shooting in black & white
 

Stupid question for sure, but how exactly do you shoot in B/W? And how about in sepia tones? Dirt cheap VHScompact cameras offer all these modes... and you'll tell me on the XL1 it's gotta be done in post??

Thanks for your comments.

Tanoka

you can remove the color in just about any of the decent NLE's for use on a PC or Mac....and you could always send back to tape.

On the new XL1S, you can take the color gain all the way down to zero for shooting in black and white. On the older XL1, you'll have to do it in post. No big deal -- just about every NLE these days has the most rudimentary color correction tools. My Canopus DV Rex RT has a few pre-sets for monochrome and sepia tones, and can do this correction in real time and output to DV in real time. You owe it to yourself to invest in a good, solid real-time editing system worthy of the XL1. You want to spend at least as much on your editing gear as you did on the XL1.

The reason the 'Dirt Cheap' cameras have these effects is because they are designed for home use, for people who edit with their video recorder and don't have computer based editing systems. It is also to a lessor extent, to cover up the poor quality optics and picture

Most of the "cheapos" I've seen have lots of features that pro or prosumer models don't. For my use, virtually all of those "features" are worthless, and can be better done manually or in post.

They're primarily selling points for use by the guys working in the consumer video stores. e.g., More special effects=higher price=must be better!

Vic