Firewire Cable for XL1s
 

When purchased the XL1s didn't come with a firewire cable. The port on the camera looks smaller than a normal firewire port.
Do I need a 4 pin to a 6 pin cable? I looked on Canons site and they had both listed for the camcorder...

David,
For a camera to camera connection you will need a 4 pin to 4 pin cable. For a camera to computer connection you will need a 4 pin (camera) to 6 pin (computer) connection. For something like the iPod you would need a 6 pin to 6 pin cable. So all cables have their specific uses, but for connecting your XL1s to your computer you will need a 4 pin to 6 pin. Good luck, and have fun with your XL1s!

Although this is mostly true, it is now always! My laptop (on which
I do the video transfers at least) has a 4 (!!) pin connector
(probably due to space considerations). I suggest you look at
your computer port first before buying the cable. I got myself
a 4-to-4 pin cable. I'm also thinking about getting a 4-to-6 pin
just to be on the safe side if I need to use the camera on any
other computer.

Do you have a Sony Vaio laptop? They come equipt with a iLink port, which is a sort of firewire for the Sony cameras. I really dont get why they have it thought because it works with all cameras.

No, I have a DELL Latitude laptop (comes with my job), it has a
plain IEE1394 compatible firewire port. It just uses a the smaller
connector, that is all.

FireWire and iLink are the same connection and follow the same specifications as set forth by IEEE1394. iLink is the Sony trademark for that connection. FireWire is Apple's trademark but they allow the other members of IEEE 1394 to use it. Apple Computer is the principal inventor of FireWire and is paid a royalty for every use.

Jeff

firewire question
 

does anyone know what the 4 pin to 4 pin firewire cable is worth
canon dealer says is a $50.00 US cable.
The regular firewire for a device to computerb is way cheaper

I do know that my 4-to-4 was pretty expensive. Around $50
might be correct indeed (althought I think I payed slightly less).

This one instance where I would be certain to have a name brand cable. Dropped frames and other capture problems have been traced to cheap cables. It's not worth the headaches to save a few bucks.

Jeff

Canon Firewire cable is expensive probably because they offer it as a convenience, not as a major product line, thus the level of sales do not support going to a lowr price. Any reasonable quality firewire cable should do fine, it need not be the "Monster" or other premium brand for most normal uses. You can find long cables, and for long runs better cable construciton is required. Note however that the firewire connectors are not very robust, and for long life careful use is indicatred.

Common needs are a 4-pit to 4-pin for copying between camcorders and/or VCRs. A 6-pint to 4-pin is common for firewire connection from camcorder to PCs. But as noted above, variations do occure.

Firewire cables seem to cost more than the camera itself. That;s an exaggeration, but they are expensive (it's friggin wire) because of the royalty payments described above.

THey cost what the market will bear, and since mostly it's still a speciality cable that you need desperately when you need it, it's easy to price high.


A good serial cable used to cost a lot too, now they come for free with microwave ovens.

You could buy a 4-4 cable, and a 4-6 adapter for if/when you need one.

Expect to pay around $6-10 for a generic 6-foot firewire cable, and to pay $30 or more for a higher end brand name.

I've been using a $6 generic with no problems.

Same here. I have been using a cheap cable for 3 years with no problems.

cutting a fire wire cable
 

does anyone know if the firewire is 4 or 6 wires and like the vhs-s cables one could cut them and slice on a 6 or whatever section is fire wire this simple.

In general firewire is 4 or 6 conductor. At the camcorder end it is 4-wire. (The 6-wire includes power in the added two conductors.)

Firewire is a high speed balanced serial data cable. Electrically speaking it is a sort of cousin of RS-422 and ethernet, but faster. And the signal protocol (commands, etc.) are different. The speed makes it a bit fussy about the cable used - impedance matching, losses, and that sort of thing to avoid echos, phase delay, and noise on the line that could corrupt the data signal.

Could one splice two firewire cables to make a longer one. Probably, but if not careful one could end up with less than satisfactory results.

Question to Rob;
I have a Dell laptop too (an Inspiron 8200), but for some reason 4-4 pin cables won't work with my non-S XL1 (tried several). What model Dell do you have? I have spoken to Dell and Canon about this but each say the other one's at fault.
Sad result is I lug a Firewire PC-Card around with me, it's got a 6pin connector and works perfectly, but it's not the best solution seeing as the onboard firewire is now out of a job...

Thanks for any help,

Kai.

I am not sure that I would do that (cutting the wire). It is properly insulated so it doesn't receive any interference, and cutting it would break the insulation (you couldn't mend that back together the same way it originally was), possibly allowing interference. But it might work...I wouldn't do it buy hey, if you end up doing it, post back here to let us know if it works!

Self powered device (battery or plug into wall outlet) require only a 4 pin, but may be fitted with a 6 pin connection. Unpowered devices need the 6 pin, the extra 2 wires supply power from the buss.

Kai,

I have a Dell Latitude C800. What OS are you running? I'm running
Windows 2000 Professional. Check to see if the laptop sees
your firewire port at all (it might very well be I had to enable
the port in the Bios first, not sure).

If I go to the Device Manager I see the following device under
IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers:

Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller.

If you plug the camera in, nothing seems to happen. But if I
startup Premiere I can just control the camera fine (I have
selected the Canon camera in Premiere first though).

Hope this helps you some.

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : Kai,

<SNIP>

If you plug the camera in, nothing seems to happen. But if I
startup Premiere I can just control the camera fine (I have
selected the Canon camera in Premiere first though).

Hope this helps you some. -->>>

Ah! Well, I have XP Pro and Avid Xpress DV, and like on yours, my camera doesn't get recognized even though the firewire port is fine. Scenalyzer doesn't see the cam either btw.
The really weird thing is that if I daisy chain the camera through an external FW disk all is well (so 4-6 pin to disk, then 6-4 to camera) - the camera gets detected and I can control it from Avid...
So, I'll try to install Premiere and see if that makes a difference...
Thanks for your help!

Kai.

Can't you just leave it daisy chained then? My gut says this has
something todo with how XP handles things....

Good luck!

Well, I don't really want to lug around a disk and it's power supply (as it can't be powered by the bus because of the 4-pin connector on the laptop), and besides - it's supposed to work without one, it's what I paid for...
Oh and btw, it's not XP, as Windows 2K and Linux have the same problem, so I'm rather suspecting the hardware on the Dell side of the cable. I'm trying another laptop from a friend tomorrow, different make etc, so that will clinch the issue who's at fault...
Many thanks for letting me pick your brain!

K.

It might very well be a problem on your laptops end. Although
it does sound weird that it works through another device. Weird!

I hope you nail down the problem and get it fixed!!

Just a quick update for those interested; I connected my XL1 to another laptop with integrated (4 pin) firewire. Same deal as with my Inspiron - it wasn't even detected by XP. So it looks like
So my next stop will be the local Canon rep to see if they can figure out if it's anything to do with my camera.

Kailee.

Some systems like to have the camcorder connected and powered on before the PC is powered on to ensure detection. Also, in some cases driver update and/or OS patches may be needed to ensure detection. Be sure all are up-to-date.