Canon XL-1 Page
Remarks about the camera:
1). The action of the lens in manual mode is not directly proportional to the control-ring rotation. This is probably a result of the focus and zoom being servo-controlled, with the control rings simply providing the rate info for the drive circuitry. If one is familiar with professional lenses, then this is disappointing.
2). A week after I started using the camera, I noticed a bright green spot in the centre of the picture, apparent in high gain or slow shutter speed situations. I think this was due to a dead pixel on the green CCD, although it was also visible in the eyepiece, and it seemed bigger than I would have imagined a pixel to appear. Canon South Africa have subsequently repaired it, and the camera now is perfect.
3). The eyepiece is the best I have seen on a consumer product.
4). The image stabilizer works very well. I shot some in-car footage, and very little shakiness was evident.
5). The on-camera microphone does pick up some motor noise from the lens when zooming, etc. I use a lapel microphone to overcome this.
6). I cannot see the point of using an EOS lens (Canon really push this feature!) on this camera, bearing in mind that the focal length multiplies by a factor of 7.2, except maybe for wildlife or astronomy.
Worthwhile XL-1 links: