Canon XL2 review

Canon XL2 Review

Reviewed by: Ben Wolf

Reviewed on: 18 April 2005

Canon has avoided a radical redesign and taken an evolutionary approach to the XL series for a reason. The XL2 camera body shares the XL-mount lenses, viewfinders, and accessories that were originally designed for the XL1. This is a real advantage for those who already have a significant investment in the XL system and to those with special needs that can be served only by these optional accessories. I'll go into more detail about the available lenses and viewfinders in the Features and Performance sections.


The XL2 continues the XL1's legacy of providing nonstandard but easily accessible mechanical controls over all major camera functions: iris, shutter, gain, white balance, and so forth. Most obviously, the XL2 retains the large rotary selector on the camera's left side, through which the camera is turned on and placed in one of its many exposure modes. Perhaps to show off the camera's new capabilities, a couple of conspicuous controls have been added to select frame rate and aspect ratio. Also new to the control layout are a couple of handy custom keys, which give you easy access to your favorite functions. Since the controls are laid out differently to most cameras, they do take some getting used to. However, I've grown to appreciate the XL cameras' peculiar logic, with one caveat: the f-stop control on the XL2, previously an easily manipulated wheel, has been replaced by an awkward, three-position switch that makes gross iris adjustments unnecessarily tedious.