GL2 - Just not the same!
 

Has anybody experinced their GL2 degrading in quality? I had problems and sent it back to Canon. They fixed it and it did look a lot better but it is just not what it used to be. The picture just does not have that extra punch it had when it was new. Does anybody have any experince in fixing something like this? Do you think that maybe the heads need replaced or something along those lines? I have two GL2's and the one still looks awsome and it is frustrating to see the difference between the two. They have the exact same settings when I am comparing.

Hmmm . . the heads are only recording "1"s and "0"s. If you see blocky or striated items of data then we could be looking at head wear. But you are talking about "punch"? These heads aren't like the VHS heads of old - yeah?

Tell me, just HOW are you comparing the old with the new? Do you have 2 stills of the same view you could post here? Apart from the actual chip array and the lens coating, I really can't see how things are going bad. Have you got a preset that has "setup" or you have reduced sharpness? Are you filming in FRAME in one and NORMAL in the other?

Interesting.

I have 2 XM2s. Separated by about 18 months. And about 400 tapes accrued. I haven't noticed any degradation. Mind you, they have been to the Canon Garage for a repair each. But that wasn't to do with what you are saying.

At the end of the day, these devices are extremely advanced in their microminiaturization in terms of their mechanics AND their circuitry. Maybe one of the circuits has gone?

Let's see 2 stills - one from each of the same view and lighting conditions - so we can compare - yeah?

Thanks for your reply Graham,

I am using custom presets on both cameras that I am comparing. The sharpness is turned down 2 notches on each camera and there is still a difference between the two. The one camera still has the punch and the other fails in comparrison. Sorry I don't have stills avaliable as I am at work right now but I will try to post some later.

I tried bumping up the sharpness but it still does not look as good as the other camera.

I really need to keep my custom presets for low light to keep the grain down.
I appreciate any suggestions and thanks again!

Take the output of one - f/w S-Video or . . - and capture on the other. Now do the reverse. See if you can nail the issue.

Can you do a straight NON preset comparison?

Do you think the Preset scale is faulty? DON'T set at same. Set them till they appear to be the same.

Very interesting.

Well... back to the factory for the third time. I sent back the camera because the sharpness "crispness" is gone. They said they replaced some parts and recalibrated the electronics and now the white balance is off. Specially when comparing the two cameras now the one has more red in it.

Comparing the two the one camera is soft around the edges. Very frustrating.

Has anybody else experienced anything like this? Any results?

Probably too late to be of much help now, but the ideal procedure would have been to send both cameras in at the same time and ask the service techs to make sure that they match each other.

Also probably too late now, but did you compare them while looking at their LCDs, or did you put them up on a monitor as a split screen? The reason I ask is that I've noticed that my LCDs (and viewfinders) show everything a touch red. When I look at the footage on a good monitor, everything's fine. Knowing this, I think there's a really good chance that the LCDs don't match, and any comparison done while looking at the viewfinder or LCD will likely be skewed one way or another.

Just my 2 cents...

Good luck!

Mark

Thanks for the ideas guys but I did compare on a monitor and also brought all the footage into Premiere and compared very closely. I did screen shots of each and sent a DVD to Canon to show the differences. I hope they can get it right this time.

I was hoping that someone else might have had the same problem and new what it would take to get it fixed.