Urgent help needed!

[Neil Hartland]

Ok i'm new here and in the UK. I need the wiring diagram for the XL1S lens attachment collar which I am willing to pay for. There are 7 different coloured wires which are beneath the metal mount collar on the lens and they connect by soldering to the row of square brass contacts. All I need is to know is which wire goes to which contact. Can anyone help? Canon UK are not being much help so far... they obviously want me to send it to a repair centre when I am more than capable of sorting this out with a little info.

[Chris Soucy]

Almost afraid to ask why this info is necessary, gotta be quite a tale attached, no doubt.

You can buy me a beer next time you're in the neighbourhood.

OK, ready?

Clockwise looking at the the rear of the lens:

First group of 5 contacts:

1. Mauve/ Purple

2. Blue

3. Green

4. Yellow

5. Orange

Seperate pair of contacts, again, clockwise:

6. Red

7. Brown

And yes, I was so curious I dismantled my XL1s lens to see for myself, not exactly rocket science, just 5 (tiny) screws.

Amazingly, got it back together again with no parts left over and it still works!

Don't fancy you're chances with soldering tho', there ain't more than 5 mm play in that cable, tho' I wasn't game to yank it in case I had to get my soldering iron out as well.

Good luck.


CS

[Neil Hartland]

Cheers Chris!

Basically the camera fell off a bench and the lens became detatched from the body and the collar which is screwed to the lens was left attached to the body which obviously pulled all the wires from their contacts! Belive it or not, although the screws were pulled from their holes, there appears to be no other damage! The camera still works in all it's play-back modes ect (although we cannot test it properly until the lens is re-attached). Obviously I am hoping for a bit of luck here.

I will let you know how we get on.

Many many thanks so far!

[Chris Soucy]

You'll be lucky!

The chances of that working again ain't high.

The only reason I was so ready to disembowel my lens was that it has a long standing fault that basically rendered it unusable for usefull shooting, which hastened my move to HD with my XH A1.

Came down to "fix the 1s at vast expense or go XHA1 for not a huge amount more".

I chose the latter.

The reason for the fault?

I put the camera on the back seat of the car after a shoot and it bowled into the foot well after a rather sudden stop, from that moment on it would quite randomly just "lose it" when focussing at high zooms - wasn't even a focus issue per se, no focus setting would get it back.

May actually not be a lens issue, could be anything.

Whatever, I guess it's pretty well museum material so no point worrying about it.

Do hope you manage to fix yours tho'.

Keep us posted.


CS

[Neil Hartland]

Hi Chris,

My sound guy has re-soldered the wires as per your info and all seems fine!! All lens functions appear to be working; zoom, auto focus ect but we will give it a few further tests before using it on for a shoot.

Just goes to show with guys like you around, these forums do actually work! I'll certainly keep in touch and there's a beer in for you next time your in this neck of the woods m8!

regards,

Neil.

[Chris Soucy]

Really pleased to hear it. Take my hat off to your sound guys soldering skills!

Not sure when I'll be on the Isle of Wight next but shall drop you a line if it looks a possibility.

Cheers,


CS

[Don Palomaki]

Check back focus settings, it could have been disturbed.

[Neil Hartland]

Thanks, I will do. Is there a simple way of doing this or have I got to dig out the hand book!? There were a few focus issues prior to our 'little accident'. The first film we shot using the XL1S was in 4:3 ratio which did'nt present us with any focusing issues. But it seems shooting in 16:9 ratio tends to make focusing a tad more difficult, so are we missing something?

[Chris Soucy]

As far as I'm aware, there is no "user back focus" adjustment available on the XL1(s).

Any problems you may be having with 16:9 are probably due to the (severely) lower resolution and the inability to set focus correctly given that the viewfinder of the camera isn't exactly HD.

It is, of course, possible, that the "little bingle" has disturbed something, but what and how is anyones guess.

The Canon XL1s, for all it's virtues, is a museum piece today, unfortunately. It's very soft picture, so beloved of videographers, doesn't suit todays HD market.

If you're company can't get their economic heads around replacing it, you're going to be curtains in pretty short order.

Unfortunate but true department.


CS

[Tom Hardwick]

Originally Posted by Neil Hartland

But it seems shooting in 16:9 ratio tends to make focusing a tad more difficult, so are we missing something?

Focusing is no different in the 16:9 mode, but the instant loss of 25% of your vertical resolution (when viewed on a 16:9 TV) is undoubtedly what you're seeing. It may well be time to move to the XH-A1s, and even if you keep shooting in the SD mode it will make you gasp when comparing the XL1 pictures.

tom.

[Don Palomaki]

Back focus is an internal electronic setting, set using a modified RM-95 wired remote control.

It is so sensitive that the camcorder lens mount system includes is temperature compensation components. IT is worth checking to be sure the back focus does not need adjustment (nominally a factory service type adjustment) before an important shoot.