Blast from the past Canon XL-1!!?? 2016 Uses?!!

[Juxx989]

well you know when your known as the "camera guy" in your circle people keep dumping these old cameras I don't know what to do with...Earlier this year somebody gave me a Nikon D50 thats just sitting there....and just today this woman down the hall gives me a Canon XL-1  I can lie my heart dropped a little you dont know How much I wanted one back in 2000 when I worked at a local CBS station... 

I have a NX-1 with 16-50s , 30mm, 45mm,16mm... about 6 old manual lenses... 

What do I do with this Canon? Perhaps a good prop?   Well at least it will look cool on my camera shelf....

[tupp]

Send the XL-1 to Liam.

[bigfoot]

Get that 24p "HD" (24F mode with the 2:3 pulldown) out of the SDI port to an external recorder for a project and honor this beauty ! The motion cadence looks good on this and I don't even need to talk about the colors. 3ccd was awesome and it's a 4:2:2 camera!  It's a great tool - I had a lots of fun project in school with that one, Dynamic range and low light is limited a bit that's all 

 

or even that 24p "SD" if you still have some tape around - "Records in 24 fps progressive mode like movie cameras, creating a true cinematic feel to the picture" according to Canon pdf 

[Liam]

1 hour ago, tupp said:

Send the XL-1 to Liam.

Yesplease!

[hempo22]

It's a wonderful camera! Easily my fav DV cam and the HDV version (XL-H1) is great as well and there is an adapter for EF glass but... the circa 7x crop is not so fun haha. I would love to use it again with a modern external recorder and wish a focal reducer was made for it xD 

[Juxx989]

So all I got to do is get a BlackMagic recorder/screen and Im in 4:2:2  SD VIDEO Heaven!?   Samsung is out the window!! Retro is in these days... This won video of the year...   

 

[Ehetyz]

No lie, if one fell into my hands I'd start writing up a project just for the camera.
It was like a holy grail of cameras for me before the HD(V) days. I got to shoot a few projects with its little brother XM2 and that thing was bliss.

Those old pro/prosumer Canons were so easy and so much fun to use my producing partner actually dropped out of cinematography when they became obsolete and we moved to HDSLR:s and Cinema cameras.

[Hans Punk]

XL1 with a DOF adaptor can look pretty unique these days...has a slight telecine feel:

 

[bigfoot]

6 hours ago, Juxx989 said:

So all I got to do is get a BlackMagic recorder/screen and Im in 4:2:2  SD VIDEO Heaven!?   Samsung is out the window!! Retro is in these days... This won video of the year...   

 

OHHH shoot, I've confuse the SD version with the HDV    (XL-H1)

"The difference in size between the XL1’s CCD and 35 mm film means that the effective focal length of the EF lens is multiplied by 7.2×"

 

There's no sdi on the XL-1 according to the user manual;

Output level: Video terminal: RCA jack, 1 Vp-p/75Ω unbalanced, synchronized load S-video terminal: 4 pin mini DIN, 1 Vp-p (Y signal), 0.286 Vp-p (C signal) Audio terminal: RCA jack (L, R), 2 sets 4dBm (47kΩ load)/3kΩ or less, unbalanced

http://www.tlu.ee/~rajaleid/manuals/CANON-XL1-Video-camera-USER-MANUAL.pdf

 

RCA output seems to be 4:2:0 

[Liam]

Damn, I knew you'd decide to keep it and crush my dreams :'(

For real though, I hate all other cameras now.

[BrooklynDan]

The XL2 was my favorite camera in film school. So ergonomic and fun to use. I wish that Canon had stuck with this form factor. And the motion cadence was excellent. Despite the tiny chip, it looked much more filmic to me than the DSLRs we replaced it with.

One of my sophomore exercises:

 

[Juxx989]

@ BrooklynDAN This is legit... That actor was pretty good... Liked it alot!    I been looking around about this and it seems Danny Boyle Shot 28 Days Later with an XL1... this thing is no joke!      http://indiediyfilm.blogspot.com/2009/11/28-days-later-all-shot-on-xl1.html