To everybody who downloaded any windows version of XH Editor or XHL1 Editor
from my website, please don´t use them any further. They had a bug which
would make a preset unreadable for the camera if you use anywhere in the
sliders a value of +1 and safe the preset with editor app.
New window versions (0.5.3 b) are on the website.
I am aware that the mac versions won´t allow a space in the internal
preset name. I will change that in an update for the mac version soon.
But remember everything is still beta software.

Felix

Edited: new mac versions 0.5.3 beta which allow spaces in the internal preset names are online

I don't have a card reader yet, but when I connect my A1 with firewire, the "Canon Camera Storage Device" appears in My Computer, with the PRESET folder accessible for reading the cpf files. Why is that I cannot write to this folder? It would make saving presets so much easier! And what's strange, I can delete files in the PRESET folder; just no writing permission. Is it just me?

Of course, Console 1.1 can export any preset do the memory stick via firewire, so it's not a hardware issue.

Hi Piotr,
did you try to copy one of the downloaded presets from the presets library
of dvinfo to this memory device?
(or did you try to copy one of the presets generated from the windows
XH editor? If yes, be sure to have the latest version 0.5.3 b, because the
windows XH editor earlier to this version could produce presets, which would
not be recognized by the camera).
Or may be it´s not possible to copy directly without console. I don´t know.
I can´t match your setup because in the moment i am without the A1.

Felix

Felix, it seems no file (regardless how generated) can be copied to the card over fiwi - but then, I have the Console and its drivers installed, perhaps this is the reason (as I said, Console can export presets to card just fine).

custom settings: color matrices
 

Can anyone explain the theory behind all the color matrices (R-G Matrix etc), in layman's terms?

The R-G matrix shifts the image colour more red or green leaving blues in the image untouched.

TT

Tony, I get it that with negative values it shifts towards red, and with positive values - toward green. Fine, but we have separate R, G, B gains as well, not to mention the G-R matrix - why the redundancy? Frankly, I couldn't tell a difference when playing with them live, using the Console...

Piotr

The effect of the matrices will depend on the colour content of the image you are shooting. Think of R,G & B as being axes of a cube and the Matrix functions of the XH-A1 are warping the colour space as represented by the cube along a particular axis.

Do a google search for 3d LUTs for a bit of background reading.

TT

Thanks Tony - I've found a lot of reading, this will take me a big step forward!

download links of the preset editors
 

Hi,

i have moved the website (which has now a kind of layout)
with the download links of the XH and XLH1 custom preset editors to:

http://www.felixtheissen.com/apps/We...and%20win.html

The old link still works too, but i had to change the statistics provider, because
it was so slow it prevented the site from loading.

Felix

Felix: I like the tool, but would it be possible to add numeric input fields to go with the value sliders? Something along the lines of:

Color Gain ----------------|---------------- [ # ]
Red Gain ----------------|---------------- [ # ]
Green Gain ----------------|---------------- [ # ]
....

Makes inputting custom presets from web pages and whatnot easier and more accurate. Just a suggestion.

that'll be a great thing to add

DL'ing the tool tonight and will play with it during the week... Thanks for sharing this Felix!

Oh, and some of the sliders seem to have two values for zero: 0 and -0 ... Surely an undocumented feature. :-)

That is some thing, which is related to the development environment. But that
does not affect anything related to the presets. Anayway, i will look, whether i
can change it, because -0 is something hat bothers me ;-)
I already have included the feature you proposed (type in values directly).
When i have tested it i will put this next release online.

Felix

Cool beans! Thanks. Looking forward.

new editor versions online
 

Hi,
i recently added the feature to type in the values directly and a possibility to
reset the application to default and a menu with shortcuts for saving and opening, so
this last release should be more effective for fast typers.
(possible to tab through the number fields)
The fields are selected by just entering them with tab key or the mouse (you don´t need
to click in them, thats only necessary if you want to select certain parts of the
numbers or text in the fields).
since i wrote 4 different versions (XH Editor for mac, XH Editor for win, XLH1
Editor for mac, XLH1 Editor for win)
my testing was maybe not enough and as everytime i tell everybody to be
aware and take care of possible bugs, as this is beta software. The use of
the software is on your own responsibility.
(If you find bugs, please let me know)

Felix

I just downloaded it. Looking good. I'll dink around with it and give you feedback.

hi felix...this looks like a very nice tool, but i'm having the same issues that marty seems to be having. i can save the presets to a file, load them to the SD card, but they're not showing up in-camera. i'm using the unstuffed mac version. any news?

Meryem,

Just to check: You're calling your files PRESETxx.CPF (where xx is a number from 00 to 20), right?

It seems there's too many people having trouble with this. The folder on your SD card has to be named PRESET , just like that, all CAPS & not plural, it's singular.

Drop the preset files found here on the forum in the PRESET folder & everyone should be good to go.

Bill

hi even: i have "PRESET19.CPF" and "PRESET 20.CPF" --they appear as text files, rather than as document files. i don't know how to modify that. i just saved them out of the XH Editor. (since the output menu instructions are in German, i'm a bit afield....)

Hi Meryem,
are you using the latest release of the XH Editor? You are using the mac editor, right?
When i am saving a preset file out of the XH Editor on my mac
i won´t get a text file. Are you working on mac OS X?
Can you send me a preset file you made with the editor to my emailadress?
felix.theissen at freenet.de
(substitute the at with the emai sign)
For using presets on a sd card in your camcorder they must be stored in a
folder called "PRESET" on the sd card.
There are two kind of editors on my website: one for the XH A1/G1 camcorder
and one for the XLH1 camcorder.
The presets from one camcorder are not compatible with the other, though
the editors i wrote can convert them.
But be sure to download the right editor for your camera.
If you are working with XH A1 or G1 the XH Editor (not the XLH1 Editor) should work.
Regards
Felix

i'll be happy to send you the files, felix, if you can send me a private e-mail that permits attachments (the DVinfo blind e-mail does not...)

planete@comcast.net

Meryem, perhaps you missed this.

Bill

Felix, you've done a great job programming these little applications.

I have two suggestions for you. First, I think it would be handy to have a "reset all" button, perhaps on the bottom right, to return all of the settings to their default positions. Second, the XH camcorder allows the preset names to include symbols such as -, +, [, etc. I think it would be most helpful if your tuner tool did as well.

Thanks again for creating these, they are most useful! Much appreciated,

A more far-fetched wish of mine would be to have an image that shows the effect of the maniulations. I don't mean to have a live feed or anything. Nor does it have to be exact. But just have it so that if you pull a slider, you have some idea what that might do to your picture.

The image could be something neutral like a portrait, shot with the camera set to default settings or whatever. This might make it easier to understand what's going on.

I realize this would require a lot of work, so it's not exactly a must have item. :-)

Chris, thank you. You are right, i will change the input for the preset names,
that it can take +, - and so on. I realized that too a few hours after putting
the new releases online. But a reset function is already built in, it is in the
menu and it has a menu shortcut (mac: command-R win: strg-R).
Or should it be a button, too? (i could add one)

Felix

Thanks Felix, I didn't realize it was in the menu! I think a button would be very helpful. Much appreciated,

Based on your statement Chris, are you saying the XL-H1 doesn't allow these characters?

I don't have mine in front of me to check. If it doesn't that is fine, but Felix doesn't have access to the H1 to check and I'd hate to see him at this feature the H1 editor also and then have it break something else if it doesn't support it!

Thanks to all!

Marty you are right, i won´t add that for the XLH1 Editor until anyone confirms
that it is possible. The thing why i restricted the input to a subset of chars, was
that i had not seen other chars in the preset names and i wanted to be
cautious. But i think that most common chars are posibble in the preset name,
but i cannot verify with the A1 either because of my dealer whom i returned the
second A1 (sad story of my dumbness - i should have stayed with first one, but the canon repair
told me to send it back - and the second has a few faulty pixels with no gain i
definetly did not want to live with) run out off stock and sends me back my money
(i had such a great deal 3280,- euros). But now i found a dealer in Berlin who
will let me test it beforehand in his store. But I have to wait for the first dealer to send
back the money, before i can purchase. I am not in a hurry because i bought
it for a indie project which will not take place before summer, but wanted to
get familiar with the camcorder already.

I am waiting with changing the possible characters of preset name for the XLH1 Editor
unless you or somebody else who owns a XLH1 can give me more information.

Felix

Here is your confirmation -- the XH is identical to the XL in this regard. Most all of the special characters above the number set on your keyboard are allowable, such as !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, ), _, +, =, -, [, {, ], [, as well as `, ~, a blank space, and a period (or decimal or dot).

Characters which are NOT allowed are \, |, :, ;, ", ', <, >, ?, /, or a comma.

Main point I'm making is that the XL and XH sets are indeed identical. Hope this helps,

Thank you, this is a big help.
Will work it in the next version of the editors in the next days.

Felix

Just out of curiosity, wouldn't it be easier to have one version on each platform, and just have the user select the camera type before adjusting the values, instead of individual versions for each camera?

New versions are online. I added a reset button for the recently added reset
function (reset to the default values).
And i changed for the XH and XLH1 editor the possible characters for the
internal preset names.
If someone who uses a windows version could confirm that all of the allowed
characters (based on the last post in this thread of Chris Hurd) and no
unallowed characters are possible. (I am a mac guy and i am working on a
macbook pro with parallels win but i don´t know how to generate a few
characters in the win world e.g. [,],{,},|,\, etc. with my mac keyboard and
the development environment i use to compile the windows version behaves
different on mac and win)

As with any version of these editors: the use is on your own responsibility.
take care it is beta software. if you find a bug, please let me know.

Felix

P.S. Even, i thought of this posibility too, to merge the two editors in one,
but for now i will let it as it is.

Felix,

Your editor is great. Thank you for all the work. It has really helped.
Where should I send a donation?

David (Tourist...lol, that cracks me up)

i agree with david, you need a donation button so we can send you a few bucks. it's a huge time-saver. i've been having a great time with this bit of freeware, since i started using it properly....thanks, felix.

Thank you, David and Meryem. I like places like this a lot, where people are
willing to share their experiences and knowledge (how much more difficult it
would have been 10, 15 years ago to get the information i am looking for)
and i am happy to make my contribution in form of this little applications.
(and it was some fun, too, to gather the information and make the
programming)
So, just enjoy and have fun ;-)

Felix

Canon Console alternative - Preset tuner
 

This doesn't have all the functionality of Console but is an alternative as far as Preset tuning is concerned - and it is free. Load in Presets from your SD card, modify quickly with sliders and resave - easy!

XH Tuner:
Aktionen : XHTuner - slashCAM freeware tool for finetuning the Canon XH A1 and XH G1: Einleitung / System Requirements / Installation / Licence / Instructions

Although this is a very good Preset configurator, I use it for over a year already, it cann't absolutely be compared to Console1.1. That's comparing apples and pears. With Console1.1 and your camera connected you can immediately see the effect of altering a value. That's the big difference.

I agree (I've got Console 1.1 as well), but its handy for altering presets .. I only came across XH Tuner the other day while searching Google.