I have a question, maybe a little off topic here, and also a very stupid question maybe, but I'll ask anyway :-p

I have my XL1S for a couple of days, and I haven't had much time to play with it, so it could be I'm just doing something wrong but... If you at the main menu go to customer presets and you change some of the settings... and you return, you see it back normal in the viewfinder? Is that normal? I tried to put it in black and white (I know if you film you should do it in post, but I just tried a little bit) and when I returned the image in my viewfinder was back in color...
I connected the XL1S to my tv, where it was in black and white, but do you HAVE to have a seperate monitor to see what your custom settings look like?

Sorry if it's a stupid question, and thanks for the possible feedback!

You have to turn the custom preset on, is the thing. YOu select the settings for each preset (1,2,3) in the menu, and then you have to find the custom preset buttons (in that red part that slides away), and turn on whichever preset you want. I always have to fumble with it a litte bit.

In the words of everyone who says it "hope this helps."

Thank you very much Joss. I haven't got the time to try it now, but I'll surely try later.

(héhé, I don't have a monitor by the way, but at the store where I bought my tripod they had a little demo model of a little tv, 37 centimeters, for 99 euro. So I bought it, thinking it would be a very cheap way of owning a monitor.
Now I have it, and offcourse it doesn't work on batteries, and it's a real drag to carry around, serieusly, the thing is heavy! But it costed me less money than a usuall monitor and it's a larger screen than a monitor... Actually this all doesn't matter and I now should be working, but I liked to tell it :-))

Thanks again :-)

<<<-- Originally posted by Tony Hall : That's the thing, the slider all the way to the left doesn't give maximum lattitude. It crushes the blacks and you actually loose information in the shadows. Maximum lattitude is actually the default position and maybe a notch to the left. -->>>

I'm wondering whether this could be different in PAL versus NTSC
models of the XL1S. Unfortunately I do not have my XL1S anymore
so can't verify this, but I'm pretty sure my PAL camera did NOT
work in that fashion. Canon should loan me one to test <g>

Is there anyone else with a PAL XL1S who can verify some of this
on scopes (like in Vegas)?

Rob, just out of curiousity, how come you don't have it anymore? did you buy the xl2?
It's just because I read a lot of stuff on the boards, including you giving much tips around the xl1s, now it's surprising to read you don't have it anymore.
Thanks,

Well, the basic reason I sold it was a financial one. And since I
wasn't use it that much it was easier to make this decision
(although still hard). In the meantime I'm focussing on
another very important part: the story/script. Working on some
ideas and other stuff till I can get back in the game basically.

I've had the XL1S for nearly 3 years, so that's why I can
sometimes still talk about as if I still have it (I know how I used
it and what worked or didn't work for me).

Unfortunately I don't own any camera at this point in time nor
do I have the resources to buy one (especially the XL2, damn).....

I hope this explains my "position".

Yes, it does. Thank you for the explanation.
It's kind of comforting to know that someone in a not too far away place knows a lot of it :-)
The Netherlands can be a while driving, but it still isn't as far as America :-)

I wish you very much luck with writing and thinking about scripts etcetera!
I believe this is one of the most interesting phases in movie making.

Thanks again,

I've got DV Rack on the way, so I'll do some tests with that when it comes too.

Mathieu: thanks! It is an important part indeed! I have a film buddy
in Belgium as well (in the Belgium part of "Limburg"?), I myself
am in the northern part of Holland. Do you ever go to the IBC
convention (largest film/tv convention in Europe) in Amsterdam?

No, I have still a very lot to learn.
I didn't even know it existed. I really should look out for such things :-)

I'll look it up once. Thing is, between now and mid-january (I don't know if this is spelled right :-p) I have very little time.
After that I have some more spare time :-)

Thanks for the information :-)!
(BTW, I live actually more to the west side of Belgium, only an hour driving the borders from France I think...)

Check out their website: www.ibc.org

The event is always in september and runs for 5 days. It has all
kind of cool film/tv equipment and shows and whatnot, don't
worry about your "level" or what you've done. It's a cool place
to visit and see whats out there! This year attendence was free
if you registered early.

In 2005 it will be from 9 till 13th of september.

Thank you very much!

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : <<<-- Originally posted by Tony Hall : That's the thing, the slider all the way to the left doesn't give maximum lattitude. It crushes the blacks and you actually loose information in the shadows. Maximum lattitude is actually the default position and maybe a notch to the left. -->>>

I'm wondering whether this could be different in PAL versus NTSC
models of the XL1S. Unfortunately I do not have my XL1S anymore
so can't verify this, but I'm pretty sure my PAL camera did NOT
work in that fashion. Canon should loan me one to test <g>

Is there anyone else with a PAL XL1S who can verify some of this
on scopes (like in Vegas)? -->>>j

Hey Rob, I got DV Rack in the mail today and it seems that you were right and Vegas is wrong... The default setting on the XL1s give a 7.5 floor in DV Rack and the slider all the way to the left gives a 0 floor.

It really doesn't make any sense, but that's the results I've got. Maybe when I have time, I'll capture some footage with DV Rack and observe the waveform closely. Then import that same footage into Vegas to see what it looks like on the Vegas waveform.

That would be a neat comparison, especially if you could make
some screenshots. It's weird that it is so unknown what exactly
goes on. Perhaps the guys from DV Rack can comment on how
they display this iinformation to narrow down what is going on?

Thanks for your time, research and reporting it back!