Welcome to the forum M. Scott. I am sorry that you found us under less than ideal circumstances. Perhaps while your camera is being repaired or exchanged, you can make use of the forum to bring yourself up to speed on this great camera. We welcome questions from new folks and veterans alike so ask away!

regards,

-gb-

B&H should be able to send you a new camera when you are
sending this one to them. Just phone them up and talk them
through this issue and express your problem that you need it
fast (and paid for overnight shipping) and now you can't use it.

Scott,

Sorry to hear of your bad luck but that's what it is. You are the victim of "infant mortality" the phenomenon by which electronics are much more likely to fail early in their life cycles. Because of this most manufacturers "burn in" their products which usually involves continuous operation at elevated temperature for a couple of days. At the end of this period most of the systems destined to fail early on in life will have failed but not all. You, unfortunately, got one of the exceptional ones. With this in mind, I'd say the Cannon cameras are reasonably reliable. You won't find many reports of failure here though there are some.

Since it's only the viewfinder and you are able to work with the camera through an external monitor you might want to consider negotiating the return of only the viewfinder so you can at least go through familiarization while waiting for the replacement.

I know how frustrating this must be.

An update on my dead-on-arrival XL2: I returned the dud to B&H and a new one is en route now -- it should arrive Monday. If it works I'll be quite happy. B&H handled the return pretty smoothly -- I was afraid it would take them longer to send a new one out.

For some reason, every LCD display I buy out of my own pocket seems to have a dead pixel (e.g., the past two Apple Cinema Displays I've bought, along with a 12" PowerBook I just bought). Every LCD display I've purchased at work (not on my own dime) over the past few years has been free of dead pixels. The XL2 had 200,000 dead pixels, so I really think there might be something going on with me and LCD's. I'd recommend that no one have me purchase an LCD display for them. :-)

Thanks again for the tips and encouragement -- I can't wait to get my hands on the XL2 and see what it can do.

- Scott

Why does my in stock viewfinder look so much brighter than my Monitor. How can I correct that

Im getting very contrasty images out of my XL2, is there a way to flatten out the contrast.

If it looks fine on the camera, it could be the monitor or hardware settings. You should check the basic settings on the xl2 for the contrast problem; it mostly depends what mode you shot in; manual mode: you have total control over the image.

Thru the eyepiece the XL2 monitor is junk. Try flipping up the magnifier to get a better idea, still not great though and not good for focus. Until you get a better feel for it, you really need an externla monitor when shooting...




ash =o)

Eduardo, the EVF display can be adjusted through menu settings. I "calibrated" mine using my TV monitor as a reference, and adjusted the EVF until the image looked as close as possible to what was displayed on hte monitor. Before I did that, I tended to produce rather dull video because what looked right on the EVF was actually not bright enough on other displays.

Richard

Correct, that is the best thing to do... hook it live to a TV and adjust the LCD as close as possible...



ash =o)

Hi,
I was running some "tests" yesterday -- playing with the camera settings. I noticed that purple does not show up in the color viewfinder on the XL2, it shows up as blue.
Any ideas why? Does it have to do with RGB / CYMK? It seems to show up ok on the television when I play it back, but not in a saturated purple sense. All the other colors show up great (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, white and black).

I did this outside (all natural light, where I normally shoot) and was taking shots of a clematis (a deep purple flower, for those of us garden-challenged people :) ) I tried all three of my lenses (the 20x, the 3x, and the 16x servo -- none of which provided good purple results).

Anyway, I've also heard that purples are in general difficult to photograph -- any ideas on filters or gadgets to correct this?

Thanks a bunch!
Tracy

Tracy, did you try to set the aperture? I've noticed that when shooting sun set or sun rise, the colors in the viewfinder depend on how open the aperture is. For example, if the sky is light yellow, but the aperture is too small, in the viewfinder the sky appears orange. The settings of the knee and black may also affect the colors.

Tracy, this sounds odd. Just last week-end I was with Bruce, a friend and member here. Using his XL2, we shot the Macbeth color chart, which has purple on it, and the color came out on the studio monitor beautifully.

Something to keep in mind... The color view finder on the XL2 is not the best in the world (it's not the worst, either). You can't determine color fildelity with this view finder. The only way to determine color correctness is by viewing the results on a monitor (or TV if you don't have an NTSC monitor).

Step up the shot again, adjust for your proper white balance and exposure, record the image, and look at it on your studio monitor or TV. You'll see a huge difference, as well as your purple!

Jay

is the lit speck in the viewfinder on my xl2 normal or fault.



thankyou

Is it on the inside of the viewfinder or outside? have you tried, and this is a dumb question, forgive me for asking, to clean it to see if it's a speck of dust?....

Lucinda, Congrats on "Major Player" status! (BTW, Chris or Moderators, the page that used to define the status levels now has definitions of Smilies)

Senan, If the speck is illuminated then I would suspect it is a blown pixel in the viewfinder. If so, it will/may be distracting, but won't cause any degradation of your recorded imagery. To test this, just replay some recorded imagery on a computer or TV or monitor. If you see the same illuminated pixel on the playback, its on the acquisition CCD and will require repair at the Canon facility.

Hi Pat,

What does this mean?

Lucinda, Congrats on "Major Player" status! (BTW, Chris or Moderators, the page that used to define the status levels now has definitions of Smilies)


I'm totally confused.......and it can't be just the heat!

Lucinda,

When I posted the message yesterday, your "Status" (directly under your name) had just changed to "Major Player" since it was your 100th post.

There used to be a page in the FAQ that described the different Status titles and posts necessary to achieve each Status level. Its gone onw and I was just bringing it to the attention of the forum moderators. I think the page was auto-replaced when they did the upgrade to this version of vBulletin, but Chris might have just pulled it down on purpose.

Ah....well, you see that I haven't paid much attention to the finer details. Just trying to learn about the XL2 and its details. Thanks for letting me know.

For Patrick, it was lost in the forum sw upgrade; its replacement is just another item on my lengthy "to do" list.

I feel so slighted.....ha.

In hot and humid Singapore, I managed to get some perspiration on the EVF lens. I was able to clean it up reasonably well using lens tissue and cleaning fluid, however the lens is recessed inside the EVF housing and access is difficult. I would really like to get inside to give it a proper cleaning.

I can remove (and replace) the rubber eye cup no problem, but then there is a plastic housing that looks a bit trickier to deal with. Does anyone know if this is supposed to be easily dismantled (and how to do it)? If not, any other tips for cleaning the EVF lens?

Richard

I just purchased a new XL2 and received it via parcel post yesterday. It's a wonderful piece of kit, but there seems to be something stuck in the viewfinder. Please have a look at some pictures I took at http://canonxl2.shutterfly.com and let me know if you have any ideas on what the problem may be and what I can do to fix it. I need to use the camera this weekend, so sending it back isn't really an option.

Thanks in advance!

Steve,

Don't get mad for me saying this, I'm really trying to help.

You know that the viewfinder has a button on the bottom that lets you swing the eyepiece optics up and out of the way so that you can view the 2" LCD display in the viewfinder directly.

It looks like a piece of packing tape is still between the viewfinder optics and the viewfinder screen.

If you already confirmed this isn't the case, I apologize, and I can't make out from the pictures what it might be.

Push the release button on the bottom side of the EVF as Patrick describes, and flip it open. You should be able to pull that thing right out, whatever it is.

Unfortunately, it's more complicated. I have the same problem, but as I usually use the flip-up screen it's not a big problem.

At first, I assumed it was some kind of framing aid, but there's no button/switch to activate it! It looks like a metal cutout that swings down in the viewfinder (it's inside the unit, between the lenses).

If anyone could shed some light on how to get it to move
, I'd also be greatly appreciative.

Mine came like that to..

It's sealed between the last two lense's and can't be removed with out taking it apart..

I fixed mine by undoing the 3 srews at the top of the viewfinder and then carefully took out each part till I got to the final lense at the bottom ..It's a t shape bit of plastic with a small adhesive strip on one side and to this day have no clue to where its from..I just removed it and have had no problems since..

15 minutes job done...

Thanks for the updates. In just over a year's worth of XL2 reports, this is the first I've heard of such an issue.

Don't want to hijack the thread but I'm curious (not having my hands on an XL2 yet), I know the VF flips up, but can the flip up section be removed completely?

I also have a new XL2 with the same problem but not as bad as the above posts. The black metal shim has rotated and in the bottom of the viewfinder you can see that the shim is not horizontal.

Assuming so far that it is only being noticed in new camera's, it must be a manufacturing defect.

I will take mine back to Canon next week

Got my new XL2 today : )
However looking through the viewfinder there seems to be a fault.
It looks like a side piece of the viewfinder has become detached inside the actual viewfinder?
Is this a sealed unit or has anone opened a viewfinder up yet?

http://photobucket.com/albums/v463/andrew7/?action=view&current=Viewfinder.jpg

There is a metal shim or mask inside the viewfinder that comes lose and moves around, in my case the metal came down in the centre of the picture.

Canon service have ordered a new viewfinder, although they could have glued it back in place, with the high heat and humidity in Hong Kong I insisted that the viewfinder be replaced. The metal appeared after only one week from purchase.

Check earlier threads as I remember somebody had pull the viewfinder apart and repaired it

Good Luck

Checkout this thread

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=52021

Thats the exact problem, I might have another go at removing it.
Got scared the first time and quicky put it back together.

Hi...sorry if this may have been posted elsewhere. Just got my XL2 and was wondering how best to set up the viewfinder. Any tips most appreciated

Ian,

Check out this link...

http://www.greatdv.com/cameras/adjustvf.htm

Although it doesn't specifically use an XL2, you can use this as a start. Just remember, your LCD color viewfinder is never going to be accurate compared to what you capture on tape and what is displayed on a calibrated studio monitor.

Hope this helps.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin.....as a newbie, I am totally in awe of the info and advice on this forum

Anyone know the price, or where I can get the standard colour EVF for the canon XL2?> I am getting the redrock micro with the image flip, and want a second VF which I can open up and flip the LDC around 180 degrees inside the housing.

Might be a neat solution.

Matt

It's available as a replacement part directly from Canon, should be around $500 USD or so.

Man, that's as much as I paid for the M2.

Anyone hear of the FU 2000 External VF for the XL2? Seems neat... (Not the CRT, but it's a little LCD on a cable).

I think it would be cool if someone (hopefully Canon's listening) designed an LCD that mounted in the place the current EVF is mounted/connected. It could attach using the same mount and they could make it like 4.5-5 inches - now that would be great.

The FU 2000 is like that, but I want to know if it attaches to the XL2 or jsut the XL H1

XL H1 only. It is not compatible with any of the earlier XL models.

GAH! It seems like such a great little screen!

Hmmm. Slowley running out of options....

I'm just curious, what happened to your original XL2 color EVF? Because your XL2 was supposed to ship with one in the first place. Wait a minute, this isn't for an XL1 or XL1S, is it? Because the XL2 color EVF is *not* backward-compatible with the XL1 or XL1S.

I'm just curious, what happened to your original XL2 color EVF? Because your XL2 was supposed to ship with one in the first place. Wait a minute, this isn't for an XL1 or XL1S, is it? Because the XL2 color EVF is *not* backward-compatible with the XL1 or XL1S.

Hey Chris, go back to the first post. He wants a spare to modify(physically flip the LCD) for use with Redrock Adapter.

-gb-

D'oh -- poor comprehension on my part as usual. Thanks Greg,

Yeah, I am cool with the idea of flipping the LCD around, but I want two different VF's so that I have a MICRO35 one and a regular XL one.

I think it would be a good way around this lens-flipping issue, but they are fairly expensive....

Hmmm...

It's available as a replacement part directly from Canon, should be around $500 USD or so.


Chris, I tried canon (canada) today, and they said they do not deal directly with customers and I must go through a vendor... any suggestions (most vendors say I must go through Canon!)

Well, I am at my wits end. I have spent almost 4 hours today trying to find a colour EVF for the XL2. My question is, what happens if you lost it? Let's say, somehow, you manage to lose your EVF? I can't find a replacement from any store (even B&H) or direct from Canon (they don't sell to public).

I didn't lose it, but It's the same situation. I am willing to pay good money for a colour EVF (I can't even find a product #) but there are none to be found.

Confused.