Petey! You got TWO Canon XL-H1's?? awwww man, i'm envious. I need another one badly as well. I was saving the money for the HVX200, but I may as well go ahead and get another XL-H1.

Have you tested any of the timecode sync stuff yet? Let me know.

oh yea,
remember, Firewire is only 15feet max for transfer speeds of 400mbps.
Digital Video is about 100mbps, so that's why its no problem to do runs of about 150 feet and everything works fine. I personally have a 75-foot firewire cable that handles DV/HDV no problem for long runs and crane shots.

- ShannonRawls.com

Yeah, to make a short story very long:

The originally ordered camera was mistakenly sent by FedEx Ground, which was going to take a whole week, instead of Overnight as intended. So the retailer kindly said to just refuse that one when it arrived and got another one sent out immediately by Overnight. I've been happily using that camera since Dec 5th.

After sending the refused Ground-shipped camera ALMOST all the way back to the retailer, FedEx screwed up and rerouted it back to me. And even worse, the BAD, BAD FedEx delivery guy, just left it at our front door without signature. I'm sure Santa didn't leave HIM any presents! ;-) Fortunately, none of the neighborhood urchins got to it before I just happened to look out the front door and see this huge box. Of course, as soon as I opened the door I recognized the box and knew the score.

Discussed it with the retailer (has adequate stock so didn't need it back to fill any orders), and, oh by the way, my wife. We figure that if we just don't turn out to do two-camera shoots, well, it'll have very good re-sale value for some time yet, especially as a REALLY low-hour camera. Hey, we've already seen a slightly used H1 go for $8500 on DVinfo, eh?

So, yeah, I'm two-fisting it at present. I had considered that IF I was going to get a second camera, I'd try out the HVX200, but since opportunity has knocked at my door with this second H1 (or I guess, DIDN'T knock) my camera-buying days are suspended for a while!

Shannon, appreciate the real-world info on the Firewire. Are you able to find longer cables, or are you actually daisy-chaining a bunch of them togetther with dumb connectors or repeaters?

Oh, and NOBODY gets away with calling me "Petey" except my mom. ;-)~

I was going to try some timecode stuff tonight as well as check back on CONSOLE, but I didn't get to the local store to get some BNC stuff. Probably tomorrow.

Pete, I only understand you story half... did you now got 2 cameras for the price of one?

No, sadly, two cameras for the price of two!

Yes, OUCH! I guess I'd better quite goofing off and start making some money with all these dang "toys."

(clearing throat) Mr. Bauer *smile*,

No...it's one single seventy five foot firewire cable with 4 pin connectors on both ends. You can get the same cable in 154-foot length as well. www.markertek.com

- ShannonRawls.com

I suspect you may be confusing USB cable limits. Firewire supports considerably longer lengths than USB.

Best,
Christopher

Thanks Shannon, I'm pretty amazed that it'll work over such a long stretch. But good news for the practicality of it.

I did just a quick check here with the CONSOLE trial software on my 2nd XL H1 (not the one used to install the software), and as I learn my way around the program, it seems to work properly, albeit with the annoying but normal one second delay.

Another potential hassle is that many of us using this camera will be using Cineform products and the CONSOLE only captures in standard HDV MPEG, so it means allotting extra time for converting files to Cineform AVI format after the capture.

If only it was 1/10th the price and I could use it on whichever of my computers it was most convenient to capture to, I might bite. But I think I'll be shooting and capturing the old fashioned way for a while.

EDIT:
Christopher,
No, I wasn't confusing the spec limits, except that it is possible that the 2.0 version of the 1394a spec limit may have caveats...I'm not a hardware tech guy so don't really know that level of detail. With that caveat, 1394a cables, per spec, aren't supposed to be more than 4.5m, but obviously people have found that well engineered cables will, in fact, work at much longer cable lengths and are making use of that.

Pete,
I've shot hundreds of green screen events with the basic coated firewire from your basic computer stores. They worked fine for awhile but always broke down inside the sheathing. So, I went to a store the actucually makes the firewire in a braided form that was industrial. It has never broke!

As far as length, well Shannon is correct, but if you feel a little uneasy you could try a repeater.

Good Luck, Joe