Sound Effects
 

IF YOUR LOOKING FOR A SITE WITH TONS OF FREE SOUND EFFECTS GO TO:

WWW.FINDSOUNDS.COM/TYPES.HTML

THEY HAVE AUFF, AU, AND WAVE

BRUCE

Hello friend. I have that shoulder brace. It cost me 465 courtesy of ZGC. I doesn't way much itself, but you'll definitely know it's there when you get it on your shoulder. I myself am a rather small person, so it doesn't hug my shoulder like I thought it would. I'm getting used to it, but try to try one out before getting it.

As far as steadiness goes, it should help you there too.

Digital Break up
 

I just received my new XL1s a few days ago along with a few new JVC mini-DV tapes. So I threw in one of the tapes and began shooting a few random things around the house. I rewinded the tape and watched the video in my viewfinder and was in awe of its quality. Today I had some more free time after work to do some more shooting and found a slight glitch in the tape when I played it back in either my XL1s or my DV deck. Its a small 2 second flicker that looks similar to a digital satellite system breaking up due to poor signal strength. I put in a different tape and began shooting and have yet to have the problem occur again. Should I be worried about this or could it just be that the tape had a bad spot?

Any suggestions would be helpful, since I want to make sure for the money I'm paying that my XL1s is working properly.

Thanks ^_^

I'm afraid that this is not uncommon. On a 63 min tape, I typically get one or two of those. The camera has been back to Canon twice, and it's better, but not cured. The last time, they sold me a new drum. I've been using strictly the Panasonic Master tape (white cassette), which is among the best stuff you can buy, so it's not the tape. It's probably the nature of DV to get a few of these, but I'd like to see less. These drops have screwed up more than a few shots.

archive
 

Chris,
I was about to post a question, then realized that I had seen the subject adressed before. But when? Didn't you mention something about an archive?

Steve Siegel
Miami, FL

If you look up at the upper right hand corner, you will notice the second button from the right is "search." Click this and you will be all set in digging through the archives.

Hope this helps.

Manual exposure metering?
 

Hello everyone,

I am new to this list and new to film making. I have been keen photographer for years and started to be interested in video making. I belive most rules of still photography apply to video, but have one specific question. With my still camera, I used to set expousre manually - I am taking the ambient light measurement with a hand-held light meter. With this meter you first set an ISO film speed you use, in order to take readouts. How is it with digital video tape? How do you take measurements of ambient light to set the aperture and shutter speed manually on your camcorder? Is there some equivalent to ISO film speed in relation to DV?

Best regards,
Maciej

Hi,

Your question has been answered here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3294

The link Nathan refers to is very good and includes a complete discussion of this topic.

Jeff

Manual XL lenses' barrel color
 

I would like to know if anyone else knows why Canon doesn't make the manual XL lenses' barrels white like the standard lenses. They make the other pro still lenses with the white barrel. Why is this? My theory is that they have modified these black lenses from another line to fit the XL camera systems to keep costs down from having to develop a whole new manual lens. I like everything to MATCH! Whadaya think?

Maybe...
Another theory is that since all the other pro lenses out there are black, Canon made this one black to match.

"flashing" problem with XL1s
 

Strange phenomenon today.

While shooting a locked-off shot with a city street in the background, I had a problem today where bright colored cars whizzing by would temporarily cause the image to "flash", by which I mean a lifting of the black level overall. I would refer to it as a flare, except that it was uniform across the image. There was a circular polarizer in use on the 14x manual lens, and the camera was in manual mode.

I am suspecting the filter, but just having a bright object in frame (and the cars were under 100 IRE, and not reflecting sunlight at the lens since it was overcast) and getting this sort of result is discouraging. It was a borrowed filter, and since I have always used straight pola's I am wondering if this is a side effect of the circular pola.

Has anyone experienced anything like this?

This is just a guess, but certain types of materials (unpainted metal) produce reflections that can not be reduced by either linear or circular polarizers. Metal wheels, perhaps metallic paint etc. would produce such a light. This would cause the polarizer to reduce the reflections of some light and to have no affect on the other reflected light. Combine this with the motion of the cars and I would think that it could cause a flashing or strobing effect.

Jeff

head and legs for the canon xl1s
 

I'm in the process of buying a canon xl1s.

I'll need to buy a tripod, could anybody give me any advice.

It would be great if the head could be removed so that it could be put on a hi hat or other mounts depending on the situation.

The camera will mainly be used for documentry work.

My buget is around £800 - £1200.

Thank you.

I'm not exactly sure about exchange rates but I can highly recommend the Vinten http://www.vinten.com/ tripods and they're made in England. It's what I'm presently using and I'm very pleased with it. The other brand to look at is Sachtler http://www.sachtler.com/default2.asp The Sachtler DV-6 might be in your range. Others to look at in your range are Miller, O'Connor and Manfroto/Bogen.

Jeff

Mixing Stereo from Mono tracks, need info
 

I am heavy into editing and post production on a DV feature and I need some advice from the audio gurus on the site.

I recorded all of the dialogue for the movie on my Sennheiser Shotgun microphone. It did a beautiful job, but it gave me these mono tracks.

I need some guidance on the best solution for mixing the audio to be either stereo or come from the center speaker in a 3-5 channel setup.

Any advice on the software?

I use Premiere 6.02, an audio plug in or a compatible program would be ideal. I can't seem to find anything in the audio plug-ins provided to resolve this problem.

I'm guesing mixing in 5.1 is out of the question without a pricey piece of software.

Anybody else in this same position?

Premiere 6 offers the option to use the left or right channel only sound in both channels.

Choose Clip->Audio Options->Duplicate Left to use the left channel.

Thanks, yes I am aware of that, but I wanted to have more control. Is this the standard way people work with dialog?

I just purchased a plug in called PanHandler (i'm waiting for the premiere 6 version) It claims to allow you to make 5.1 sorround sound in premiere.

Any other tips?

Video Light for XLS-1
 

I am in need of a light for my Canon XLS-1 so that I can shoot
scenes that are in dark places.

Canon sells this light for the camera off their website:

Battery Video Light VL-10Li
This compact, yet powerful video light can be used for both indoor and outdoor shooting.

I was wondering if anyone has ever used this light for the XLS-1 and if it works well when filming dark areas.

Or if anyone knows of another light that works well with the Canon XlS-1, I would appreciate any info.

Thanks for the help as always. This board is great and everyone is so helpful.

Distortion in recordings
 

Hello everyone,

I have gone through about a dozen recordings all on Panasonic 83 ME tapes (all new) with a new XL1s. I have noticed some distortion (horizontal banding) staggering the recorded images, quite noticible, lasting a fraction of a second.

Don't seem to be any pattern to timing of these glitches or location on tapes, but occurs at least three to six times on a tape.

Is there something wrong with these tapes? Should I run new tapes through the camera on FF and RW before I use them, as I read in some video mag. Is there any possibility of the problem with the transport or recording head in the camera?

Wondering if anyone else might have had same or similar problem.

Thank you again, you've been a great help always!

Yes, fast forwarding and rewinding is a good habit to get into. It evens the tension on the tape, smooths out the position of the tape and allows any loose particles to fall off (avoiding drop outs). I would try a shorter length tape and see if the problem persists.

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff, will try out your suggestion with shorter tape. Will also try recording over a section with distortion and see if distortion happens at same spot. If so, then it may be that tape has bad sections, which would be annoying but better than if the camera has some faults.

If any other suggestions for finding out source of problem, would be appreciated.

XL-1 Auto Shut off
 

Is there anyway to keep my XL-1 from doing the auto shut off thing after 5 minutes of not recording anything?

Thanks Todd

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: See the article "XL1 Standby Mode Explained" in the XL1 Articles Menu of my XL1 Watchdog site at www.dvinfo.net/xl1.htm -- hope this helps,

Interesting Video look on MTV Music Awards
 

I don't know how many people watched the MTV Music awards last night but I was captured by the new film kind of look on several of their cameras. Any chance that they might have been using Canon Xl1s for the shots. I sent in a question to MTV asking what camera they used for that show ( hope i get reply back).

This particular topic is already being discussed elsewhere on the Community forums: please see

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3448

If you have any fruther input, please reply to that thread. I'm locking this one to insure that we're keeping everything in one spot so it's easy to find and read. Hope this helps,

creating a distinct difference in distance
 

Hey all,

I have been asked to shoot some video for a friends short movie,
Either a sony pdf-150 or Canon XL1s, and i am almost positive it will be the canon will be used.

He wants to do a very rap music clip style effect where there is a very very very apparent distinction of distance to the camera.

I am not refering to a shallow DOF, i mean like in a rap video they are usually dollying accross with a rapper leaning back and forth towards the camera and it is incredibly noticable, the imagine has an almost 3d like quality, but focus looks almost like it is set to infinity.

I assume this is done with extremely wide lenses, but i am not 100% sure how it is done... he is making a sci-fi movie and wants the set to have a very non-flat look and a very apparent depth, some of this will be lighting, but i am sure their are some lense tricks needed too.

kermie

kermie

I think you are referring to essentially a fisheye lens.....ala the other thread you have going right now....or certainly a superwide solution like the century .3x on the stock xl1s lens.

Barry

FireWire (IEEE1394)?
 

I was wondering which Firewire cable I need for my Canon XLS-1?
I have heard I need the CV-150F 4-pin to 4-pin to connect from my camera to my computer to edit my movies.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

It depends on the connection on your computer. The IEEE1394 connection on your camera is a 4 pin connection, a 6 pin, which is found on most 3rd party capture cards/interface cards is a rectangular USB looking connection that is rounded on one end.

It's a good idea to have one of each in your production kit as you never know when you migh need to connect to one or the other.

I agree with Adrian. Always carry both in your bag. You never know.

- don

Owners club hotline number???
 

I need to send my camera back to Canon because it has a great time eating tapes when I try to rewind them with the tape heads disengaged - one of the scariest days of my life - but on to my question:
Where do I get the number for the Owners Club Hotline? I have a membership number that I got from Canon when I asked about sending the camera back but I can't find the number anywhere. Any ideas??

JXD

I'd contact the New Jersey Service Center. The address and numbers are listed on the watchdog under XL1 Skinny http://www.dvinfo.net/xl1.htm lube, Oil Service. Good luck.

Jeff

cutting the foam for a case
 

Hello All,

First of all a big "Thank You" to whoever suggested to me check out Storm cases. I just got it and boy is it beautiful!!!! Which brings me to my next dilema, how do you suggest I go about cutting the foam inserts that came with the case? Is there a special tool I should get or will a plain old x-acto do it? Also how do you suggest drawing the pattern for the camera? Should I just place the camera on the foam and trace around it with a sharpie? Are there any other suggestions you all can offer!

Thanks!
-SL

Hi,

I am glad you found a good quality hard case that suits your needs. This is almost embarrasing to admit but after 20 some years i have finally found a way to cut open cell foam. I've tried x-acto knives, razor knives, razor blades, wetting the foam and freezing, you name it, I tried it. I also butchered alot of foam rubber. So what have I discovered? Steak knives. The serrated edge and the back and forth sawing motion goes right through foam rubber. It works.

I trace the outline onto the foam with a marker. Try to keep the outline tight. You can always cut a little more off, but it's real hard to glue foam.

Jeff

Glidecam 4000Pro w/ Bodypod+armbrace
 

Sorry about adding yet another thread on this subject, but previous postings have not really answered the question.

Is there anyone out-there using an XL1s and a Glidecam 4000Pro with the bodypod and/or the armbrace attached. Is it a good solution to tracking, simulated dolly shots, and extended use in the field (30 t0 45 minutes straight).

I realize it is not a Steadicam, but with the armbrace and bodypod will it still be too unweildy and heavy for these extended periods of time.
RON
TravelReview@Hotmail.com

Great suggestions Jeff, thanks!

I've worn a V-16 for up to an hour without passing out.

Of course I'm perspiring like a horse and end up standing with a definite backward lean at the end of the day.

Glidecams, or even Steadycams, don't work well in crowded, narrow places where the sled or support system gets bumped. So that would be something you'd have to take into consideration.

Also, be aware of the weight limitations. If you're using an XL1 without a wide angle adapter or wireless mic receivers then you can probably use the 4000. Be aware that it's limited to 10 pounds. My XL1, when fitted with a Century Wide Angle adapter and Lectrosonic receivers, weighs in at 13 pounds.

Low Light Footage
 

Hey everyone, I'm looking into purchasing an XL1s and am interested in some low light footage if anyone has any. I've seen a lot of stills, but no actual footage. Can someone please contact me if they have some? Thanks

Moore

Solar Charging for XL1 batteries?
 

I mentioned this in a previous post; but thought I'd list as separate post.

is there a good solar charging pac for the BP series batteries for XL1s?

Thanks!
David

Hi,

I found this at the NRG Research site http://www.nrgresearch.com/prod.php3?var=00690P I don't know of any other chargers, maybe someone else does. Have you searched google?

Jeff