What ever you do, make sure you join the XL-1 Club.
I sent my Xl-1 for a service and cleaning. UPS 2day and $3600 Insurance cost $42, sent out 3/19/02 at 3pm. Got it back at 9AM 3/36/2002I included the $95 Club fee.
Here's what I got.
They Replaced the Zoom Key assembly and send reel.
Adjusted Tape path, and set back focus on the lens. in addition EQ ?, SWP ?, C.FG ?, and a general cleaning.

When I talked to Chris at the Service center in Irvine CA he told me the following:
1) If I hadn't been a member of the club it would have cost $245+.
2) Although he wouldn't tell me what software was upgraded, He said all camera's that come in for service get the latest software updates.

P.S. If you are a club member they will send a shipping box, with a mold for the complete XL-1 and 2 lenses.

FREE
call 1-800-828-4040
Good Luck

Sorry,

Got it back 3/26/02

Isn't this club only available to US citizens?

That's right, Rob... unfortunately it's a Canon USA thing, not a Canon worldwide thing.

Canon America seem to be very dedicated to the XL1s owners in the country; with their canondv.com website and XL1s owners club.

Here in the UK, there is no dedicated website (the XL1s is hidden somewhere on canon.co.uk) and no XL1s club to be seen :(

Ok, then why don't all of us non-US residents get togeather and tell canon we're not happy. It's obvious they listen to their customers, look at the changes made for the XL1s.

If we send them a letter, or get Chris to forward a letter on our behalf, maybe they will do something to remedy the situation.

United we stand, divided....we won't be heard above the corporate din.

Count me in! I want some savings too when I bring in the
camera!

Yep, count me in aswell!

I'm sure theres a couple of other non-US people on this board who would be interested

You can count me in, too!

Cheers,

Count me in as well,

Ed Smith

ME 2!

Hey Rob and Bryan!

Isn´t Canon Europe HQ in Amsterdam? You could go on food strike in front of their office and throw rotten eggs and tomatoes at their windows until they surrender und give us what we want and deserve! :-)))

Cheers,

If europe HQ is here in Holland I'd be happy to bug them,
at least over the phone about this....

i'll go get the eggs!

Good to see some support, thanks.

Chris, If I write a letter, and forward it to you, can you pass it on to the appropiate person at Canon. I think if I just send it myself it will become a 'thank you, but unfortunately....' letter. In the corporate world it's definately 'who you know'.

Maybe we'll get no where, but with the popularity of this board, and the fact that a good 70% of the users have a Canon product, XL1, XL1s, GL/MX1, we have to at least give it a go.

Geez...reading these posts makes me all tingly. We should put together a "We are the world.."-type video and send it to Canon.

Count me in for any petitions, letters, support, etc. This is a great idea...and it would benefit a lot of people...AND Canon, I think (brand loyalty-wise).

Maybe Adrian and I can just camp at the front door of Canon Headquarters in Tokyo.

Well I sure don't want to spoil the moment or the intentions but you'd probably do just as well setting the letters on fire and having a candle-light vigil for the cause...in Barrow Alaska.

Product support for most manufacturers comes under regional sales management. That is, it falls under the p&l of each region. You might have best results pressuring major dealers in each region. Let them give yang-yang to the Cannon cuffflinks.

I also learned today that Sony plans to introduce another prosumer model of DV camera (perhaps at NAB). They aren't talking about the model number designation (which is apparently some precious secret) but the product will be positioned somewhere 'rween the PD150 and VX2000. Gee, I bet -Sony- will have some form of owners club support for it. <g>

Ken, thanks for the heads up. Guess John and I will be camping on Canon Japan's doorstep. Don't despair our Europen brothers, we will put in a good word for you guys to.

On the Sony point Ken. I live just round the corner from Sony's Shounan Technology Centre. Maybe I should go on a stealth mission to see what I can find out.

Adrian,

Marketing pressure is the only effective form. As you might gather (from my other posts tonight) I spent several hours with some fine folks from Sony today looking at misc. broadcast gear. The regional g.m. admitted that although Sony has deeply catered to, and practically cornered, the professional broadcast market they had overlooked the independent filmmakers and documentary folks. So suddenly here's this "Soder-guy" using Canon XL1s' to shoot feature films. It was abundantly clear to me that Sony wants DVCam and eventually HDCam to become the defacto standards in that segment of the market. (And, of course, DVCam has a genuinely compelling technical story to tell.)

The impression I was left with was that Sony intends to be extremely aggressive to capture a larger share of the professional and semi-professional "filmmaking" market. If I were Canon I would be both pleased and plussed. "Pleased" because it will inevitably mean more lens sales for Canon (Sony does not make them) which is a reasonably profitable gross margin business. "Plussed" because competing with a Sony in such a body technology war may be futile.

So against this backdrop I'd say that offering a stronger "owners club" support system -worldwide- would be a relatively cheap and effective buyer loyalty tactic for Canon. Sony already offers such a program for its broadcast gear and might conceivably extend it if their intentions to expand remain sincere.

Howdy from Texas,

As usual, Ken's words of wisdom are most wise indeed. Food for thought.

To my UK and Euro brethren, I've already taken steps in proposing to a major Canon dealer over there a working relationship with these message boards. A lobby effort to push for something similar to the Canon USA XL1 Owners Club can easily grow out of that.

Haven't heard back from them yet but I'll keep you advised,

Okay. Sounds great in all... If you need someone who can
speak the native tongue here (if Holland is what you mean)
then you know where to find me.... Lets hope Canon gets
a bit more aggressive with their customers, support and extra
stuff for our cameras!

<dream mode>
harddisk fits in a DV tape that reads/writes the data
from and to the XL1's magnetic head
</dream mode>

sometimes the sunshine gets to my head