I saw a commercial last night, let me set it up for you.

A close up on a barb wire fence, fence is in focus and in the background are some cowboys but they are out of focus as they walk AWAY from the fence.

Now, I know you can do this with a film camera but what about the XL1 or XL1s? is this at all possible, does it look good?

Thanks for the great help!

Sure, this is easy to do as long as you have plenty of light to work with. This is called "having a shallow depth-of-field" and it's easy to set up in the XL1 or just about any three-chip DV camcorder.

For remote focus control from your tripod pan handle, get a VariZoom Stealth, PG-L, Pro-L or Pro-LX lens controller. Hope this helps,

It has to be with good light, why is that?

for a review of depth of field, go to:
http://fox.nstn.ca/~hmmerk/#VCDOF

I was wondering, is there a web site that lists canon dealers that might have the XL1s in their store so I can get my hands on one?

I really want to get my hands on one and try it out

nevermind, finally found it on Canon's website