Sounds good. Chris, how do you plan to present the results? In person?

Variable frame rates
 

The one thing that I really liked about the HVX200 is that it has true variable frame rates that allow you to have true slow motion without the ugliness of that post-production slow motion strobe.

I REALLY, REALLY wished the XH-A1 had that. To me, the camera would be just about perfect as it could be with that.

How will we be notified that there is a firmware update for our XH cameras? Does canon send out an email to XH customers? Also, does anyone know how easy it is to update the firmware? Risky?

Firmware upgrade
 

I'm with Deke on this -

What's involved in a firmware upgrade? Download to a PC/Mac and then into the camera via firewire?

Or is it the old send-it-back-to-the-factory-and-wait-for-it?

If that's the case, then the one and only first vote should be - "allow for user downloadable firmware upgrades"...

Read this thread: XL H1 Firmware Upgrade Details

I presented the original XL2 Wishlist in person, so I can certainly do the same with this wishlist as well. I'll have an opportunity to do so at NAB, so perhaps that's when the cut-off should be. But as I said at the beginning of this thread: don't get your hopes up too much, as there has never been any implication that Canon will issue a firmware upgrade for the XH series at all.

I haven't voted yet, unfortunately my wish list requires hardware changes - anyone got any idea of why the white balance buttons and switches counts no less than FIVE to set and they are spread around at random?

So, my number one wish is that the white balance button be replaced by a dial with six settings:

Auto, outdoor, indoor, Kelvin, A, B

Then ok, two more may be required to configure the last three settings. But that would eliminate/liberate two buttons.

My second wish is that the output switch be eliminated. Let "bars" be available for custom buttons.

My third wish that gain be a dial, maybe with one more setting: off/0dB, so it should be: Auto, Off, low, medium, high. That eliminates/liberates one button.

My fourth wish is that the preset selector buttons be replaced with a dial that lets you scroll through the stored settings - so you can go both back and forth. I haven't used presets much but as I understand it if you pass the setting you want, you have to go all the way around.

So, when will the XH-A2 get out?

My final wish is that all push buttons are custom buttons! Yeah! Photo button to be push AF (most important on my list), the four buttons on the barrel to be custom whatever, and that custom buttons are not restricted: Anything that has two settings on/off, should be assignable to a custom button: In the menu where a setting is selected one should have the choices: On/off/assign to button.

Cheers, Erik

I hope I'm not stealing Chris' thunder here, but I know he is super busy here at NAB and anyway I took this pic with my camera so he doesn't have it yet. Without further ado, attached is a photo of Chris giving a hardcopy of your Wishlist to Canon reps including the actual firmware engineering managers. Yes, they do listen to you!

Yay! Go Chris! And thanks Pete for the pic!

Awriight, way to go!!!

Switchable aspect on downconverted output
 

I need the standard def output to be switchable like the Z1. Right now the live output is only squeeze.

Help!

Great news about NAB.

Chris, how did they respond?

Hi Andrew, they responded by saying that they continue to watch this forum, and indeed this particular thread, closely and with great interest. In typical corporate fashion, no promises were made; nothing at all was implied other than their sincerity regarding the keen interest they have had in reading what everybody here has had to say.

As for myself, it was a real treat to meet these fellows -- the XH series and other Canon camcorders literally began life directly from their hands. My own take on the situation is that it is much better to expect nothing to happen, and then be pleasantly surprised if something actually transpires out of this.

Since Pete Bauer and I have already "officially" handed the poll results over to the people that matter, at this point voting is closed (but of course the thread remains open).

Thanks Chris, good news anyway. Being open for surprises without expectations goes for me too.

Boy, am I late for this party..............
 

My only excuse is the A1 and similar takes a lot longer to make it down here to the Antipodes. Then, of course, one has to get to know the camera.

Okay, it's here, and I know it (er, -ish!).

If there's one thing above all else that narks me about the A1 (and I presume this is not confined only to the A1) is the focus, and the ability to see whether it is, indeed, correct. Most of my shooting is in the countryside, wide open spaces, long zooms, little if anything for an AF system to lock on to (neither, often, can I).

Peaking is good. Peaking and Magnify is better. But it still ain't good enough. I've seriously thought of lugging a 21" or 24" HD screen around to actually "see it as it is", but decided even I'm not that crazy. Which leaves either the built in LCD or an available 7" (low res) or so external (it seems no one is going to be bringing out a 7" 1080 screen any time soon)

How to make it better?

Allow "variable mapping" (doesn't need any more buttons, just a menu option) so that the actual area of the ccd shown on the screens is either the current 1/5 ( I think, with Magnify on) or a few variable ratios all the way to 1:1. And show both Peaking and Magnify on the external screen to boot.

The ability to map, pixel for pixel, the central portion of the ccd's I/P would just about let me focus on a Fur Seals whiskers from 40 feet.

Of course, there'd need to be a facility to tell the A1 just how many pixels the external screen had to play with!

Doesn't seem like too big an ask, really.

Oh, and allow a couple more settings for that Manual Focus speed, even at "slow" it's too fast.

There you go. If there ever is another poll on the subject of the A1 (which will probably be morphing into the A1s or A2 any day now) that's my favourite. Tho' in practice, as I said, this problem probably afflicts all HDV cameras. Anone know if any other manufacturers have a better system?

Regards,

Chris

I vote for

Additional Shutter speeds (1/33rd and/or 1/40th)
Add intermediate steps in Gain (+9db, +15db)
Display active C. Preset name (record and playback)
Display lens info (focus and zoom) on playback

Scan Disk
 

I would like to be able to record HD video on the scan disk.

What do you mean by "Scan Disk?"

Are you referring to the SD (secure digital) flash memory card?

Sorry, I guess that's what i'm refering to.

I never thought I'd make it back to this thread/subject, but I suppose the current edit I'm cutting reminded me and forced me to do so.

"OIS On / Off mappable to Custom Key" was THE number one request... and for good reason. For example, on a gig that demands continually rolling tape... and having to pop off a tripod (running with OIS off obviously) and then going handheld... for one thing there's no way to even get into the dang menu in the first place while rolling tape (not to mention how cumbersome it would be) to turn OIS on! Currently, you have to stop rolling, and dig into the menu to do this.

To this day nothing has been done regarding this & I, as well as many, feel it should be on Canon's top priority list for a firmware upgrade. Seriously... how difficult could it be?

I'm steaming here, but my rant is over.

I guess that whole thing about the possibility of firmware upgrades was just a marketing ploy.

Or they'll just use this info for the A2 or whatever.

this will make a lot of users disappointed. i for one won't be buying an A2 if there will be one, but will get something non-Canon for sure

"OIS On / Off mappable to Custom Key"
please please please please please please!!!!!
p.s. PLEASE!!!

Buying or not buying a camera because of the possibility of upgrades isn't a good reason, in my opinion. I've been shooting with professional video cameras since the '80s and have never seen any sort of retroactive upgrade. It would be nice if it happened, but when you buy a camera, what you buy is what you get. Expecting more is misplaced optimism. I don't know any other manufacturer who's come out with a retroactive fix or addition you could stick on an older model, though I'm not saying it hasn't happened.

I would like to go into the menus during recording, some times I have to change audio sources or even enable/disable OSI. Not sure why you cannot go into the menus once you are recording.

record to sd card

custom keys able to record / pause - there is no easy record /pause for the left hand when the right is on the tripod

custom keys able to turn on/off image stabilization

i have a few other little bugs but they are the main ones

A button on the remote to bring power back on to camera when it goes into sleep mode after the 8 mins or whatever the default is.

There's a rec/pause button on the top handle

You can de-activate this in the menu.

So did anyone bug the Canon folks at NAB 2008? I know updating cameras isn't common (yet), but camcorders have become so ITcentric these days I don't think it would be that earth shattering anymore. My HD DVD players, Blu-Ray players, PS3 and iPod were/are all updatable through either direct download, CD images or SD card files. I think its safe to say we've reached the point where we know how to copy some files onto an SD card and then not turn off the power of the device during an update ;)

Come on Canon, its 2008, not 1988.

Hey Bill... do you think it's okay to deactive the sleep mode altogether? I'm assuming there is a sleep mode for a reason. I think I've read it is so the tape drum doesn't wear out. I certainly don't want to do any damage to my camera... but this sleep mode is VERY ANNOYING for me since I shoot myself, by myself.. A LOT!

Spot focus?
 

I'm surprised no one asked for spot focus, or for the ability to choose the size/position of the focus area.

I need that for the wildlife video I like to shoot. I wrote to Canon about it and I was told my idea would get passed on to the firmware folks.

Jay

Deke, I must have missed this when posted. Refer to page 28 in the manual (at least in the pdf manual), if you haven't discovered this already. You can deactivate the Power Save function and assign the VCR Stop function to a custom key.

Jay, nice idea, but I can't imagine that being able to be done only through a firmware update. I would think the hardware would have to be re-tooled for something like that.

It -appears- pretty easy to do spot focus in firmware actually. Right now they use a pretty large rectangle of the captured area to determine focus, all they have to do is first allow it to have more than one size and then allow it to have a different position and move the lens accordingly.

They currently have a rectangular region defined for auto focus. For my purposes I need it smaller and to work like the regions in my Nikon D200. If my understanding is correct embedded firmware (somewhere in the system) is deciding when the camera is in focus.

Sorry if this has been posted, but the ability to output raw, uncompressed video to hard disk would be sweet.

Um... could you clarify that? The camcorder already outputs 4:2:2 uncompressed video over component output. Firewire is limited by hardware and/or standards to pump out HDV only (even *if* someone could output uncompressed output over Firewire there'd be no receiving hardware that would know what to do with that signal). Not sure what else can be done beyond that...

Already a feature in the XH G1 via SDI.

Also possible with XH-A1 via Componant cable, with a suitable A/D capture card?

Focus Ring Speed
 

My camera operator complains about the very sensitive focus ring. It makes it tricky to focus accurately on tracking and panning shots. It would be nice if they address this in any firmware upgrades and give you a very slow and extremely slow option for focus control speed.

Stuart, there already is one... in the Custom Functions in the menu (Normal, Slow)