Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

This camera is a gift to me from me. I own a Gl2 and it is time to up grade to HD.this is more of a hobby to me but I have shot weddings and sports for friends.I really like the Xh-a1 for being able to let the camera do its programing itself and it's amazing how vivad the quality is,and when I get better at seeing the shot I will have a camera that any pro can tweek the image.
Though it has a small lcd screen I love every thing about this camera.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

This camcorder paved the way and launched my tiny part-time production company into my six figure part-time adult film cash cow --- I can't help but love it! 4 out of 5 for me

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

Easy to use, good quality[...]

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

Image quality is fantastic

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

I am a videographer and this camera is my first HD camera. I am very impressed. After programming in different presets for the camera I have excellent options for getting the best video quality.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

I've just upgraded from the GL2. I do mostly event work. Youth sports, community orchestra, etc. The 20x loom is a big plus and the zoom ring on the lens helps. I do not like the auto gain control, turn that off right away.

Next project, ZOMBIES!

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

I use this product both outdoor and indoor horse arenas. I started filming in fully auto mode and quickly moved to manual in a very short span of time. I am a pro-consumer and find it very user friendly with big performance at a reasonable price. It make my GL2 a piece of very old technology camera.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

I use this camcorder primarily for short movie productions, as well as event videography. The thing that makes this camcorder so pracical is its lens, which has a flexible optical range, with that said I would highly recomend using a UV filter as the lens is probably close to half the value of the camcorder. Low light capture is excellent.
I don't really have any complaints about this product, if you look after it properly I have no doubts that it will last you for a long time.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

I'm glad I could be of some help. I wont lie to you though, I'm no expert when it comes to the proconsumer camera. All I can do is give you my experience with the Canon XHA1 and my opinion, which is what I'm hoping your looking for :).In case you were wondering, I am a college student studying Film/T.V. production. After obtaining my first internship for shooting a live broadcast for a newly formed hockey team, as well as producing a team internet show, I felt that the Film/T.V. career was definetley what I wanted. And in order to dive deeper into the career, in other words to get noticed by more people, I needed the equipment...Thats when I started looking up cameras....I in fact was looking to buy the Panasonic AGDVX100a. It was right at the price range that I could afford, and great reviews were leaning me towards buying it. However, after discussing the future of Film, T.v., and the industry as a whole, with my professor and co-film-students, I realized it would be much better to go with HD than with SD. Which led me to the Canon XHA1. At [$] it was just above my price range, but a few more hours at work, and I was able to buy it...This is pretty much what you are doing right? Looking to upgrade to HD, as HD is the future of T.V., the film industry, and the consumer viewer as a whole...?HD is a great investment, and one of the best choices you could make in your filming career/videography career..but I'm sure you already knew that :) I went on youtube and checked out some videos on the Canon XH-A1, there is a series on there that shows the specifications and uses of them, and what not, so you can get a better idea of what your getting with the A1...[@]Now for my experience and opinion of the XHA1.As I have said, the image quality has been great with what I have shot so far. As i've already stated, I haven't been able to fully explore my image possibilites due to weather, but As soon as I can I will...However, I wish it shot in tru 1080p. It shoots in 1080i only, which is 1080 lnterlaced. It's not to big of a deal, because there have been reports that 1080i looks sharper, but the fact is, is that 1080p is the tru standard for the highest possible HD signal in the industry. So when talking to a potential customer, you want to say "yes my camera can shoot in any HD signal you want," when in fact it can't shoot in 1080p...(if you wanted to go to 720p, you'd have to scale down to it when saving the file source that will be the burnable file...Again im not sure how this works on FCP)This is just a minor issue with the XHA1, and really shouldn't stop you from buying the XHA1, especially if you're on a budget; because most people can't tell the difference between 1080p and 1080i...One really significant thing I would of liked to of have is Interchangeable lenses...Unfortunetly the XHA1, does not have that feature, and is Something I would have loved to have paid more for, if i could have...With interchangeable lenses, the future is almost unlimited with image possibilities...This is something, if you have the money, you should consider when buying your camera. I am able to live with my decision of buying the XHA1, because I know, my college career wont require extensive image possibilities, and my videography projects wont require many decisions on the image choice. But in your case, your already shooting weddings, and documentaries, so a change in the type of image you can achieve may be an option, creatively, that you will want to almost certainly have. You will have to do some research on what interchangeable lense possibilites you could have, because I am not solid on what they could be...but I know they are out there...Another feature I would like to of had, but was near impossible, is the P2 flash recording option. But the p2 card alone costs over $1000 alone...and when you add in the factor that their are only two card sizes, 16gig and 32gig, both of which uncompressed video of any signal type fill up quickly, you will see that P2 flash recording capabilties can become quite expensive. P2 flash recording can make postproduction life alot easier when it comes to using tape, but you really need at least 2 or more cards(at the moment, larger card sizes may come in the future, and hopefully at a cheaper price) in order to sucessfully capture everything that happens at an event or wedding...shooting a documentary though, you may have the time to drag the video files to your MAC, and empty out your p2 card....Overall, I am very happy with my Canon XHA1, and at my current time in life, it was a great buy for me...It will last me for at least 4 or 5 years, I am hoping...There are many things for you to consider before buying your next-Gen proconsumer camera. This is mostly because the industry is moving so rapidly; even with the recession...I hope that I may have been able to help you a little bit.I'm also sorry this was such a long review lol. Goodluck with your decision.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

Excellent camera.
I use it for weddings and advertising and I have no complains.
It gets heavy after a few hours, but that’s it.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

We use this camera to record sermons in the church, and we do braoadcast these on the local TV channel. It is a great camera for the money. I love the picture quality. The camera is great to use from 5 - 35 feet. If you shot from farther than that the quality of the picture seems to decrease a bit. It is also possible that I still don't know how to use it properly.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

Perfect picture and sound! SD picture look awsome too. The 1080 picture is what you would expect from High Def. I love this camera I have 2 of them and I want 2 more! For the most part there are no problems with this camera. The only 2 things I think canon should change is have a letterbox output wile video tapeing. Playback they have that but not for live. When you hook to a 4:3 TV you get a filled 16:9 image so everyone looks tall and thin, whish you could get lettbox here. The other thing Canon should think of is be able to transfer white balance from one camera to the other. You can transfer everything else from on to the other except white balance, am I crazy for wanting that? When you have multi camera shooting why should you have to set the white balance for every camera, seems like a small simple thing to be able to set one and copy to memeory card and load on all the others.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

We use this camera for live video in theatre applications. The picture is great, the controls are easy for students to master, and the range of output signals give us plenty to work with.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

I had a client that wanted a shoot on HDV. After looking at rental costs, I bought the Canon XH-A1 for about $3,000.00. I can not believe the quality of this camera. The lense is superior to offerings by Sony and panasonic. (I'm a long term Sony buyer)

Ive had several multi-day shoots with this camera. An LA producer who I've worked with a couple of times actually asks for this camera over my Sonys.

The lcd viewfinder is rather smallish, but that is my only complaint. The picture quality, lense, and switches and controls are first rate. Can't beat the price too. This has paid for itself in no time!

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

Just recently purchased a second one. This camera performs extremely well in many different situations. Tapeless workflow would be nice but the performance at the price cannot be beat. HDV in 30f is primarily what we use in most situations and paired with Apple's FCP ProRes 4:2:2 and adjustments you can get a very clean key as well. But its best feature is its lens; for a fixed lens it has great focal capabilities and the controls are very ergonomic; after initial setup for custom prefs. there is very little need for menu navigation. Only con is the mic which is expected with cameras in this class but it has phantom power XLR so just get a short shotgun. All in all a great product and best value!

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

Forget what any body tells you you can film and capture SD miniDV with this camera. You can also film HD then down convert to regular DV with no compromise in down-coverting to 16:9 SD with this camera. You just have to mess with some settings. I spent almost an entire day getting to know this camera, now they are my best friends.

The small LCD everyone keeps talking about is not that small, Your face is about 6" away from it and the resolution is great. If it was bigger it would be bulky and easy to break off. Use a focus aid called peaking and you can manually focus perfectly. The peaking feature makes whats in focus grainy outlined. If it's soft it's out of focus. You can film an entire event with this turned on and it will not get on your nerves.

I got two of these to film weddings and events. I'm replacing my GL-2 and XL-1s with these. The great thing is now I have two cameras that match color and white balance. The GL-2 and XL-1s film completely different, to me the GL-2 images looked better. Don't know why.

As of right now I'm only using these to film 16:9 Standard Def and the results are way better than my other cameras as these do true 16:9 and not a stretch method. Later I found out I was loosing about 120 lines of resolution because of the way the GL2 and the XL-1s do widescreen. So My SD Images with the XH-A1 is way better not to mention the color is better.

I plan on making a full HD Upgrade by the end of the year and my first step was getting these.

When I hook the Component cables up to my HDTV wow! The image looks like Blue-ray at it's best! Can't wait until I'm full blown HD. But as for now the SD is better than expected!

So if your looking to start upgrading to HD but can only do SD right now this camera will work for you. You can film all important stuff in HD capture now in SD and save the tape and re-capture in HD when your ready to. You get no compromise other than the HDV tapes are way more costly right now. And you'll have to re-edit your footage when you re-capture to HD.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

I need to make some videos for work. (Documenting problems and solutions to our town's sewer system. I had heard the XH-A1 was a good quality entry level camcorder, but that it had a fairly high learning curve.

I was pleasantly surprised that by reading parts of the manual and pointing and clicking, that the camera was easy to use and takes really high quality video. I'm sure that I will find lots of ways to improve my videos over time, but for now, I'm quite happy with it, just using the "auto" stettings.

It also worked well with my Mac and Final Cut Express, once I got the settings right.

I would recommend it for a novice, if you can afford it.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

I've had this camera for 9 months now and it has less than 3.5 hours of shooting done on it. The images it gives are sharp and colored nicely, and I like the 20X zoom for versatility. My model, however, malfunctions with electronic glitches repeatedly (which is why it only has 3.5 hours of time on it for 9 months) making it useless for any sort of motion shots (air races, bird shots, etc.). It has a "reset" feature which is used more than anything else on the camera (which cancels any presets put in as well as the glitch... sometimes). It has been into the shop for repairs (which lasted for 2 takes when I got it back - about 10 seconds), and also taken to independents for repair (also temporary in nature).
The servo zoom is also jumpy at low speeds both in variable mode and when using the ring on the lens barrel.
For the amount of money paid it has proven frustrating and unsatisfactory. Canon answers my correspondence with the canned "your satisfaction is very important to us (etc)" line, but not much has happened beyond that. I will be sending it in again this week for repairs.
Bottom line: if you don't have backup cameras and need to make a living with your video camera this is not a good model to choose.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

i am just an user, not an expert, but I really liked the camera. Nice image quality, easy to operate, great price comparing with other similar cameras. that's a real deal.

Comments about Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode:

I bought this camera recently for my own video projects as well as for school. Being an amateur videographer and full time TV and video production student I must say that this camera is extremely worthy of such work. There are so many functions and options packed into its, (compared to other prosumer cameras), small body that this camera is more versatile and mobile than others. The Canon XH-A1 is sure to achieve the type of look any enthusiast is looking for.