XL-H1 Cine Package from Zacuto

[Steve McBride]

For an upcoming production that the writer asked me to direct for him, I am looking at renting the Canon XL-H1 Cine package from Zacuto.com and I was wondering for someone who has never used the camera (or an HD prosumer camcorder) before if this is a good choice.

 

I have used the XL1 a lot in the past for shorts and am very comfortable with it. I have been doing a lot of research on the XL-H1 and there are a lot of features on it that I have never used before. We aren't going to be shooting until early to mid January so I'm already planning a trip to Zacuto near Thanksgiving to try it out and I just want to know what people think about it.

 

Here is a link if you don't want to go searching: http://www.zacuto.com/canon_xlh1_new.htm

[Richard Kelly]

If you are you shooting a feature or trying to imulate 35mm I would consider adding an adapter like Redrock, P+S Technik, Letus 35, Brevis, or MovieTube and using 35mm lenses. By the time you are renting the camera package the Convergent Design Flash XDR Compact Flash based portable HD Recorder should be available. By connecting directly to the HD-SDI output from the camera it can record both Long-GOP and I-Frame only MPEG2 and supports 4:2:2 video up to 160 Mbps. We shot the feature Deadland with a Panasonic AG-HVX200, Redrock 2, Nikon 35mm SLR primes and a firestore recorder and while we haven't gone out to film the movie looks good on a 40' screen. Our next project will be shot with the xlh1, Redrock2 and we are currently testing the Flash XDR for recording.