Canon Xl2 power issues

franco64 · December 2, 2005

:(

i have had some serious problems with my canon xl2 camera. Firstly the firewire cable stopped working so i sent it for repair and after a week of using it the power for the machine has just died on me using the battery and the power mains.

Is this a common fault having it cause so many problems. Is there a way that i can check the power has fried the board so i do not have to send it back to them.

I am so pissed off with this

:angry: <_<

Shaw H. Burrows · December 20, 2005

:(

i have had some serious problems with my canon xl2 camera. Firstly the firewire cable stopped working so i sent it for repair and after a week of using it the power for the machine has just died on me using the battery and the power mains.

Is this a common fault having it cause so many problems. Is there a way that i can check the power has fried the board so i do not have to send it back to them.

I am so pissed off with this

:angry: <_<

I have no idea? Hopefully this is an isolated Glich to your machine only. I'm picking mine up tomorrow.

I have been reading a lot of reviews and have yet to see anyone else having this problem, if I hear of it somewhere else I will direct them to you. If I have it myself there will soon be a gently used one on the market and I'll go back to the 100-A

Tim J Durham · December 20, 2005

:(

i have had some serious problems with my canon xl2 camera. Firstly the firewire cable stopped working so i sent it for repair and after a week of using it the power for the machine has just died on me using the battery and the power mains.

Is this a common fault having it cause so many problems. Is there a way that i can check the power has fried the board so i do not have to send it back to them.

I am so pissed off with this

:angry: <_<

If you're saying that the camera has died and will no longer power up you've probably disconnected the firewire cable with the camera turned on. That is a definite NO-NO with the XL-2 as it can kill the main fuse. You also CANNOT remove the lens or the MA-300 while the camera is powered up. If that's the case, you will need to send it in and have it replaced.

Read all about the saga of the blown master fuse here:

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=38...anon+blown+fuse

Eric Brown · December 20, 2005

If you're saying that the camera has died and will no longer power up you've probably disconnected the firewire cable with the camera turned on. That is a definite NO-NO with the XL-2 as it can kill the main fuse. You also CANNOT remove the lens or the MA-300 while the camera is powered up. If that's the case, you will need to send it in and have it replaced.
Read all about the saga of the blown master fuse here:

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=38...anon+blown+fuse

This actually brings up another topic as well (sorry to tangent). Do not use your XL2 as a deck. It's worth it to drop a couple hundred on a Canon z200 and let the little bugger take all the wear and tear to firewire connection, heads, etc.

I have heard this was a problem with the XL2 but have avoided it completely via this method of transfering DV to the computer.

Once you get your camera back you may want to consider this.

Mark Sasahara · January 25, 2006

Heh, thanks Tim. Yep it were an ugly one. Luckily it only cost me shipping and Canon were very nice and quick. It helped that they were in NJ and I was in NYC. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the Master Fuse yourself and there is no way to check it. I don't recommend opening up the camera, bad craziness.

ALWAYS POWER DOWN the camera BEFORE you:

-Remove the lens.

-Unplug the viewfinder- especially the B&W FU-1000. Otherwise it will F you. It F'ed me.

-Plug or unplug the Firewire connection.

-Don't know about the MA-300, don't have one. You really wouldn't need one since the XL2 already has XLR

inputs.

Everything else is okay, video and audio ins/outs.

I usualy I turn off the camera before I plug, or unplug the LANC controller, just because I'm paranoid. Don't know if it's a problem, probably not.

Otherwise it's been a great camera and it's still going strong.

Hunter Sandison · January 30, 2006

This actually brings up another topic as well (sorry to tangent). Do not use your XL2 as a deck. It's worth it to drop a couple hundred on a Canon z200 and let the little bugger take all the wear and tear to firewire connection, heads, etc.

Hello,

Can someone tell me a little about this and maybe clear up somethings for me. I'm rather ignorant about capturing and cutting video and I'm curious about some compatibility issues.

I did an internet search for the z200 and didn't come up anything. I did find a Canon ZR200. Is this the same thing? If I understand correctly, what Eric is talking about is using a lesser camera instead of a deck for importing because its cheaper than a deck. If if this is so do you lose anything that the deck camera cannot support that the xl2 can(e.g. resolution, 16x9, 24p, timecode) or is this not a problem at all.

Also, I'm using an older editing program, Final Cut Pro 2. This program came out a year or two before the xl2 or the dvx100 and 24p became available. Will it work? Also does anyone know how it will handle footage using the native 16x9 chip? I know it has cropping abilities but I never tried to use it with the xl2. Will it work?

Tim Carroll · February 21, 2006

Can someone tell me a little about this and maybe clear up somethings for me. I'm rather ignorant about capturing and cutting video and I'm curious about some compatibility issues.
I did an internet search for the z200 and didn't come up anything. I did find a Canon ZR200. Is this the same thing? If I understand correctly, what Eric is talking about is using a lesser camera instead of a deck for importing because its cheaper than a deck. If if this is so do you lose anything that the deck camera cannot support that the xl2 can(e.g. resolution, 16x9, 24p, timecode) or is this not a problem at all.

Also, I'm using an older editing program, Final Cut Pro 2. This program came out a year or two before the xl2 or the dvx100 and 24p became available. Will it work? Also does anyone know how it will handle footage using the native 16x9 chip? I know it has cropping abilities but I never tried to use it with the xl2. Will it work?

A few things. First, never use your camera for a deck. Your thousands of dollars went for lens, optics, electronics, chips, adjustability, etc. Probably less than ten percent of your money went for tape transport. The tape transport gets severely used and abused when you capture Digital Footage from your DV tape to your computer. So you are trashing ten percent of your camera investment and when that ten percent of your camera investment fails, your 100% camera investment becomes a boat anchor. Get a dedicated deck for capturing your DV footage to your computer, they are made for the heavy duty wear and tear of capture, "camera" tape transport systems are not. And if you are really paranoid and use your gear very regularly, get a tape rewinder. This way you are saving wear and tear on your thousands of dollars invested in your deck by not asking it to rewind your tapes when you finish with them. A tape rewinder runs about $49, and you can trash those and not be out much investment.

Some folks will buy a cheap DV camera and use that for a deck, figuring that they will trash it, but they do not want to make the full investment in a dedicated DV deck.

As far as FCP 2 and working with 24p from the XL-2, I am not certain but I don't think you will be able to do that. You can certainly work with 16:9, as long as it is NTSC and not 24p.

Hope that helps,

-Tim