Blinking Error in Viewfinder
 

There's a red blinking symbol in my viewfinder that kinda looks like a guy in a boat with a line through it.

What does it mean?

Thanks in Advance.
Flynn

Sounds like a "No Tape" error. Check with your manual.

Definately not the no tape....
 

It appears directly to the right of the no tape error.
-Flynn

It's telling you that you need to replace your date/time battery, a Panasonic CR2025, about 75 cents at WalMart.

Thanks
 

I found it in the manual.

Sorry to waste your time
Flynn

Ha!

This is pretty funny.....I recently shot a stage performance. 1st act was OK. Then, just prior to the 2nd act, I got the same alert. I'd also had never seen it before. I just about panicked, and examined and twisted every knob on the XL-1 trying to salvage what I thought was going to be a blown shoot!

20 year old eyes might have resolved the icon; 50+ year old eyes didn't immediately, until I finally guessed what it might be!

Cheers

External LCD viewfinder for XL-1
 

Has anyone except Daniel Kohl (see http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/articles/article78.htm) ever attached a external LCD viewfinder to the XL-1, in a non-destructive way (and not using a steadycam setup)?
I find the normal viewfinder difficult to use in fast handheld action, like walking with the camera through a crowd. Holding the cam to your eye is awful and the existing EVF is just too small for seeing anything from 1 meter away.

XL1 shooters add external LCD monitors all the time. Go to the Watchdog at www.dvinfo.net/xl1.htm and choose Articles Menu. See Adam Wakely's piece under the EVF section. Also, I recommend a couple LCD monitors in the "Top Five XL1/XL1S Accessories" page also in the Articles section. Hope this helps,

Yep, it's as easy as can be. Varizoom and Nebtek both sell models that you can mount on the accessory shoe, and I believe Nebtek has an adapter that will let you use XL1 batteries to power it. It's a plug 'n play situation. No sweat, (just money). ;)

Brilliant! I just hadn't been looking closely enough! Sorry and thanks both of you!

XL-1 viewfinder
 

I just got this nifty little gizmo at Radio Shack... it's an active matrix monitor made for playing DVDs in cars, but the thing has awesome picture quality, and it accepts 16:9. It runs on 12 volts (I bought an adapter and long cable to use off the car, and one you plug into the wall inside). I also took the shoe mount off an old flash and now the monitor fits atop my camera. The whole rig was less than $200.00!

small tip - viewfinder mount
 

We all know that annoying piece of rubber that ships with the XL1 to secure the viewfinder to the body. Well, it's very common to lose track of this little do-hickey.

I found that the plastic ring that ships in blank cd-rom spindles (it's a little plastic washer) can be use in lieu of the rubber do-hickey.

Just remove the washer from your spindle, then take some scissors and snip it once. This allows you to slip it onto the viewfinder mount. Attach viewfinder (you might need some tweezers or paperclip to properly slip washer so that it's closest to tightening nut) and tighten. Now it won't slip and it takes a bit of effort to remove so chances of losing it are minimized. Also saves a trip to home-depot as we all have a spindle floating around somewhere in our studios.

Adrian

There's a similar tip on the Watchdog site at www.dvinfo.net/xl1.htm under User Tips, but I've never heard of it done this way before! Many thanks,

I saw that a while back.

As I have a junk drawer and little spare time, (home-depot is in the 'burbs and I'm downtown) hence I mentioned that "also saves a trip to the home-depot"

:)

Adrian

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Hurd : There's a similar tip on the Watchdog site at www.dvinfo.net/xl1.htm under User Tips,

Viewfinder Adjustment Nut
 

Can anyone tell me how I can keep my viewfinder from sliding back and forth after I keep tightening the adjustment nut? This nut seems to have a mind of its own. I tighten it almost to the point where I fear somethings going to break and the viewfinder stays in place for about a minute and then it starts sliding around again because the nut losens on its own.

A nylon or rubber washer on the spindle does the job nicely. Any hardware store should have what you need.

Thanks that sounds easy! I try it

I have this issue as well, but I don't know what a spindle is. Can someone describe in more detail?

He's referring to the EVF assembly mounting bolt. The stud projecting out of the front handle of the camera.

Thanks. I see what you all's be talkin' about.

There are two ways to do this. The "I have no idea/My camera is still under warantee" way or the "I'm good with the tools/My warantee has expired" way.

It first way is to get a rubber washer and make a cut in it. Split the washer and wrap it around the spindle/EVF mounting bolt.

The second way is to remove the EVF slide bracket and then the four screws that are in the end of the mounting bolt. Remove the mounting bolt being careful not to lose the locating pin and spring. Slip the washer opver the end of the bolt and put the whole thing back together.

Mine is done the second way and it works so much better than the after-thought piece of rubber that Canon used.

(USA clause)
If you decide on the second way, please take care, as I am not responsible for any ham-fisted operators or damage you may cause.
(/USA clause)

Okay to adjust viewfinder brightness?
 

I was wondering if anyone out there has adjusted their viewfinder brightness (color viewfinder, that is) on the XL1s, by themselves. Bad idea? Called Canon awhile back about this, and they said it's not really something you're supposed to do at home.

Probably a bad idea, Josh. In the case of the b&w viewfinder basic calibration to SMPTE bars is fairly essential to ensure that you're getting proper contrasts, etc. But in the case of the color LCD, tinkering with the brightness may be asking for self-deception when judging shot exposures.

I judge exposure by Zebra bars. The reason I want to tinker is because I've noticed that when viewing through a monitor or even a TV, the picture onscreen always looks a tad brighter than the color LCD. Also, in darker situations, it might help a bit. I'm more worried about screwing up my camera than screwing up my judgment. Hah hahah.

I agree with Josh, the viewfinder is a lot darker then the signal
it is actually recording! Thats one of the reason I'm going to
look into a professional (small) broadcast monitor to accompany
me.

So I am I risking great damage by tinkering with it? It doesn't seem that hard. . .but a while ago killed a Game Boy by screwing around with it.

Great damage. Naw...nothing a few hundred dollars can't fix. Would it make you feel better if one of us tried it first?

Darn tootin'! Of course, I did that thing where you attach a rubber grommet behind the wheel that adjusts the viewfinder position, and that worked out fine.

I did that when I first got my XL-1. I shot a Butoh dance performance, the woman was painted all white, and in the viewfinder I had a nice contrast on her skin, but when I got home, it looked a little overexposed on the TV. So I thought it might be a too bright viewfinder.

I set up a video mixer and put some color bars on the tv, got the tv sort of balanced and looking good, then I turned on all the light in my living room, ran the living room footage on the tv while in camera mode, then I turned the screw for the brightness until the viewfinder and tv looked about the same. I didn't use studio lighting or a pro monitor, I should have done that. If you put a small mark with a colored marker to mark the position of the orginal setting of the screw, you can then turn it back to where it was, plus you need a reference point since the brightness adjustment screw isn't marked, I forgot which way is brighter or darker.

I've had my camera serviced a couple of times, don't know if they have adjusted the brightness to factory specs, I'm guessing they haven't because my footage is still coming out great.

My friend's xl-1s footage is running a little over exposed so we'll have to adjust his viewfinder as well, we did a two camera shoot of a fashion show and my footage came out well exposed but his came out a little over exposed, although in his viewfinder, he said it looked perfect.

If Canon doesn't want us to adjust the viewfinder ourselves, then they shouldn't have put the control for it out in the open like that. Adjusting it was a pretty simple decision for me, I don't do super critical work that has to be within broadcast specs, and if I did happen to screw up the camera, it's just a 15 min walk to the Canon service center and I can drop off the camera and get it put back together in a couple of days.

But in the end, if you don't feel comfortable adjusting it, then don't do it, you can figure out how much it needs to be adjusted for and then just underexpose all your shots by half a stop or whatever setting you come up with. And having an external monitor will solve all your problems.

Thanks. Like I said, I judge exposure with zebra bars. I make my image as bright (according to the bars) as possible without blowing out too much of it. A hot spot in the hair maybe okay, one that covers half a face, nah ah.

I did it too. I'm getting ready to shoot at night, so I set up lights and played around. I had a nice dark, low key, night scene in my viewfinder and on my tv it came out very bright (more like day). . . I turned the brightness all the way up. It helped, but it's still darker in the viewfinder. My solution: separate monitor.

Hey, wish I could get a monitor! I will likely soon be shooting a lot of spur of the moment stuff in darkly lit areas, where I'll be moving around with the camera. Having a monitor in these situations is not possible.

Or you should put the monitor inside a thing/place that can be
closed or around the corner or something through a cable.
Ofcourse that might need you to walk around, or get a camera
operator or video observer person....

Took the plunge and adjusted the viewfinder brightness myself. No problems. . .picture is brighter. I didn't turn it very far, as I didn't want to push my luck. Also did not realize ahead of time that increasing brightness decreases contrast. Have I done myself more harm than good? Perhaps.

So Brightness = Brightmess.

FWIW: there are three additional internal adjustiments on the EVF; i.e., R-Brightness, B-Brightness and Contrast.

What do you mean? That the user has control over? All I've found is the EVF color in the menu.

The internal are service adjustments, not end-user adjustments.

On cleaning my viewfinder objective I saw that there appears to be a neutral density gelatin filter, on the inside facing the lcd screen - that scratches easily.

It is held in place by an easily removable metal ring. Removing this would certainly increase brightness without having to make any other adjustment.

Does anyone know what the purpose of this gelatin filter is?

Regards.

Most accurate answer from me: no, I don't know with certainty what it is.

Speculation: It's either an anti-reflective film or has something to do with the sun burn problems that the original XL1's had. That is, sun coming through the viewfinder for moderate amounts of time would fry the lcd. The film might well block certain wavelengths of incoming light to help protect the lcd.

Ken

I think you are probably right! - this must be the miraculous 'modification' that Canon came up over the original design.

Regards.