Camera
The Canon XL1 3CCD Digital Video
Camcorder
The Canon XL1 camera was the most advanced camera when it was released in the early 1990s. Since then it has been overtaken by other cameras but still performs well because of its various modes. The beauty of this camera is the ease with which variables can be manipulated. Cameras before the XL1 did not allow this level of manipulation of functionality and as such this camera is extremely useful for the television journalist.
How it works
‐Basically the Canon camcorder records in a string of alternating lines. This refers to its resolutions which is 530 horizontal lines
Features
The beauty of the Canon is its interchangeable lens system: this means that you can change from a normal lens, to a wide angle lens, or even to a lens from a normal camera. By so doing you can choose the lens which best suits your situation. The wide angle lens is best used for establishing shots while the normal lens will be used most of the time.
‐The Canon XL1 has a Super Range Optical Image Stabiliser which is an advancement on previous stabilisers. This can be done by sliding the small switch on the left of the camera and is useful for shots where there may be vibration. It is however useful to turn off the stabiliser when you specifically want a shaky shot (such as in our sequence).
‐The view‐finder is advanced in that you can use either your left or right eye and it is quite open to repositioning. The viewfinder consists just of an eye‐piece however, and does not have the handy pull‐out screen of the Panasonic. This takes some getting used to but the picture in the eye‐piece can be adjusted.
‐The Canon XL1 has an optical 16X zoom lens which is highly sensitive
The Canon XL1 has 3 shooting modes:
1.NORMAL Æ this is the most commonly used mode and is good for movement
2.DIGITAL Æ this allows you to take still images