I got my XL2 back on Friday and worked with it yesterday. All is well I'm happy to report. Unfortunately, I left the invoice which explained which parts were damaged at the Irvine Center and will have them send it to me, or email it to me, so that I have that information. But, what I learned was that a fuse did blow due to a faulty/defective part and this caused other elements to fry as well, so rather than just doing cold solders of those areas they replaced two large components and those parts are listed on the piece of paper I neglected to take when I left....it took me so long to get there that I was not operating at top potential for sure...anyway: I was told that the problem was due to a defective part and had nothing to do with anything I did in working with the camcorder. That was a major relief! and I have to say that I am very pleased with Canon's support and care.

Yesterday, I plugged the XL2 and tv monitor into a power surge strip. I noticed at one point a line going down the tv monitor, almost like a wave, but parallel waves, straight horizontal lines not wavy. I was very concerned about this. I rewound the tape and there was no evidence on the tape of any lines--I thought perhaps something was wrong with the tape.

However, I'm still wondering about not so much power surges, but the opposite. We have two air conditioners a pump outside for the water and other appliances and at times when the main ac comes on we get a dimming of lights for a brief moment...I was wondering if that was happening--a power depletion rather than a surge--when the lines appeared on my video monitor. I didn't see any lights dimming or my ac in the studio hesitating so I'm not sure that was even happening. Yet, I wonder: could this be problematic for the XL2? Nothing seemed to happen to indicate that there was any problem with the camcorder. However, I'm wondering if I should use the battery pack instead of plugging the XL2 into the power strip? Anyone with any advice about this? Also, would that make any difference since the XL2 is connected to the video monitor with the rca cables and the video monitor is connected to the power strip?

The Canon rep told me that the support tech who worked on the camcorder said that I had nothing to do with this power outage problem--that it was a defective part which caused other components to blow....but I still wonder about the above, if it could ever be a potential problem even if it wasn't before.....

Thank you, Lucinda, for sharing your experience and problem. This makes me a little less apprehensive about buying the XL2. I am really curious to know about the others in this forum that experienced a power loss and what Canon says is wrong with their cams.

Lucinda, it may not hurt to get one or a couple of the "no-name" 945 batteries off eBay (usually around $20) if you are really concerned about power fluctuations.

If you don't mind spending a little extra $$, get a large UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply) from your local Best Buy, Office Depot, etc. Run your computer, camera, and essential PC add-ons (printer is not essential) off the conditioned/powered outlets. A 1500 watt XPS from APC should only set you back $180 (or less). This will compensate for surges, blackouts, and brownouts (loss of power when the AC kicks on or due to electrical storms or heavy loads on the power station).

I use 2 rack mount BR1500XRS units in my home office at the bottom of my rack and power everything from them, even my 19" cheapo TV I use for real time preview during editing.

They run for quite some time if the power does go out and keep a consistent flow to all of my gear (even during brownouts). I have one hooked up to the a USB port on my workstation that keeps reports of all the times it has had to intervene - thankfully, not very often where I live now, but VERY frequently when I lived in Birmingham.

Hi Chris,

I use a dual battery pack mounted on the back of my XL2, have been all along and I use the ASB surge protector for my computer equipment. In fact, I was using it yesterday out in the studio when the wave stuff happened on the video monitor.....so I still wonder what that was. What I asked in the previous post was if the XL2 is powered using my battery pack and the video monitor is still DC will the XL2 be safe from power surges and depletions?

Whats the longest anyone has had an xl2? And whats the most amount of use in terms of shooting hours? Anyone care to chime in?

David

Twould have been nice if we could have gotten a sense from the tech as to how often these "defective" parts occur in the xl2. Is this a rare thing or a more common one?

I suppose its doesn't matter. It will either happen or it wont and if it does it'll need to get fixed. Its nice to know that they _can_ and are _willing_ to fix it without blaming the operator.

David

This is a good question and one I forgot to ask...how often does this happen? I'm waiting to get the invoice from Canon which will explain what happened and then I'll mention all.

One thing that Chris at the Owner's Club mentioned was that power drops or surges won't affect the XL2 because the AC adapter has a fuse in it that will kick off if there are any problems due to uneven current and that will happen before anything occurs in the XL2. So that adapter has this safety feature for power surges and drops.

I was concerned that our power drops here could have caused the problem I had and he said the above, and also that what happened to my unit was a faulty/defective internal part...the control transport was defective which shorted out other circuits, so they put in a new mother board/PCB and replaced the chassis.

Since I haven't seen the inside of an XL2, I don't know what the Control Transport is? anyone take a guess or know?

And, perhaps if others have had this happen they could respond....I doubt that this is something that has happened to a lot of users, but I can't answer that.

I do know that there's much pressure on tech people and engineers who make these parts....perhaps the pressure has hurt the overall standards of product perfection....

However, as I mentioned before, I was very pleased with the care that Canon provided. They could have simply soldered the parts and done a "used XL2," job, but they put new parts in, hopefully insuring a safe unit for the future.

I do recommend that everyone joins the Owners Club. You get speedier service and that can really help.

So I got bit by this bug today.

I had a viewfinder issue on a different camera and while troubleshooting without thinking that it'd be an issue, I plugged it into my XL2 and poof! No power!

Which engineer do I need to thank for putting a standard plug on a non standard output? My boot would like to meet with his butt. Oh yeah... the engineer that puts a main fuse that's apparently easy to blow in a non user serviceable spot too!

Does anyone know what Cannon will pop me for $$$ wise for this kind of repair?

That sucks. So there is a problem, then, beyond the faulty part that Lucinda was experiencing. Is this confirmation of the viewfinder frying XL2s rumor?

I can't say 100% for sure, but it seems so to me.

This was a non-standard viewfinder for the XL2 (it was from a JVC GY-HD100u). My JVC came back from a firmware update and I reattached my VF (they asked that the VF not be shipped with the camera) and I get nothing in my finder on the JVC, so in an effort to isolate which component was bad I thought i'd try my JVC finder on the XL2 and the XL2 finder on the JVC.

As the plugs/ports look and are identical I thought they'd be interchangeable. I slapped a battery on my XL2 and it was working fine. I swapped out the viewfinder and tried flipping on the Cannon. Nothing else changed and poof, no power anywhere on the Cannon.

As an aside the Cannon VF doesn't work on the JVC either.

There is a possibility that the JVC VF has some sort of short in it that would cause it to blow out both cameras, but it WAS working fine when I took it off of the camera before I sent it in and it sat on my desk untouched for a week, so I doubt it broke just sitting there.

You mixed the canon and jvc viewfinders?????? i'd say that would do it, there's no way that you can blame canon for such a mistake!

I've swapped Viewfinders between different cameras with no ill effects before.

I'm still not 100% sure that there isn't some sort of problem with the JVC viewfinder itself and if it is where my problem lies, then it might just work fine and it's not Cannon's fault at all. But....

If you're going to use a standard viewfinder plug (such as on the XL2), you should use standard viewfinder engineering. Is there ANY other plug (FW issues notwithstanding) you could put in ANY port on this camera that would cause it to blow a fuse?

Not unless you make your own XLR to 120v AC "adapter"....

I realize I might not be posting this in the right forum but since it's about the FU-1000 and is used with my XL2 (not really relevant in this case though), might as well post it here. Mods feel free to move this thread if it is judged misplaced.

So I bought a used FU-1000 that was broken when I got it (I knew about it at the time). This was a couple years ago. It doesn't really affect functionality too much. What is broken is 2 out of the 3 plastic hooks that attach the cylinder eyepiece part to the mirror/viewfinder unit. So I need to tape it down so it can hold firmly in place. This over the past couple years has been somewhat of a pain because I need to unhook it at times to use my Tiffen x2 magnifier which also attaches via those hooks. I'll spare you the rest of the details about the functionality.

Now a couple months ago I decided I had had enough taping and untaping this thing and wanted to buy the replacement part (the cylinder part) from Canon Canada. From there the nightmare began. I was in contact with the part rep for Canon Canada during that period trying to figure what part I needed, with no cooperation whatsoever. I was trying as best as I could to describe it, I even sent a Jpeg with the detailed graphic info on what I needed. I could have spoken to this girl in Chinese it wouldn't have made a difference, she had no idea what I was talking about nor did she seem all that willing to help me out anyway. I've just had it with her. She never returns my calls, can't give me a straight answer on any of the questions I have, I'm through wasting my time. I've tried Ikegami also with no success.

Now ranting aside, I need to find somebody within either Canon Canada or Canon USA that will be ABLE and WILLING to help me out find that part. It's so ridiculous when you think about it, it's just a little plastic/metal tube with a couple of plastic hooks. I can't for the life of me imagine how this thing, even with the glass element mounted on it, could cost much more than $200. But I need to find it and regardless of my efforts in the last couple months, I can't seem to find a competent rep that will know the product, what to look for and how to find/get/buy it. I guess it's the downside of dealing with big businesses such as Canon, you can kiss the personalized customer service goodbuy.

So if anybody here has the name, phone number or Email contact to ANYBODY from either Canon Canada or Canon USA that will be able to quickly and efficiently resolve this ordeal I would be eternally grateful.

Following up...

My viewfinder was fine so plugging in a standard viewfinder into the port on the XL2 will blow the fuse.

This might all be covered in the manual, but the guy who originally got the camera can't find it and I havn't downloaded it yet.

I'll stick with the standard viewfinder.

I don't have the info in front of me, but go to Canon's website and get the # for a repair facility. Ask to speak with someone there. They can probably send you the replacement part. There's a repair facility in New Jersey.

I'm back from the shoot that was almost destroyed by this bug. 2400 miles away in the Pacific. To reiterate: My fuse-fry happened when plugging in the standard viewfinder while powered up on battery (XL-2). While this may sound anecdotal to others, to me it is a fact.

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this!"

"Then don't do that!"

I'm driving to Irvine today and will give reports as available.

Thanks I'll give that a try. I was under the impression the Canon USA's repair facilities weren't allowed to deal with Canadian Customers (well that's what I was told anyway) but it's worth a shot at this point.

David,

I looks does not matter, and all you need is functionality, you could simply use a velcrow strap. Easy open and close.

Mike

Well Mike it could be an improvement on the taping that's for sure but there's 2 out of the 3 plastic hooks that are completely broken off (the second one broke recently) so it's really too unstable now to firmly hold in place.

Plus I'm thinking I'll be switching to HD in a year or so and I will then want to sell the FU-1000 along with the XL2's I own so to have a perfectly working one will increase its value substancially.

I called the NJ facility today and they told me what I likely need is the Finder Unit. I'm waiting for confirmation on it, as well as if I can get a smaller part than the whole Finder Unit since all I really need is the plastic part with the hooks (don't need the ground glass nor the metal cylinder that attaches to it).

Anyway they seem much more aware of what I need in NJ than they ever did in Canada. Night and day, so I'll keep my fingers crossed this will be resolved shortly.

Wait, David, is your viewfinder color, or b&w? I think you are talking about the color stock LCD viewfinder. The FU-1000 is a b&W crt. On the FU-1000, the eyepiece is metal and bayonets onto the rotating mirror section of the eyepiece.

Mark I'm talking about the B&W FU-1000's finder (or eyepiece I guess, language barrier here maybe, English's my 2nd language) which is both metal and plastic, with a metal cylinder shaped part with a plastic casing for adjusting its length (at least on mine that's the way it is, don't know if there were revisions to this product). The inside is indeed all metal I believe though.

The bayonet portion of the mount on the mirror assembly is indeed metal but what broke for me are the 3 plastic hooks on the eyepiece side that hook to this mount (at least I'm fairly certain they're plastic, been a while since I untaped this thing, but they wouldn't have broken off had they been metal made I'd think).

No problem, your english is fine.

Yeah, that's a real drag. That shouldn't be too much of a problem to fix. I think it's a few small phillips head screws.

Good luck.

How are things in Montreal? I used to live in VT and went up there pretty often.

Things are always great in Montreal, when it's not cold, that is 3 months a year. ;-)

That aside, love the city, perfect place to both live and work for me.

Wouldn't mind moving to NY city in a distant future though, I love that city. Is the videography business a very competitive one there? I would assume it is.

Montreal is a beautiful city. I always have a good time there and I almost always see a production truck somewhere in the city. It's really beautiful in the winter.

New York is great, it's also completely insane and the driving induces road rage. Knowing people here helps, because it's all about who you know, as it is everywhere.

It's pretty competitive, but things have picked up in the last year. Now there is a fair amount of work happening here and in the surrounding area. NYC has lots of gov't incentives for production, which has helped. I've been lucky, I know a lot of people who are talented, ambitious and like my work. But, my other job is still looking for a job.

But, my other job is still looking for a job.

I can certainly identify with that as I'm sure many who post here. ;-)

The insanity and fast pace found in NY is actually what attracks me the most. I get bored when things aren't insane enough. I'll try to master my craft here before thinking of moving though, I'm in no hurry.

Hi everybody,

sorry to hijack this thread, but yesterday the main fuse of my XL2 blew. May be, I have some additional info.

I disconnected a phantom powered mic and I swear the camera was powered down (I always power down when I plug or unplug something due to reports of blown main fuses here on DVinfo)! So obviously powering down is not enough. There must still be power on some systems.

The next time I plug or unplug something I'll even disconnect the power supply. When I told the tech at Canon that my XL2 would not power up he said: "Oh, well, then probably the main fuse blew". So they obviously are aware of the problem.

After reading this thread, I flipped through the xl2 manual and saw that it recommends powering down to do anything, even change out the tapes. I was wondering if any of you guys did that, or if not doing so would cause the fuse to blow. With all these reports of blown fuses, I'm paranoid to even look at my xl2 the wrong way.

Well, I did exactly that: powering down even to change the tape. But it seems, it's not enough to power the cam down, you even have to disconnect the battery or whatever power supply you use. As long as the battery is attached, there is some power supplied to the cam. Otherwise you would not be able to change the tape with the camera switched off.

I wonder when it will happen to me again...

I wonder if you should turn off the phantom power switch on the back of the camera before disconnecting?

I'm looking at getting another body to keep as a back up. What a piece of junk.

Thanks for the info Rainer. I suppose this fuse is just a ticking time bomb, not a matter of if, but when it goes off. I just pray that it doesn't happen to me right in the middle of a shoot. I can't understand why Canon wouldn't fix the problem in newer xl2's if they already knew about this problem. It is certainly serious enough to warrant their concern, because I really don't like the idea of being on pins and needles waiting to see if my xl2 will be kaput when I need it.

I wonder if you should turn off the phantom power switch on the back of the camera before disconnecting?

Mark, I probably should have done that. But, well, I had switched off the camera, so I thought it was safe to disconnect the mic. By the way, the manual says you should switch off the phantom power when you connect or disconnect a mic in order to avoid damage to the mic. Hear, hear! No word about damage to the camera itself.

Gee, I have a shoot in two weeks with actor and all. Should I get nervous?

Rainer, make arrangements to have a back up XL2 body on set, just in case.

Good shooting.

Hi,

this may interest all users of the XL2 with the FU-1000. I just got my XL2 back from the repair shop. Its main fuse blew last week. The camera came back with the following remark from Canon Germany (sorry for my somewhat crude translation):

Important notice:

If you use the FU-1000 B/W viewfinder with your XL2 please don't use it anymore becaus the connecting cord of the viewfinder may cause a short circuit which in turn can blow the main fuse. Please send the FU-1000 to us so we can replace the connecting cord with a re-designed one. You can use the standard color viewfinder with your XL2 because the problem arises only with the FU-1000.

Regards

Your Canon-Service-Team


To me this sounds as if Canon Germany acknowledges that the FU-1000 (or rather the connecting cord) is faulty. If it's true, that the cinnecting cord causes the trouble with the XL2 main fuse, then at least there is hope, that it will work without major problems in the future.

I'll send my FU-1000 to Canon on Monday.

Rainer,

Could you please ask them if they will replace cords on other FU-1000s, or if just some are incompatable. I would like to be able to use my FU-1000 without worries.

Thanks---Mike

Well this would explain why some folks have had issues and others, like myself, have not.

Of course a faulty cable could cause the short circuit and take out the main fuse. It could be an issue with the molded plug on the viewfinder or the cable itself.

This is good information for others since Canon service said they wanted to replace it with a re-designed cable. That tells me they have identified a flaw in the original design that could cause this issue.

I remember earlier threads where people were having main fuses blow and Canon was attributing it to removing and replacing the lens with the camera powered on even though the user insisted that this was not the case.

Thanks Rainer for sharing this information with us.

-gb-

I need my camera tomorrow, so I won't try it now. But, I assuming if it works once, it will be OK after that!?!? May I'll try mine next week, depending on what Rainer finds out.

One last question----Has anyone had this issue with the XLH1?

Mike

I just got a used FU-1000 for use with the XL H1. Am holding my breath that I won't see similar problems (none yet). I did write Canon this morning to ask about the problem. My original e-mail to Canon and their (somewhat unhelpful) response follows:

MY email to Canon:

INQUIRY: A problem with fuses being blown out on the Canon XL2, if used with the FU-1000, was posted on dvinfo.net. I attach the post below as well as a message from Canon Germany. Does the same problem exist with the XL H1 A? Should I not use the FU-1000 with the XL H1 A until the FU-1000 is upgraded by Canon???

Post on dvinfo.net:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?p=519621#post519621


Canon's reply:

Thank you for contacting Canon product support. We value you as a Canon customer and appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

Canon USA will have no known issues or technical documents of this issue. I do apologize, but Canon USA does not monitor, confirm, endorse, or attest to the accuracy of any information posted on third party websites. It seems many customers are overwhelmed by the barrage of information (or misinformation) being posted on unregulated, non-Canon websites. Unfortunately, this is not something which Canon has any control over. We are able only to confirm the performance of the camcorder based on our own testing.

We hope this information is helpful to you. Please feel free to contact us again if you have any other questions or concerns.

Thank you for choosing Canon.

But, I assuming if it works once, it will be OK after that!?!?

While I don't (obviously) know what the problem is, I wouldn't make this assumption! First, if it was as simple as plug it in and bang, then the problem would have been very easy to find. Second, the way the reports of problems come in, people seem to have used the configuration without problem for some time before they experience the problem. And lastly, the flaw could quite easily be intermittent, meaning that every time you plug it in, you have some chance of disaster...

Hi everybody,

I forgot to mention in my original post, that I have a PAL XL2 and also the PAL version of the FU-1000 of course, so the information given by Canon Germany may not be valid for the respective NTSC versions.

Mike, the notice of Canon said "CAN cause a short circuit" not "will cause a short circuit". May be, they are just being cautious in what they say or it actually means that not all cords have the fault. Who knows?

I need my camera tomorrow, so I won't try it now. But, I assuming if it works once, it will be OK after that!?!?

No, you can't assume that. In another thread Mark Sasahara said he was told that the fuse could be weakened. I guess, that's what happened to mine because I used the FU-1000 frequently without any problems and then, one fine day, the camera wouldn't power up.

You better use the color viewfinder until the FU-1000 problem is solved. Yes, I know, it's almost impossible to focus correctly with the color viewfinder, so a field monitor would be a must when you use a manual lens.

Just got my FU-1000 back. Unfortunately there is no additional information. Canon just says they replaced the connecting cord and the connector. Well, I keep my fingers crossed.

I had a shoot yesterday and focusing with the color viewfinder is really just guesswork. So I hooked the camera up to a notebook via firewire and we checked sharpnes in the capture window of PPro. Very professional. But I'm still somewhat reluctant to connect the FU-1000 because we have 3 more days of shooting and I don't want to risk another blown fuse.

use an NTSC monitor for this?

use an NTSC monitor for this?

Well, I'm living in PAL country...

But, yes, an external monitor is next on my shopping list.

Hi everybody,

I forgot to mention in my original post, that I have a PAL XL2 and also the PAL version of the FU-1000 of course, so the information given by Canon Germany may not be valid for the respective NTSC versions.

I bought the Fu-1000 viewfinder from US and tuned it from NTSC to PAL myself. Se this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=34554&highlight=fu-1000 how this is done (scroll down to Elmar Tewes first replay in this thread).

My point is that I don't think it's any difference between the NTSC and PAL version of the Fu-1000, except that they are tuned differently from the manufactor.
I also discovered that one of the electrial board inside the Fu-1000 was loose, when I opened it! This could have caused to an electrical shortcut; as Brendon Whateley says: "...people seem to have used the configuration without problem for some time before they experience the problem..."
Well, I fastened this board, tuned the viewfinder to PAL, turned on the XL2 and everything worked great. Haven't experienced any issues with this configuration since I bought the Fu-1000 in february this year and fixed it. And I have used it alot, outside in cold, snow, rain, sun...., lots of traveling, shaking etc.

I haven't thought about this loose board until now, but if this happend to my viewfinder in the assembly process at the manufactor, I guess that some of you guys might have a Fu-1000 with the same fault!

I wonder if you should turn off the phantom power switch on the back of the camera before disconnecting?

I'm looking at getting another body to keep as a back up. What a piece of junk.

There's little excuse for plugging in a mic to blow the main fuse. Phantom power should be current-limited to a few milliamps at most. Mic preamps need only the tiniest bit of power. So is this another case of bad design?

I've used phantom power extensively with my heavily modified antique Radio Shack PZM mics without blowing any fuses (so far). I'm sure somewhere in there I've un/plugged them while the whole business was powered on.

But just to be safe, from now on I'm going to disconnect the battery, lock it in a steel box, bury it three feet deep in the back yard and move at least a half mile away from it before un/plugging anything! ;-)

-cw-

But just to be safe, from now on I'm going to disconnect the battery, lock it in a steel box, bury it three feet deep in the back yard and move at least a half mile away from it before un/plugging anything! ;-)

-cw-

Remember to switch off the XL2 before disconnecting the battery. :)

Richard

Same thing happened to me yesterday drove me crazy. I was filmming a wedding and was all most ready to give up. I started messing with the battery and got power I think one of the connectors got bent I adjusted it with my knife and it working fine now. scared the crap out of me...

Hello ppl.

Sudenly my XL2 won't turn on.
I tried different batteries and pluged it directly to its power adapter, but nothing happens, and the cassette compartment doesn't open or make any sound. I am really worried about it and I am way far far away from any canon place.

Is there anything I could do?

Any body knows what might have happened.

Thank you!

Hi Kalil. Sounds like the main fuse has blown, which has happened to a few people already on this forum. You can do a search if you like, but I don't see any alternative for you other than taking or sending the camera to a Canon repair centre. Feel sorry for you.

Richard

Hi Kalil, yes, the main fuse most certainly. It happened to my XL2 as well. It is a real design flaw of the camera. And, what's worse, it is not possible to replace the fuse yourself. It has to be done at a Canon service center.

By the way, did you use the FU-1000 B/W viewfinder? If so, then send the FU-1000 to Canon as well as it is the likely source of the blown fuse. This board is full of stories about this camera/viewfinder combination.

Sorry, but it seems you will have to do without your XL2 for a while.