These are all good suggestions. I can also work up a good sweat, so I feel your pain.

If you are using the FU-1000 b&w viewfinder, get a Tiffen Tele 2x eyepiece adapter. It basically magnifies the vf image to the point where you don't have to place your eye against the cup at all. It's nearly like having an lcd. Sorry, there is no such device for the color vf.

sooner or later i'm gonna get the 1000 cause this color thing ain't cuttin for me. hard to focus. as for sweat... some people really sweat more. i don't think i'm THAT out of shape cause i can hold the cam for a few hours no prob. no back pains, muscle, etc. i run pretty regularly. but some people, like me, are just sweat hogs =). i can't help it if it's genetic. i'm just wondering at the different solutions people use to cope with it. pretty interesting thus far =). i'll have to try the head band next time. i don't like lcd cause it just doesn't shoot at the place i want it to. it's awkward, feels a bit much like the consumer cams ya know?

I am not aware of any stock cables. However, you can probably get one custom built o build your own. I believe there are some construction articles on converting the standard EVF to monochrome. This would describethe proper pinouts and could be used to build an extension cable.

Besides the normal warnings, I would use only the best cable stock for this. There is also a pretty good chance this still would not work adequately too.

I am not aware of any source for pre-made cables or the connectors, other than buying replacement parts from Canon and working from there. Not a trivial task.

If you simply find the same connectors in a male and female version, you can build a simple pin for pin extension cable. That way, you won't need to know the pinouts. If I can locate a source, I will post my findings.

regards,

Yes you can, however, it is sometimes very important to know which ones are shield and power. You are using a video signal and these guys are so forgiving about impedance mismatches. It may work, but using cables of the proper spec helps a lot.

I called many video laboratories here in Italy, and they all told me they couldnt do it. Only one told me he could try to do something: he can find the male version of the cable (using another original xl1s monitor cable), and then he will try to build the female version. This is not easy because he has to study the pins of the connector.
I'm waiting for news from him.

For the female connector, buy the replacement board from the camcorder and remove the connector. from the PC board.

Agreed Nathan, the shield and power would be the critical ones to get on the correct connector pins. Wasn't thinking it through when I wrote that.

uh...
Don, what do you mean:

from the PC board.

?

There is a female connector of the correct pin arrangement on a replacement printed circuit board (PC Board) that mounts in the handle - the standard view finder cord plugs into it. If you buy the PC board you can remove the connector with a bit of care and effort.

Oh, yes.
PC = printed circuit
I was tinking PC = personal computer

:-)

cheap solution - get a chamois eye cover
 

I had the same problem. Got a purpose-specific eyecup chamois. Problem solved and for less than $10! email me if you don't know what this is, and I'll send you a picture. Cheers.

Re: cheap solution - get a chamois eye cover
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Gary Siu : I had the same problem. Got a purpose-specific eyecup chamois. Problem solved and for less than $10! email me if you don't know what this is, and I'll send you a picture. Cheers. -->>>

Funny how well those work on a hot rooftop all day. :)


If you spend the extra bucks, a Hoodman will make a difference as well. It keeps your eye a little further back and absorbs lots of sweat.

The best thing to do is to give it a chance to breath every minute or so, if only for a few seconds.

Lines and rainbow colors in viewfinder! Fried?
 

I was using my XL1s to shoot an indoor scene yesterday and vertical lines began to show up in the viewfinder (I have the standard color one that comes with the camera). The lines seemed to be somehow related to the text overlay in the viewfinder screen because they only appeared above and below wherever there was some text or an icon (like the battery icon). Within 15 minutes or so the lines got much more apparent (they went from just looking like smudges above and below text to actually occluding the scene I was trying to film). Additionally, a rainbow of colors started to appear. This rainbow now stretches from one side of the viewfinder screen to the other. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the viewfinder to no avail. Switching modes (e.g., to VTR mode) also has no effect. The lines and rainbow effect are even apparent on top of the blue screen that shows up in playback mode.

The only thing I can think of is that the camera is that the viewfinder somehow got fried. I've heard of this problem before and how it can happen instantaneously, especially if the eyepiece is set to the near position. I do not know how it happened while filming indoors though. I was near a skylight but the sun was not streaming in directly through it.

Can anybody tell from the description I gave whether I have actually fried the viewfinder or if my camera is suffering from some other problem? Does anybody have any suggestions about how to fix this or, if I can't fix it on my own, how to get it to the appropriate people at Canon and how much it would cost them to fix it?

Thanks a lot -- Giacomo