Hello Alex:

I'm 20 years old . . . and poor. I saved my pennies for years with the hopes of getting an XL1. I fell in love with the XL1 and began saving three - and some change - years ago. Once the XL1S came out last summer, I had my heart set on getting that, and had to save more. So I saved and saved and saved. This summer, I finally was going to buy my XL1S. I was all set and ready to blow all my money (in fact as of 2 weeks ago I was ready to buy an XL1s). Then, I saw an XL1 for sale on the boards here. I started thinking: "chances are the next generation of Canon cameras, like the XL2 or something, will come out in a 1.5 years. Why shouldn't I use a solid camera now, and just get the new hottness in a year when it comes out." So, I bought the 10 hour, used XL1 with some hip accessories. I DON'T REGRET IT. I love the camera, and I saved $1400 USD as opposed to getting an XL1S from the cheapest reliable source I could find. Now, with $1400 I can get better equipment to use for my camera, other things I dreamed on getting for my XL1s. Don't sell the old XL1 short. Its still good, and you can find them cheap used. The problem is, you have to trust the seller . . . .

Regards,

Kyle "Doc" Mitchell

What Docunomus said!

An XL1s won't make your movie that much better than an XL1, but $1400 (that's $2100cdn) spent on props, location, talent, etc... WILL make a big difference. There are several people in the Classified section here selling XL1 packages with some gear. Check them out.

Another accessory you might want to seriously consider is a better mic than the stock mic. I bought a Sennheiser MKE300 shotgun mic, which does a great job over the stock one. ZGC has a good price on them.
http://www.zgc.com/html/sennheiser_mke300.html

Of course, if you get to use your school's gear whenever you want, it doesn't matter as much.

Hey guys, great to find out about other 17 year olds on this board. I've been here only about and I am loving this forum. Like you I Alex I was checking the XL1s to replace my Digital8 which is becoming a burden, no white balance, no iris or shutter controls, no audio level controls, its starting to piss the shit out of me as I try and get a look that is just impossible with this thing. The main points that attracted me to the Xl1s were the ergonomics of the controls and layout, the true VU meter, the pots for audio, and the canon picture. Well when the Gl2 came out, problems solved, plus LCD. But to cut this short, I just wanted to say hi. What you guys making? Short Films, tv spots, commercials. I got two videos posted of my work on my site, I am redesiging and havent relinks my music videos. Love to hear from you, talk to ya later.

Hey guys, great to find out about other 17 year olds on this board. I've been here only about and I am loving this forum. Like you I Alex I was checking the XL1s to replace my Digital8 which is becoming a burden, no white balance, no iris or shutter controls, no audio level controls, its starting to piss the shit out of me as I try and get a look that is just impossible with this thing. The main points that attracted me to the Xl1s were the ergonomics of the controls and layout, the true VU meter, the pots for audio, and the canon picture. Well when the Gl2 came out, problems solved, plus LCD. But to cut this short, I just wanted to say hi. What you guys making? Short Films, tv spots, commercials. I got two videos posted of my work on my site, I am redesiging and havent relinks my music videos. Love to hear from you, talk to ya later.