I just received this from the Canon XL/HL Owners Club, and I thought it might be of interest here.


Dear Jack,

It is with great pleasure to inform you that on April 9, 2010 Canon USA expanded its Canon Professional Services (CPS) program to include professional videographers. This CPS program expansion now offers eligible XL/XH Series Owner's Club Members the same three levels of membership the professional photographers enjoy - Silver, Gold and Platinum - with each level receiving better and more extensive service benefits.

The expansion of the CPS program is designed to extend Canon's service assistance to this professional demographic and support professional filmmakers and videographers with fast service, equipment evaluation loans, and a range of other benefits to be announced in the coming months.

With the addition of professional videographers, cinematographers, and filmmakers to the CPS membership, Canon USA will be terminating the present XL/XH Series Owner's Club Membership as of July 1 2010. As an active XL/XH Series Owner's Club Member, we encourage you to visit our CPS web site and apply for membership today. To learn more about the CPS program for professional videographers, membership levels and benefits, please visit:

Canon USA Consumer Products (http://campman1.usa.canon.com/ema/www/r?1000000809.8956.14.NMEVn60dhHpRi3)

We are confident you will find the CPS benefits exceed the high level of excellence Canon's XL/XH Series Owner's Club membership provided you over the years.

At Canon we strive to achieve the highest quality in both our products and services.

Regards,

Canon Professional Services (CPS)

CPS used to be a photographers-only club. With the relatively recent re-organization within Canon USA which combines the pro photo and pro video product groups into one big family, CPS membership is now offered to owners of XL H / XL / XH / XF series camcorders (it's always been an option for owners of the EOS series Digital SLR cameras).

Requirements for the complimentary (no cost to you) "Silver" level CPS membership are:

Must be an individual, self-employed or an employee of a professional imaging business,
that, as a full-time profession, is directly involved in the creation of images; either moving
or still, and own the following gear:

Two (2) EOS 20D class digital SLR cameras and above, and three (3) eligible lenses
or
One (1) EOS-1D Mark IV or EOS-1Ds Mark III digital SLR camera, and three (3) eligible lenses
or
One (1) XL2, XH A1, XH A1S, XH G1, XH G1S, XL H1, XL H1A, XL H1S, XF300 or XF305, no additional lenses required

Thanks for the tip, I'm all signed up.