Just spoke to one of the sponsors and they said the 25th and also said their will be a body only xl h1 as well around then... I was hoping he met the 25th of this month...

At long last! Sounds very promising.

Ok so here's the enxt question, what mattebox can we use with this that won't vinette? My math may be wrong but it would have to support something like a 24mm lens in 35mm world. which I believe is a wide angle. So what works with that?

I asked the same question a few days ago! Have a look at the last page in the thread "Which mattebox do you have for your XL H1?" for some answers!

All the best!

yeah I saw the responces, seems like they were all pretty vague, then chris hijacked the thread with his 10,000 post (some people...) I had mroe or less accepted that it wouldn't work with 4x4 filters (my filters are 4x5.65 anyhow) I'm more worried about the mattebox itself showing up in the frame (as I've seen happen with other lenses and matteboxes) but it is handy to know that none of the 4x4 frame boxes will work. Are we just limited to the wideangle ones?

My Cinetech matte box worked fine with XL-1 and the 3x lens. It does use 4x5.65 filters. I sold the 3x when I got the H1, so I can't check the 3x with the H1 and Cinetech matte. Will the new HD 6x have the same angle of view as the 3x?

i sure would love to see this added to the dvinfo.net's articles comparing diff. lenses =).

Good idea, or maybe Chris could start a main section on the subject of lenses for the XL-H1, now that it will be available soon as a body-only option :)

Barry thanks, I've been kicking around the idea of the cinetech mattebox or the chrosziel one. Did you get the swing away version?

I'm working on an XL H1 Lens Options article and hope to have it ready pretty soon.

;-)

I have the four stage swing away and the follow focus.

Thanks Chris. Looking forward in reading it!

Thanks Barry good to know.

Where do this XL-H1 body only rumors come from? I am in the process of buying a new HD camera... and the XL-H1 is definately an option. However, I do not really like the 20x HD lens that comes with it. So I am looking at the wide-angle lens. But that will bring the total to like $12,000. If I can buy the XL-H1 body only for $1000 cheaper, it will save me $1,000.

So it would be nice if someone can confirm this rumors. Chris might be the best person to tell if this is very likely to happen or only a rumor.

EDIT: Changed math

Post deleted, math corrected.

Both starts at 3.4 mm focal length - should be the same angle/view. If you are planning to use two glass filters you should need one 4x4' tray and the second filter tray 4x5,65. If you just need one filter, 4x4' will work.

Just for the fun of it (and your drowling) a 6x attached to XL H1 enclosed.

ggghhhhhrrrllllmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............

I don't get it... just yesterday you said you were planning to buy an GY-HD200 or 250. Did you change your mind again? Re: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=77970

That's right Chris. At this moment, I am not too sure. All I know is that I am buying a Canon, Sony or JVC. I am in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at this moment where I had a hands-on with the Canon XL-H1 and I liked it quite a bit.

I am just getting as much information as possible before I am going into a store and buy one. And also, some of the camera's are not available yet. So it's hard to try them out. And like I said, I am planning to buy a camera, and my planning changes rapidly at this moment. Anyway, what you are saying is completly true. I just want to keep all options open.

Dear Floris,

For what it's worth: The Canon XL H1 has far exceeded my expectations.

For me, with much less than 20-20 vision in my right eye, and the general requirement of being in focus when using HD, I find the auto focus in the XL H1 to be fantastic.

Yes, there will be times that it may focus on the wrong object but overall I am very pleased. When this occurs, it is usually easy to get the camera to get it to focus on the correct object.

The low light performance also exceed my expectations.

Having the full set of timecode in/out, genlock, and HD-SDI makes for a wonderful camera.

I also realize that other HD cameras also produce a great picture, but I expected the XL H1 to let me down in some area, but it hasn't so far.

I expected problems with HDV, such as artifacts, but in normal viewing, I have not noticed any so far.

For me, the stabilizer (OIS) is very important whenever I am using the camera without a tripod. Personally, I would seriously miss this feature if it were absent.

I don't get it either !

Floris - on October 21st you said you had placed your order for an XH-A1 :
Honestly, it seems at the moment that you're changing your mind every 2 or 3 days on what machine you are buying! As lots of people have advised, i would wait until all these machines are in the stores (will be approx. one month until they are - V1 is now scheduled in Europe for 3rd or 4th week of November, and XH-A1 etc will be out there too by then) and then go try them out.

You say that there is no store near you with these machines. Even if the capital city of Holland doesn't have them (it should..) then buy a cheap plane ticket to London and go to a store there. Plenty of specialist photo retailers there. Plenty of cheap flights in Europe. I went London to Prague for GBP35 return a coupla years ago. Easyjet, Go + other airlines. Or go on Eurostar train direct to London Waterloo International. A day trip or a w/e in London is a very cheap price to pay for 'making the right choice for you' for your new machine, especially if your spending Eur5000++ for the cam and accessories.

Many people on this great board, including Tony, Chuck, Jay, Heath and Eric, have advised to go to a dealer to try them out before making a final decision.

Here are some of their comments on making a decision on a new cam :

Excellent advice, Stu... a roundtrip ticket from Schiphol to Gatwick and back on EasyJet is less than 100 Euros, no overnight stay required, just a day trip to do some hands-on research. Floris, it's the best money you can spend and the best way to approach an expensive camera purchase. The "right" camera for you is the one which *feels best* in your hands. If you're serious about buying, take then please take Stu's advice. It's a little confusing trying to keep up with your rapidly changing decisions around here...

To yank this thread back to the subject.... B&H had the 6x listed for pre-order with a price of $2,699.95 Yikes, that's seems almost too cheap for an HD lens.

link? i cant find it.

Here is your link for the Canon XL H1 6x wide angle zoom.

It is my understanding that this could also be used on other Canon XL series cameras.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

The pricing is excellent. Particularly when you take into consideration the difficulties of building a quality wide-angle zoom rated for HD resolution.

But that still won't prevent people from griping about the lens.

Do I read that right 3.4mm - 20mm. So effectively x7.2 = 20mm - 140mm.
Right now the 20x is 5.4 - 108mm or (x7.2) = 35 - 750mm (approximately)
So the 6x is covering just the 20-35mm range? Or am I missing something?

I know there are advantages re: lesser weight smaller size.

3.4*7.2 = 24.5 and 20*7.2 = 144 so the effective range of the 6x in 35 mm terms is 24.5 to 144 mm. The stock lens at 5.4 to 108 scales to 39 - 778 mm so what the 6x gives you that the 20x doesn't is the 24.5 to 39 mm range. Doesn't seem like much on paper but it implies a field of view 1.6 times larger than the 20x at it's mimimum setting and that can make a big difference when shooting, for example, in a tight space.

not to mention that zoom lenses like the 20x have a good bit of distortion at the wide end so you would likely achieve much less barrel distortion with the 6x in the 39mm-80mm range that you would on the 20x.

awesome. that price looks so cheap and makes me worry about the quality of the lens. but I'll have to try it out before i pass judgment. woohoo i was expecting it to be around $4000

The 6X was reported as arriving first week of Nov....

Anyone got their mits on this lense yet?

Hope Chris gets one for testing and reporting back.

Chris (hopefully :), we are eagerly awaiting for the first report on this lens as soon as its out or you can get your hands on a demo sample. I am very tempted to finally buy the HL-H1 (body + the 6X Wide Angle Lens as a pack). Also (and I may be pushing the envelope here) will there be any fish-eye or wider-angle adapter that could be used with this lens (as its so wide to start-with unless a very high-quality larger diameter wide attachment is used I'd count on severe vignetting, barrel distortion and chroma aberration issues).

Anyway, I cannot wait to see some footage and a user review. This is one sweet looking piece of optics. Go Canon! :)

Everybody is talking about a kit with the 6x wide. But as far as I know, Canon has not confirmed that there will be one. Some may think it is likely, but the Canon XL-H1 is modular and like the JVC GY-HD110, it's up to you to buy another lens for it. There are no different kits to say so.

Anyway, I am also interested in how this lens will perform. If it is good, this will be a no-brainer. Perfect wide-angle and an iris ring on the lens.

0If Canon does not sell the XL-H1 as body only option to match the new 6X Wide Angle Lens, they will lossse a lot of potential new sales. It is unrealistic in having to buy the 20x Zoom forcefully just for the body. That would put the whole kit (XL-H1 + 20x lens + 6X Wide Angle Lens) close to the $15K rpice range and that would make positively no sense as far as economics. For one thing for example, it would be out of my shopping lists instantly.

$8999 + $2999 = $11,998 which really isn't very close to $15K

B&H lists the 6x at $2699 so it's a bit cheaper than that

I got a quick look at the lens at HD EXPO in Universal City last week and it's gorgeous. It was extremely sharp edge to edge with zero vignetting at full wide. The lens looks almost identicle to the 20x so it makes a great companion lens.

I can't wait to get my hands on one.

Thank you very much for the report on the edge to edge sharpness - just what I wanted to hear!!!

How did the hand-held balance change? A little more balanced without hanging accessories on the rear bracket and increasing overall weight?

Unfortunately I didn't pick the camera up as it was mounted to a tri-pod on the display floor. The lens looks a little shorter than the 20x. It probably ways a little less too. So I'm sure that'll help balance.

I also noticed that the DOF was substantially shallower. It could've been the low-light/available-light nature of the show floor. And I didn't notice any CA.

Again, I only spent a short while with the lens while also talking with the great Canon reps.

Very true, thank you for the update. Nonetheless, still a lot of money if any part of it is an investment of a component you will not make justifiable use of.Thanks for the first-hand feedback Robert. That is great news indeed!

If that's the case, I am sold. It would make the perfect companion to the H1 and the standard 20x stock lens. It would give 24mm - 800mm in 35mm terms, which covers practically everything you ever want to shoot. Furthermore, you can make better use of the sweetspots of each lens. As the 6X wide goes to 149mm, you can start using the 20x stock at like 100mm. The wide-angle and telephoto ends of lenses are always weaker (distortion, purple fringing etc.)

Looks like a real winner. And for $2300, a bargain if you ask me.