Canon XL1s- friend or Foe?

[jonboatjones]

Anyone out there have any difficulty getting a quality image out of their X?
I mean, I also Have a gl2, which seems to consistantly tape better looking footage than its big brother. I purchased the X because it seemed to have more image control than the gl2, better lens, XLR input capability( Of course, with the purchase of the MA 200 for a measly $350) Perhaps I am not setting it up correctly, but on two cam shoots, its a real headache to match the 2 cams. And the gl2 picture has a noticably better picture. I WB on the same card, same settings in the menus, matched custom preset values, but still, no bueno. If any one out there has experienced a similar dilema, lets see if we can figure this issue out. I don't want to have to put the gl2 behind another teleprompter again, clients kinda laugh at that. It is funny looking though. In the clients eyes, the bigger the cam, the better they feel about spending their money. (another reason I bought an XL1s)

thx for any replies,
jb

 

[Kim Welch]

I apologize for the delay in responding, and thank you for posting. Many XL1s owners found that its default settings looked softer or different from a GL2, so matching the two on a shoot takes some setup. Turn off any custom presets, set white balance manually on both cameras using the same white card, match shutter speeds and frame modes, and adjust sharpness and color gain on the XL1s until it matches. Shoot a test chart with both before every two-camera job. These days the same matching process applies to any multicam shoot, often finished with a color match in DaVinci Resolve.