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Enhancements to XL2 for wedding use


Gaven Eogan

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Hi,

 

Hi using XL1S for years since it came out. I am going to be filming the sisters wedding soon and am going to use XL1S and am thinking of hiring a XL2 out too.

 

I have just ordered the 16x manual lens for my XL1S, having previously used the stock 16x lens for a another wedding and getting annoyed with the focus hunting and lack of accuracy in non-auto mode.

 

Just a few questions:

 

Is the 16x manual a fixed F1.6 lens over all zoom range? I think the stock one is F1.6-3.5 isn't it so (you notice image getting darker as you zoom to far parts of the church with a fixed gain)

 

The only thing i will really miss is image stabilisation - how bad is shakiness in the 1m to 4m range that will be most of the shots and can i get away with my usual monopod or do i need to buy a big expensive fluid head tripod - if so which one is best (not ultra expensive) for XL1?

 

Is the image slightly sharper with this lens compared to standard lens - i notice a gigantic improvement in picture quality/sharpness when using my EOS lenses on converter with camera (especially 70-200L IS) and this is even over the large distance these lenses can reach on camera. Will the manual lens be comparable to this EOS L lens on XL1?

 

Is this lens better on XL2 i.e. i'd like to record wedding in true 16:9 and use XL1S as fill in extra shots somehow (maybe give it to someone else with standard setup)

 

The last wedding i did although i got color balance right in church using white card beforehand, i completely fecked up the white balance for some of the afters because i didn't notice it using FU-1000 andI tried fixing later in Premiere but it seemed to be impossible to keep any sort of image quality in the low light images with the PAL 4:2:0 compression so i gave up and left the color cast in those scenes. It seems NTSC 4:1:1 is slightly better in this regard isn't it. While i'm on this any good compatible camera mount lights i could use (not too expensive <?200) or LCD monitors compatible with XL2(to keep eye on white balance). I was looking at Glidecam one but i think it's overkill.

 

Lot of questions here - i might slpit it out into seperate posts if there's too much here in one.

 

p.s. using the FU-1000 B/W CRT viewfinder - i don't know how anyone could use the FU-500 colour finder in any light to manually focus!

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Canon Manual 16X is F1.6 thru the entire zoom range. It may appear a little sharper as it tends to be a little more contrasty and poppy. On the long end, it can show lots of CA. I love the lens though.

 

 

 

 

ash =o)

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