for contributing new information and tips, but I'll bet if you wrote up some additions to the H1 Watchdog, Chris would gladly accept them.