XL1 / XL1S various posts

Charles Andrews · January 24th, 2006, 03:24 PM

Does any one know how to set up a glidecam 4000 for use with canon XL1s. I am using all stock camera (no assessories).

Need to know a ballpark figure of
1. camera placement on mounting plate
2. Number of weights on each side.

I am not having good luck with this at all.

Charles

Gordon Kuzet · January 24th, 2006, 09:05 PM

Hi,

I have been using the mic that came with XL1S for sometime now. But it started
not recording to one channel intermittently. I am not sure if its a mic cable problem or something more serious.
Could someone please give me some advice how to test this and what other stereo mic(s) is available to replace this one (omnidirectional)?

I am thinking of using a mono directional mic to connect to xlr (MA-100), but i like the stereo mic.

Much appreciated.

Gordon

Don Palomaki · January 25th, 2006, 05:58 AM

If you can find (borrow) another stereo mic with a mini-phone jack, connect it to the camcorder and see if that mic works. ALternatively get a splitter adapter (e.g., from radioshack) aud feed a mono mic to both channels of the input. If that is OK, the problem may be wiht the mic, possibly a defect in the cord, connector, or just dirt on the jack/plug.

The Audio Technica AT822 is a nice little stereo mic that can work on a camcorder or with minidisc recorders, etc. The cheaper stereo mic you see are, well, cheaper and sound quality would be substantially lower.

Henry Cho · January 25th, 2006, 01:53 PM

check out "the stability of balance" video at glidecam's site.

http://www.glidecam.com/videos.php

here are some tips:

1) get your hands on a quick release plate and adapter. this will make your life much easier going forward. manfrotto/bogen have an extra long plate with mm measurement markings which has proven very valuable to me in the past.

2) the xl cams are front-heavy. mount the quick release plate on the center hole, towards the back of the glidecam's mounting plate. i don't have my glidecam in front of me and i can't give you the exact hole, but the adapter was towards the back of the mounting plate, but not jutting off of it.

3) set up your camera exactly the way it will be set up on the sled. that means, put a tape in, take the lens cap off, level out the viewfinder, etc.

4) start out bottom heavy and remove weight plates as necessary.

5) use the telescoping pole at the very end of setup to fine tune your drop time. a longer pole will increase bottom heaviness, and a shorter one will decrease. glidecam recommends a 2.5 second drop time. this seems to vary with operator preference, but it's usually between 1.5 and 3 seconds.

good luck.

Jon R. Haskell · January 30th, 2006, 10:37 AM

After returning from an extremely wet and muddy Honduras jungle trip, I noticed there are several segments where i either get a blue screen or a split screen consisting of five bars of what was shot and five bars of someother scene.
I cleaned the heads via cleaner tape with no success. The split image appears in the camera view finder and on my monitors.
Incidentally the KATA rain cover worked very well (I think) I did get a moisture warning one hot/humid/rainy afternoon.

Any thoughts if or how to salvage the bad segments?

Thanks
Jon

Don Palomaki · January 30th, 2006, 04:26 PM

Try several different playback machines playback machine. Hopefully you can get enough good playback to piece it together.

Dean Orewiler · January 30th, 2006, 07:53 PM

WANTED: advice about XL1S battery and charger

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just purchased an XL1S used for $1800 - it has only the BP-930 battery and the remote...I need a AC charger with the DC coupler so I can charge the battery when it's in the camera...does anybody have one for sale or know where I can buy an aftermarket AC power charger so I don't have to pay the Canon retail prices.....I'm also looking for rechargeable batteries...I found a sunpak unit that quick charges batteries....is this a decent brand to use on the XL1S or should I go with Lenmar batteries...these two were highly recommended by another person and he said I should post my needs on here to see if anybody had anything to sell to me....I don't care if the batteries are aftermarkets as long as they are good and he stated that the Lenmar batteries will show the battery level on the XL1S.....Can I get a battery charger, AC power adapter and DC coupler as aftermarket products that are just as good as Canon??
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Dean

Greg Boston · January 30th, 2006, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean Orewiler

WANTED: advice about XL1S battery and charger

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just purchased an XL1S used for $1800 - it has only the BP-930 battery and the remote...I need a AC charger with the DC coupler so I can charge the battery when it's in the camera...does anybody have one for sale or know where I can buy an aftermarket AC power charger so I don't have to pay the Canon retail prices.....I'm also looking for rechargeable batteries...I found a sunpak unit that quick charges batteries....is this a decent brand to use on the XL1S or should I go with Lenmar batteries...these two were highly recommended by another person and he said I should post my needs on here to see if anybody had anything to sell to me....I don't care if the batteries are aftermarkets as long as they are good and he stated that the Lenmar batteries will show the battery level on the XL1S.....Can I get a battery charger, AC power adapter and DC coupler as aftermarket products that are just as good as Canon??
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Dean

Dean,

The AC charger will not charge the battery while it's on the camera. Nor will it charge the battery while the charger is running the camera on AC power. You have to physically unplug the charger output to the camera for the battery to charge. I've heard good things about the Lenmar batteries from others who use them.

HTH,

-gb-

Vic Owen · January 31st, 2006, 12:23 PM

That's a well-documented problem which sometimes can be attributed to contaminated heads but is typically due to head alignment issues. More often than not a drum replacement is the ultimate fix. I wish you luck with your footage, but my experience has been, once it's on the tape, even the pricey decks won't cut it.

Steve Marler · February 1st, 2006, 12:34 PM

apart from paying £400+ is there any way to get the whole adobe audio timeline/projetc out of premiere into pro tools or nuendo.

Ive tried EDLs and they dont seem to work

Cheers Steve

Gordon Kuzet · February 1st, 2006, 06:08 PM

Thank you for the reply, will go and do some testing.

Don Palomaki · February 1st, 2006, 06:52 PM

Do you mean export the audio from the timeline to an audio file; e.g., a WAV file, that you can open in another program?

Dean Orewiler · February 1st, 2006, 07:02 PM

Does anybody use these expodisc for their video productions? There is the regular expodisc that give a neutral white balance and there is the warm expodisc that gives a kodak 81A slight warmth white balance...do they work like they brag??

Steve Marler · February 2nd, 2006, 02:55 AM

i mean export the whole timeline so as to edit it in a program such as pro tools, or nuendo.

When i try and bring a premiere Edl in to Nuendo it comes up "parse error"

I know there is a program called Pro Export PPro which allow premiere omf export.

I just wanted to see if anyone know any other way because Pro Export PPro retails at £400+

Cheers

Steve

Dean Orewiler · February 3rd, 2006, 07:47 PM

I need to know what the difference between the HC-3000 and HC-3100 hard case is? I ordered the HC-3000 used for my XL1S but the instructions say the XL1S should be in the 3100. does it make any difference?? I was just going to cut foam to put inside.

January 24th, 2006, 03:24 PM	#1741
Charles Andrews New Boot Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 8	NEED HELP! anyone know how so setup a glidecam 4000 Does any one know how to set up a glidecam 4000 for use with canon XL1s. I am using all stock camera (no assessories). Need to know a ballpark figure of 1. camera placement on mounting plate 2. Number of weights on each side. I am not having good luck with this at all. Charles

January 24th, 2006, 09:05 PM	#1742
Gordon Kuzet Tourist Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Australia Posts: 2	XL1S mic problem Hi, I have been using the mic that came with XL1S for sometime now. But it started not recording to one channel intermittently. I am not sure if its a mic cable problem or something more serious. Could someone please give me some advice how to test this and what other stereo mic(s) is available to replace this one (omnidirectional)? I am thinking of using a mono directional mic to connect to xlr (MA-100), but i like the stereo mic. Much appreciated. Gordon

January 25th, 2006, 05:58 AM	#1743
Don Palomaki Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Northern VA Posts: 4,487	If you can find (borrow) another stereo mic with a mini-phone jack, connect it to the camcorder and see if that mic works. ALternatively get a splitter adapter (e.g., from radioshack) aud feed a mono mic to both channels of the input. If that is OK, the problem may be wiht the mic, possibly a defect in the cord, connector, or just dirt on the jack/plug. The Audio Technica AT822 is a nice little stereo mic that can work on a camcorder or with minidisc recorders, etc. The cheaper stereo mic you see are, well, cheaper and sound quality would be substantially lower. __________________ dpalomaki@dspalomaki.com

January 30th, 2006, 10:37 AM	#1745
Jon R. Haskell Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Westfield, IN Posts: 44	XL1 Playback Problem After returning from an extremely wet and muddy Honduras jungle trip, I noticed there are several segments where i either get a blue screen or a split screen consisting of five bars of what was shot and five bars of someother scene. I cleaned the heads via cleaner tape with no success. The split image appears in the camera view finder and on my monitors. Incidentally the KATA rain cover worked very well (I think) I did get a moisture warning one hot/humid/rainy afternoon. Any thoughts if or how to salvage the bad segments? Thanks Jon

January 30th, 2006, 04:26 PM	#1746
Don Palomaki Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Northern VA Posts: 4,487	Try several different playback machines playback machine. Hopefully you can get enough good playback to piece it together. __________________ dpalomaki@dspalomaki.com

January 25th, 2006, 01:53 PM	#1744
Henry Cho Major Player Join Date: May 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 516	check out "the stability of balance" video at glidecam's site. http://www.glidecam.com/videos.php here are some tips: 1) get your hands on a quick release plate and adapter. this will make your life much easier going forward. manfrotto/bogen have an extra long plate with mm measurement markings which has proven very valuable to me in the past. 2) the xl cams are front-heavy. mount the quick release plate on the center hole, towards the back of the glidecam's mounting plate. i don't have my glidecam in front of me and i can't give you the exact hole, but the adapter was towards the back of the mounting plate, but not jutting off of it. 3) set up your camera exactly the way it will be set up on the sled. that means, put a tape in, take the lens cap off, level out the viewfinder, etc. 4) start out bottom heavy and remove weight plates as necessary. 5) use the telescoping pole at the very end of setup to fine tune your drop time. a longer pole will increase bottom heaviness, and a shorter one will decrease. glidecam recommends a 2.5 second drop time. this seems to vary with operator preference, but it's usually between 1.5 and 3 seconds. good luck.

January 30th, 2006, 07:53 PM	#1747
Dean Orewiler Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 186	WANTED: advice about XL1S battery and charger WANTED: advice about XL1S battery and charger -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I just purchased an XL1S used for $1800 - it has only the BP-930 battery and the remote...I need a AC charger with the DC coupler so I can charge the battery when it's in the camera...does anybody have one for sale or know where I can buy an aftermarket AC power charger so I don't have to pay the Canon retail prices.....I'm also looking for rechargeable batteries...I found a sunpak unit that quick charges batteries....is this a decent brand to use on the XL1S or should I go with Lenmar batteries...these two were highly recommended by another person and he said I should post my needs on here to see if anybody had anything to sell to me....I don't care if the batteries are aftermarkets as long as they are good and he stated that the Lenmar batteries will show the battery level on the XL1S.....Can I get a battery charger, AC power adapter and DC coupler as aftermarket products that are just as good as Canon?? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Dean

January 31st, 2006, 12:23 PM	#1749
Vic Owen Major Player Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 540	That's a well-documented problem which sometimes can be attributed to contaminated heads but is typically due to head alignment issues. More often than not a drum replacement is the ultimate fix. I wish you luck with your footage, but my experience has been, once it's on the tape, even the pricey decks won't cut it. __________________ -- Vic Owen --

February 1st, 2006, 12:34 PM	#1750
Steve Marler New Boot Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 8	Adobe premiere omf apart from paying £400+ is there any way to get the whole adobe audio timeline/projetc out of premiere into pro tools or nuendo. Ive tried EDLs and they dont seem to work Cheers Steve

February 1st, 2006, 06:08 PM	#1751
Gordon Kuzet Tourist Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Australia Posts: 2	Thanks Thank you for the reply, will go and do some testing. __________________ Regards, Gordon Kuzet

February 1st, 2006, 06:52 PM	#1752
Don Palomaki Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Northern VA Posts: 4,487	Do you mean export the audio from the timeline to an audio file; e.g., a WAV file, that you can open in another program? __________________ dpalomaki@dspalomaki.com

February 1st, 2006, 07:02 PM	#1753
Dean Orewiler Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 186	Warm Expodisc for white balancing Does anybody use these expodisc for their video productions? There is the regular expodisc that give a neutral white balance and there is the warm expodisc that gives a kodak 81A slight warmth white balance...do they work like they brag??

February 2nd, 2006, 02:55 AM	#1754
Steve Marler New Boot Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 8	Premiere Edl or OMf i mean export the whole timeline so as to edit it in a program such as pro tools, or nuendo. When i try and bring a premiere Edl in to Nuendo it comes up "parse error" I know there is a program called Pro Export PPro which allow premiere omf export. I just wanted to see if anyone know any other way because Pro Export PPro retails at £400+ Cheers Steve

February 3rd, 2006, 07:47 PM	#1755
Dean Orewiler Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 186	difference between HC-3000 and HC-3100 CASE I need to know what the difference between the HC-3000 and HC-3100 hard case is? I ordered the HC-3000 used for my XL1S but the instructions say the XL1S should be in the 3100. does it make any difference?? I was just going to cut foam to put inside.