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Has Canon discontinued the xha1s?


Shidan Saberi

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Canon makes great products, especially lenses, but they are always late to the party. Why aren't they on the same band wagon as Sony and Panasonic with large chip cameras? Why not the 5D chip in a dedicated motion picture camera. With good audio. With interchangeable lenses!??! Maybe it is the sign of the times where R&D is really slow due to budget scarcity. Their cameras as great as they are, are usually a year or two late. They still sell a GL2. Who is going to spend $2800 these days for a standard def camera? I got a Vixia HFS100 that shoot just as nice a picture, but in HD for 800.

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The XLH1 was probably the sharpest prosumer camera I've ever seen. If it had been capable of true progressive scan it would have been a world-beater.

 

P

 

It's a beautiful camera. It's not on their website anymore. They've got a new range the xlh1 is not in there. Unfortunately the only prosumer cameras on the list are the xf305, fx300, fx105 and fx100. The fx305 and 300 look like the predecessors of xha1's expect nearly 4 grand more expensive. I've looked seen the image they put out and i did not like it. I prefer the xha1s. Nothing has replaced the xlh1. Are they really letting go of the high end pro camera market? Are they crazy?

 

The xf100 and 105 could be a high end consumer camera. But don't belong in the professional camera range.

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Canon makes great products, especially lenses, but they are always late to the party. Why aren't they on the same band wagon as Sony and Panasonic with large chip cameras? Why not the 5D chip in a dedicated motion picture camera. With good audio. With interchangeable lenses!??! Maybe it is the sign of the times where R&D is really slow due to budget scarcity. Their cameras as great as they are, are usually a year or two late. They still sell a GL2. Who is going to spend $2800 these days for a standard def camera? I got a Vixia HFS100 that shoot just as nice a picture, but in HD for 800.

 

That surprises me too. Didn't they realize that their SLR cameras stole the market. Why would they let sony and panasonic lead in the big chip market which was theirs all these years.

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Last Spring/Summer-ish there were rumors that Canon was working on a successor to the XLH1 with a super35mm sized sensor, EF lens mount, an ISO base of 800, with a 50MB codec, and trying to keep the price at around $8k.

 

Then Panasonic announced their AF100 (24MB bit-rate).

 

Then Canon came out with the 300 and 305. Lo and behold, they have a 50MB bit-rate.

 

Then Sony announced their F3 (35MB bit-rate).

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess Canon is still working on theirs. Working on the rolling shutter issues, possibly taking notes from the 1D Mark IV and having multiple video processors for unbelievable low-light capabilities (has anyone seen Vincent LaForet's "Nocturn"?!?! - all at freakin' 6,500 ASA!!)

 

If they can do all that, AND keep it to around $8k price, they'll even beat the tar out of the Sony with a 50MB bit-rate that will stand up even better to compositing and greenscreen.

 

Just a hopeful guess.

 

-Lew

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Bitrate isn't really all it's cracked up to be. While it's important, what is often more important is how well implemented it is. Just look at some of the HDV cameras out there... they all use the same bit rates, but produced very different images based on how well they used those bits. There is also DVCProHD, which is very different between an HVX200 and one of he Varicams. . . Point being, don't get too caught up on numbers a camera sells on, look at how well the camera itself holds up.

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Yeah - I realize it doesn't mean everything. In fact - the Panasonic AF100's 24MB bitrate isn't an across the board compression. It's processors are evaluating each frame to figure out where to compress (big white wall) and save space, and where to not compress for details (think tussled hair) so I imagine it looks beautiful.

 

I have a JVC HD110 and looking at a still from that, you can see the compression - but when it plays, it all blends together disappears. And shots from that have gone through a lot of After Effects work and hasn't fallen apart yet.

 

Some review I just read about the new Canons (300 and 305 - not the DSLRs) talked about the visual difference between their 35 and 50MB rates and said they could barely see it at all. It's the techie nit-picky post production matter of having a little more color info and details when it comes to stuff like heavy corrections and grading, greenscreen (VFX in general) so it holds up. Too compressed and it fall apart if handled rough at all - one of the complaints I keep finding about the Panasonic GH1's video files - you'd better get it the way you want it in-camera because if you cc or grade too much it'll start producing jaggies.

 

But all the above - shooting action, or drama, comedy - no heavy VFX? As long as it's a good script and well put together, no one will be looking for jaggies, moire patterns, compression artifacts in general.

 

As one guy (whose name I can't remember right now) put it, this is analyzing it on a forensic level that no one but techies will EVER know or care.

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Last Spring/Summer-ish there were rumors that Canon was working on a successor to the XLH1 with a super35mm sized sensor, EF lens mount, an ISO base of 800, with a 50MB codec, and trying to keep the price at around $8k.

 

Then Panasonic announced their AF100 (24MB bit-rate).

 

Then Canon came out with the 300 and 305. Lo and behold, they have a 50MB bit-rate.

 

Then Sony announced their F3 (35MB bit-rate).

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess Canon is still working on theirs. Working on the rolling shutter issues, possibly taking notes from the 1D Mark IV and having multiple video processors for unbelievable low-light capabilities (has anyone seen Vincent LaForet's "Nocturn"?!?! - all at freakin' 6,500 ASA!!)

 

If they can do all that, AND keep it to around $8k price, they'll even beat the tar out of the Sony with a 50MB bit-rate that will stand up even better to compositing and greenscreen.

 

Just a hopeful guess.

 

-Lew

 

 

This all sounds pretty good and all. But now theres no cameras around the 5-6k price range that are pretty pro like the xha1s. I thought thats were they would have been making most their money anyway.

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I think you're right. Canon's taking too long, entirely. Not that they should release a half-@$$ed cam just to have something out there, but I'd think the DSLRs would have done MOST of their R&D for this process (oh, it would be SO sweet if they could use the sensor and processors from their 1D Mark IV!!), and their 300 and 305 models would have proven their codec works fine.

 

Panasonic's is $4,700-ish, though. It's serious competition price-wise considering the Sony F3 is $13,000 for the body.

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I think you're right. Canon's taking too long, entirely. Not that they should release a half-@$$ed cam just to have something out there, but I'd think the DSLRs would have done MOST of their R&D for this process (oh, it would be SO sweet if they could use the sensor and processors from their 1D Mark IV!!), and their 300 and 305 models would have proven their codec works fine.

 

Panasonic's is $4,700-ish, though. It's serious competition price-wise considering the Sony F3 is $13,000 for the body.

 

I just looked at the f3 and the image is really fantastic. It's the only sony camera that i've actually liked so far.

 

I think 13k is worth it. It's got a very professional look. I think i may like it better than Red even for half the price!

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