CanonHX A1 new owner question. Lens protection
 

Hi all,
I am the proud owner of this camcorder PAL version. Still reading the manual and a little nervous touching things. Well, I have a wide experience in photography and my lenses are protected with an UV filter, quality filter. Must I follow the same politics with Canon XH A1 lens? Is it a good idea to fit a good UV 72mm filter to protect the lens? Or, could it affect adversely the captured video or image?

Any experience from you would be very appreciated.

Thanks.

I've got an UV Filter attached all the time. The image quality is not affected in a visible way and you feel much safer under rough conditions. The only con is: You have to unscrew it before attaching a wide angle adaptor.

I keep a UV filter on as well although I agree with Jan's point about the minor inconvenience of taking it off to attach the WA adaptor. Good for you getting stuck into the manual. I always suggest downloading a PDF of the manual as well for future occasions when you want to find some obscure detail quickly. A search in Adobe reader does the trick nicely.

I got mine from this address posted elsewhere on dvinfo:

Canon in South & Southeast Asia

Sometimes it doesn't seem to work but just try again later if that happens.

Thanks Jan and Colin,

I¨ll fit an UV filter to the Canon A1 lens. I have reading in this forum about the custom presets ( a lot of pages about this) and now I have a clear idea how to load this presets using the card. I like very much the PANALOOK and VIVIDRGBA (+15 color sat), maybe because I am coming from HV20-HV30 Canon series, wich are more colourfull , I believe.
I still have a HV30 with me.

Thanks again.

Juan,

outdoors, I usually have a polarizer - otherwise I keep the UV on.
BTW, out of curiosity:
which island? (I vacationed on Lanzarote
& La Gomera: breathtaking! Enjoy your unbeatable climate)

Best

Vasco

Hi, Vasco
Glad you are a visitor here. I live in Tenerife, I can see the Mount Teide from home, a beatiful view when snowed and incredible sea sunsets from my little living room.
Sometimes we have calima, dust from Sahara desert in the air. The calima cross the atlantic and reaches the Florida coastline.

Next time you come here, please email me.

Regards.

I use a clear glass filter, but UV works just as well. Any decent quality filter will do the trick. Back in the '70s I had a Hasselblad lens get pitted from a sandstorm that happened when I lay down under a helicopter to get it taking off straight up. Since that dumb thing, I've always used protection. On my lenses.

I have an appartment in Las Americas, im there next month and taking my A1 with me for some scenery shots.

Does UV filter affect white balance?
 

I, too, use a UV filter to protect the lens. However, I was wondering the other day if it might be affecting the white balance. I've noticed that I often have a slight yellow/brown cast, as though I have a tobacco filter on. This is most noticeable when I have done a manual white balance in gloomy light, e.g. a cloudy evening. My white card is home-made, using a sheet of supposedly "pure" white paper, from an artist materials shop and claimed not to be tinted blue or violet like some photocopier paper. Has anyone else noticed anything similar? The next time I go out I'll try balancing without the UV filter on, though I'm reluctant to keep taking it on and off...

Unlike DSLR photography, using the XH A1 gives you a very deep depth of field. This causes any spec of dust on the UV filter to become readily apparent with sufficient light. It also increases flare greatly. For those reasons, I don't use a UV filter most of the time.

Only possible at full wide angle... as with any other zoom lens, depth of field significantly decreases as focal length increases. Simply keep the filter clean when shooting at full wide angle to prevent this problem.