Response to Pulling Focus

The Canon XL1 - In one word - Astonishing! I am a television news photographer for the Fox news Channel. I have been shooting on a Beta Sp 400 a for the last three years. Two weeks ago I purchased the XL1 and have been blown away ever since. Yesterday day I shot some video with the XL1 while on a news story. I brought the footage back, transfered it to Beta SP, and showed it to some co-workers. No one could tell the difference, I'm not kidding. It rivals the picture quality of my fifty thousand dollar camera. It has great manual control, (which is all I ever use - old habits die hard) and a takes a quick and easy color balance. But my favorite effect has to be the slow S-30 digi effect. It's the best in camera effect I've come across to mimicking film. For years I have used a method of speeding up my video, then slowing it down to create a film look. The XL1 does it in the camera. OK, OK, I know - it doesn't look (exactly) like film, but it has unique, gritty look that I happen to think is very cool. However, if planning to transfer to film at some point I would not suggest using this effect. It's just something fun to play around with. The built in stabilizer is great as well. One of the many rules you learn as a news photographer for shooting off the shoulder is to zoom with your feet, not with your fingers. In other words, stay wide and walk into your subject. With the XL1 stabilizer you can zoom and stay solid as a rock -- no earthquake video. This camera may look like a toy, but I'm here to tell you it's not!

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