New xl1s owner--Silly Question
 

I just got a used xl1s. Every thing seems to work fine, but there is this humming/whining noise coming from the deck regardless if it is paused or recording. Being a new owner, I wasn't sure if this was normal or not. Any thoughts?

Hi Randy, and welcome!

The XL1s can be a little noisy. If I'm in a really quiet room I can hear mine, but under normal circumstances I don't. (For instance, right now I've got mine on in a room with a computer fan running. I don't hear the hum.) Is yours more noisy than that?

Had to smile when I read your post. Several weeks ago I had mine (not taping) on a tripod at head level and the room suddenly became very quiet. I was kind of alarmed at how noisy it sounded.

I'm not sure if by humming you meant noise on a level the previous poster describes or something possibly more abnormal, but seeing as that you bought your camera used I highly recommended sending it into Canon for regular service and alignment regardless of if you actually have experienced any problems. As a used XL1s owner with personal experience here, the only thing worse than a camera that eats tapes, is.. uh... ummmm... I'm going to have to go with nuclear holocaust... Those EMP waves would probably mess with my tapes too ;)

Yeah, your heads might be slightly misaligned or dirty if the "humming" sounds like tape being "strummed" by the video drum. If it doesn't make the sound when there is no tape in it, then try running a head cleaner on it before sending it in for a costly service. It's very probable that the person who owned it before you had the money to upgrade and didn't just sell it to you because it was damaged.

I believe when you have the camera in record mode the heads are still spinning regardless if you are recording or not.

This is a wee bit of topic but I usually do all my video work with my XL1s and load the footage onto my computer with a wee 1 chip Sony camera I use for holidays etc and recently the footage has bee dropping frames while being loaded and plays back jumpy on the wee Sony camera but loads fine with the XL1s, is this also a sign the heads need aligned or replaced?

Many Thanks
Paul

Hi Paul,

I'll be interested in seeing what other say about this; I've wrangled with this one, too.

Some people have told me my cameras heads (both XL1s) are misaligned; however, when I sent the worst offender to Canon service they said it was fine.

Whatever camera recorded the footage is the one I have to use for capture; otherwise, I have problems like yours.

Lorinda,

Are you saying that if you record on one XL1s and try to play on the other XL1s, that it does not work well? That does seem strange if true. I would try to clean both and try a different tape. The best tape that I found for the XL1s is the sony. See what that does.

Good Luck,

Mike

P.S. As far as the original question, I have two XL1s's and neither make any noise that I can hear. You might just take a peek inside the tape transport and see of any small object has gotten in there. You know, like a piece of a broken tape from before you got the camera! A little piece of mylar tape can make a lot of noise!

Mike

Hi Mike,

This whole thing came to my attention a couple years back when I bought a JVC deck ($850) for capture. Tapes shot on both cameras showed artifacts, etc. I took it back, the guy ran a few tapes shot on other cams through it and everything looked fine. He put my tapes in a high-end Sony deck and they played okay.

I always used Sony tapes, but after I sent my "problem child" cam to Canon Service I switched it to Fuji tapes. It's still got problems, mainly when I first start recording, but I just live with it (and use my workhorse cam for critical shots).

To answer your question, yes, even when I used the same brand of tape in both I pretty much had to keep the tapes marked "cam 1" "cam 2" if I wanted to count on flawless playback. There's no doubt in my mind that at least one of them has misaligned heads. Maybe I should try sending it to the NJ center, but don't I have to keep in mind that if the heads are realigned I may have trouble ever playing back the tapes I've got now?

About that humming noise, I can't speak for Randy C., but I'm just ultra-sensitive to it. I've been around several XLs and they all sound the same to me--kinda noisy! :)

Yes I'm afraid of this problem as well if the heads are aligned will all the footage I have play back right when it returns.

The person I bought mine from said he noticed a similar problem and upgraded his sony player/recorder to a Panasonic one and this cured his problem.

It would be a while job to capture all of the important footage and record it back to tape on a different camera, but for some very important tapes this would be the only way to go.

Thank you all and until you send the camera in for a service you will never know for sure but they are a great camera and worth keeping in good working order.......if only the Canon service crew where faster in sending back the camera, a few people I know had to do without their camera for 12 weeks which is just too long for someone without a second camera.

Paul

Twelve weeks??? Yeah, that's a long time! To which service center were they sent? Because I'm in the West I always sent mine to Irvine (the one getting some negative feedback lately). I never waited more than a week, and they always sent a detailed report back of what they did. Have to say, though, it's been over a year since either of mine have been serviced.

They were both sent to England through a company over here called Jessops, I don't know which Canon centre they used.

1 week is super fast, both of them must be ready for a service now Lorinda to keep them right for next season.

Paul

Last I knew, the Canon USA standard for servicing an XL1 series was 3 to 4 work days at the factory service center - to that add shipping time. When I've sent mine in for service that is the time it has taken.

The USA work in a far better and bigger scale than England, your all lucky over there.
Paul