Yes, there are 2 small screws underneath the boom mount.

By the way, Jerry, K-tek makes probably the best shock mount in the industry. if you are looking for one, depending on the lenght of your mic, check out the K-Tek KSM or KSSM. You can even specify the rubber density (soft or regular).

I just placed an order of their Zeppelin today. :)

Boy...
 

Talkin' About Some True Bliss...that HDV's all black is pretty sweet
I hate the zoom noise on my XL1...

Here is the real question? Any of you have an M2? Can it be used in conjunction reasonably without a spacer tube??>

The noise comment scared me, so I just shot some low low light stuff on "A" with the camera's default settings at what I assume is full gain (agc on). Yes, it has noise. But it is film-grain kind of noise and does not make an unuseable image. With your nose against the monitor, it's apparent. From 3 feet away, it's not. The noise is not the clumpy kind you get with the Z1. Don't know yet how it will look encoded down to ntsc or for the web, but looked at on an HD monitor from a normal viewing distance, the effect is ok.

chuck

jason, are you referring to the k-tek mount at the bottom of the linked page? i have the K-BWC camera adapter for the xl series cams and the adapter won't fit on the a1. the mic holder size on the a1 is approx the same as the one on the ma300, which is several mm smaller than the one on the xl cameras. until there is a replacement, the hot shoe mount should work fine however.

Best question of the day. The answer is that *all* new camcorders come with lens caps.

You're talking about the daylight vs. tungsten WB switch. Agreed. This is shaping up to be my single biggest complaint about the XH. It's an important switch that has definitely been put in the wrong place. There is a work-around however. Dial in a custom WB setting for Preset Position A of 3200 degrees Kelvin. Then dial in a custom WB setting for Preset Position B of 5600 degrees Kelvin. Problem solved... you've now successfully relocated the daylight / tungsten switch where it belongs, at the expense of giving up the custom WB settings.

Thankfully there's very little else to find fault with.

matthew, the minimum focal distance of the lens doesn't seem to be an issue with the m2. i used to have my xl2 crammed up against the m2 with the 16x IS lens to get it as close to the m2's ground glass as possible. the a1 does need a little bit of space however, but the rubber lip on the m2 proves to be more than enough to cover that issue. also, the shim looks to be a couple of mm off between the xl2 and a1... a re-shim of the m2 is probably in order.

regarding the wb switch, i find marty's solution to be pretty elegant -- keep the lcd up, but rotated in towards the camera. the lcd is kept off, and you have access to the switch...

For Adobe Premiere 2.0 users, here is the patch that you need in order to do 24f and 30f.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...jsp?ftpID=3408

i just finished making the appropriate changes to my m2 setup, and everything seems to be working lovely. once the appropriate shim height is set, the minimum focal distance is a complete non issue. i used the 1/16" shim (the thinnest one in the kit) which aligned the a1 nicely on the vertical axis, and then i was able to push the achromat right up against the m2 and the ground glass was in perfect focus.

here's an image of the setup.

http://www.enjoyuserexperience.com/images/a1_m2.jpg

Hey Henry, seeing as how you have your M2 setup, any sign of an LCD flip at all? Seems like this question keeps coming up, but no one has an answer.

stefan... i can say, almost definitively, there is no image flip, unless canon put some undocumented easter egg somewhere in their custom functions menu, which is highly doubtful. it's unfortunate as the camera's form factor seems an ideal match for the m2. let's hope for a future update.

WEll, that's unfortunate, and seems extremely odd for Canon to leave out, seeing as how the H1 has it, and the A1 is so extremely customizable. Any chance that a magnet will work? :)

even if it were possible, i've always been wary of sticking a magnet on the camera, especially a camera i like :). if i recall correctly, a few people messed up their cameras this way. the best portable solution IMHO is to get a small preview monitor with image flip. if the hd monitors are out of your budget, the cheaper 16:9 sd lcds like xenarc, varizoom, etc. should be fine for framing purposes.

Actually I allready use an LCD, mounted upside down on my DVX, but I use the magnet as well on the LCD. To me this is still an inconvinience, as there are times when I don't want to use a larger LCD on the camera. I've been using the magnet on the DVX for about 9 months, never had a problem, I think it's important to use a magnet that is strong enough to flip the monitor, but not do any damage. I have even stuck the magnet to other parts of the DVX when I'm not using it, and have never had any problems. Well, hopefully canon will release some kind of update, while it's not really a deal breaker it is a major inconvinience.

Hey Henry...PHEW! was terrified cause plan to use it exclusivly with the M2!

Anyway, I just finally got my XL2 hardmounted (YES!). Think the hardmount should work with this cam then?

Matt

Referring to image flip in the LCD... your statement that "the H1 has it" is not entirely accurate. Yes the H1 has this feature, but it does not work when an XL lens is on the camera. The feature is accessible only when the XL lens is removed, and there aren't many adapters that connect directly to the H1 at the lens mount. So for the majority of people, it's as if the image flip feature isn't even there.

Good info on the customizing buttons, Chris. I don't really see the misplacement of those switches as a big deal because I don't generally flip back and forth between daylight and tungsten much. But it's nice to know you can, in effect, put them where you want them if you so desire. That kind of customization is very cool.

A question about the M2 adapter photo...does that cover up the fast auto focus sensor? Also, I'm wondering if anybody has yet checked out the regular through-the-lens focusing at 24F. I know on the XL2, the auto focus button is borderline useless when shooting 24F but OK in 60i.

Bill -

Like with any 35mm adapter, you need to disable AF in the camera so the location of Fast AF sensor won't matter in that case. Same applies to image stabilizer. The camera has to keep hard steady focus on the screen inside the adapter.

I agree about daylight/tungsten switch. It's not a problem with custom WB settings available so easily.

Henry - thank you for testing the cam with M2. It's good news it works. As far as LCD flip is concerned, I hope the magnet trick works. As long as one uses small piece, it shouldn't cause any damage to the cam, maybe some scratches only.

Oh...duhhh...yeah, a slip of the brain there...the camera lens focuses on the ground glass. I knew that. I need more coffee before I post again.

Attachments
 

Just a note on attachments.

The Bracket1 works fine on the XHA1 to hang your wireless from. It doesn't block the xlr ports nor the mic holder.

There's no way to attach a stud to put a light or monitor on it. Hot shoe only. You could clamp something to the vertical part of the top grip, but the grip itself is chock full of controls, so you can't clamp to it.

The mic holder seems to be 7/8" -- it's smaller than a sony holder, but bigger than a sennheiser shotgun. Time to get out the gaffers tape.

There's a line-in switch for the xlr's, but it seems to be both channels or none -- can't have a mic on channel 1 and line-in on 2. There is a separate attenuator switch for each channel. Volume controls on the audio are marked with those stupid different-size dots instead of being numbered -- it will take a while to remember which way is higher and which way lower.

hey matthew, i'm going to need to fine tune the m2 before i answer your question. i'm inclined to say hardmounting without a small spacer is probably not going to happen. as it stands now, it needs at least the couple of mm distance the rubber hood provides. however, i noticed during zoom in that i clear the motor before the edge of the ground glass. once i adjust the motor vertically so that they disappear at the same time, i may be able to save a little on the zoom and get the achromat a little closer. also, i find i can go slightly beyond infinity on the 35mm lens, which means, for better or worse, i'll need to tweak the position of the ground glass on the motor inside the m2. these adjustments will probably impact how close the achromat can get... as soon as i make these fixes, i'll let you know what i find.

stefan/bogdan, i'll read up on this magnet trick thing again. thank you for the heads up.

my apologies to everyone if this thread has gone a little too m2-centric...

I have done some low light footages last night in 0db, +6db and +12db. Unfortunately the file size is bit too big for posting here.

If anyone can host them, I can send it to you. I am alos in the process of testing out the internal mic preamp of the camera.

I just finished my first real shoot with the camera this morning. I am creating a short commercial for a pipe fabrication facility. They are a huge company that makes large pipes and fitting for nuclear reactors so there plant is massive and the size of the piping is huge. Anyway.....the plant is dark and dingy and there is welding everywhere you turn. I had my concerns but the camera performed great. I brought in a few 600watt quartz lights and umbrellas and it was not really enough....still it came out very nice.

The thing that scares me is that I am so used to the H1 for finding all of the controls and buttons on the fly.....while the A1 is indeed a mini H1, the controls and feel are different enough to make it hard to adapt to. A big issue for me is the form factor....I know, I know....what did I expect? I knew the design when I bought it. I just didn't realize how accustomed I was to the H1 design. I was worried the handheld footage would be unstable.....

But alas my fears were put to rest....I watched the footage and I was amazed. I could not tell it was not shot on my H1. It looked absolutely like pristine HD that I am used to. Now I just have to get used to the design and familiarize myself with all the buttons. Then I'll be back in business.

Oh...and take this with a grain of salt but, last night I shot some candid, around the house stuff with my 5 year old daughter.....just plain house lighting. My initial feeling is it seems a little darker than the H1 did. I didn't compare footage or anything but I thought it looked a little drab.....but time will tell. If it is different it is not by much. Also....a contirbuting factor to this is the wide angle lens. Let me explain.

The H1 was around 40mm lens (35mm equivalent) At full wide the Fstop was 1.6.

The A1 is around 32mm lens (25mm equivalennt) At full wide the Fstop was 1.6.

Now on the A1 when I zoom to frame things a little tighter I am much further into the "zoom range" on the new camera and therefore the camera stops down a bit. (2.2-2.8). I am losing light simply by zooming a little to get equal framing to the H1. In addition I was used to using the 16x manual lens a lot and that lens hold its aperture all the way to full zoom. So a lot of what I am seeing can probably be attributed to the lens aperture changing and darkening the image.

FWIW.

The footage I shot today looked amazing....but there was sufficient light to allow me to expose properly throughout the range.

Peace!

That's fantastic - thank you Marty!

One question: did you notice any difference in image stabilizer performance? It's slightly different than IS in stock H1/XL2 lenses, but I hope not a bit less amazing.

The method used for Optical Image Stabilization is indeed different... the XL lens uses VAP (vari-angle prism) while the XH uses Lens Shift... but I seriously doubt that there's any visible, noticeable difference between the two.

Marty, you bring up a question I've always wondered about. How come with a "real" lens (ie., professional, manual zoom) there's little or no light loss from wide angle to full zoom, but on ALL the electronic lenses there is? I wonder why that is...why the electronic lenses do that. Probably has something to do with the production cost--ie., you want a good sharp lens for this price, you've gotta give up something to get it...I dunno. That's one of those things I've been wondering about for 5 years but never bothered to ask anybody or research it.

That's comparing apples and oranges for me. And I don't mean the 2 types of OIS on these cameras, I mean the camera form factors themselves. I have a hard time commenting on this at this point as I (personally)am not near as steady with the A1 as I was with the H1. You see the H1 is inherently more stable just because of it's mass and it's form factor. So add a camera that is more stable (H1) to a good OIS and you get really steady shots.

The A1 performed admirably but I saw a little wiggle and jiggle here and there. At this point I will attribute that to my own less steady hands. I am still learning the best ways to hold the camera and get steady shots myself.

I can say, in comparison to my experience with the DVX100 and the HVX200 that the A1 spanks them silly as far as OIS goes. My shots were far steadier than anything I ever did with those cameras even after using them for a while.

FWIW

Chris,
with a different OIS design in the A1 will I still see the "dancing balls of light" when I get lens flares in my shot?

Thanks.

Hmm... I don't know! That's a good question. I think you should test this and let us know what you find out.

I'll see what I can do. Last year I went on a Holiday Train ride and afterword I got some cool extra shots. There was a 2nd train ride after ours, so I went down the tracks and tired to get a shot of the train coming towards me. While the shot was steady enough, the beam from the train caused a lens flare that danced all over the place! It looked weird...like some kind of UFO acitivity!

If I can I will give it a whirl tonight.

By the way? Does anyone else feel like a dummy trying to figure out what all these options are in the menus? Cause I do! I need to read the manual!

I'm glad to hear that, esp. considering 20x vs 10x zoom lens. Of course, form factor matters a lot. I was just curious how it felt. Thanks again Marty.

Glare and other weird light reflections esp. against strong sources? I dare to say no lens is free from those problems, just like from CA.

Back tomy threadjacking Henry,

Considering this lens is shorter, what is your Fstop when you hit the appropriate Zoom and focus?

Marty,
Industrial videography? Man after my own heart!

matthew, i hit f2.2 with the iris wide open when the gg in the m2 fully occupied the screen. an observation... after playing around with the a1/m2 a bit, i think hardmounting the m2 on the a1 would be a disservice to the camera. without crunching numbers, the improvement of the a1/m2 combo over the xl2/m2 at first glance are, to me, nominal, probably due to the some inherent image softening in the m2 -- i always thought results from the 16:9 xl2/m2 looked phenomenal, and i was relatively less wowed when first previewing the a1/m2 on an hdtv. that said, the a1 output, all by its lonesome, is beautiful stuff in its own right.

this is all just first look stuff from me, so take it all with a grain of salt. looking forward to rolling some tape this weekend.

I dont own one of these cams but I just checked one out at the local photog shop, and man what a beast this thing is!
I had initially assumed this cam was gonna be a black plastic GL2 that would do HD (and I would have been pretty satisfied).
But Holy crap! the leap of technology/professionalism/beefiness from GL1/GL2 to A1/G1 is enormous, I was stunned. From the cool matte black finish (that seems alot more durable than the old pearly plastic shell) to the giant 72mm dia. lens. Man, all I have to say is WOW! these are impressive in person. This is such a giant step up. Great work Canon.

Henry, the hard moutn is quite removable. It's jsut a more secure, and actually, sharper way of mounting the M2 to a Camcorder body... http://redrockmicro.com/forum/viewto...er=asc&start=0

Should help with softness.


You can overcompensate buy turning up the sharpness in the canm, or adjust the GG REALLLLLLLY finely

Cant wait to get my A1

Nice to hear that Precision Camera has them in stock... say hi to Jerry Sullivan for me next time you're in there.

Yep it was Precision, you're good Chris. Those guys run a nice shop.

970G Size Battery
 

I'm not sure I want to try and put the 970G battery into my brand new Canon A1 ... has someone else had success in using this battery & not getting stuck?

Don