Canon XL H1 review

The stock lens offers all the features of the XL2's lens: autofocus, a powerful Super-Range optical image stabiliser, two built-in neutral-density filters and a zoom-and-focus-preset mechanism. This last feature lets you reset the lens to a predetermined zoom and focus position with the push of a button. While hardly a substitute for the subtle control of the optional manual lens, this makes the stock lens somewhat more functional. The only wholly new feature offered by the stock lens is a back-focus adjustment that can be set either manually or automatically.

While the Canon XL H1 viewfinder has several performance limitations (see Performance), it offers a host of clever features. Adjustable aspect-ratio and safety-zone guidelines, crosshairs, and a line to aid in keeping shots level may all be digitally superimposed on the image. To assist in focusing -- especially critical when shooting HD -- a distance readout is now available. Other viewfinder functions include Peaking, which artificially emphasises areas in focus, and Magnifying, which blows up the centre of the viewfinder. Unfortunately, the Magnifying function can be switched on only when the camera is not recording.

Also new to the XL H1 is a viewfinder-flip feature for use with certain types of lens adaptors. It turns the viewfinder image upside down and backwards. Unfortunately, you can activate it only when the stock lens is not attached to the camera. Retained from earlier iterations of the XL series are zebra stripes (adjustable from 70 to 100 IRE) for assessing exposure.

Miscellaneous features retained from the XL2 include two user-definable Custom Keys, full SMPTE colour bars complete with 1KHz tone, Clear Scan, for removing the flicker from electronic displays, Skin Detail, for smoothing out wrinkles, and full professional time-code functionality.

From the beginning, the Canon XL series has offered the unique capability to record four tracks of audio, albeit only at a lower-quality 12-bit setting. The XL2 added two built-in XLR jacks with switchable 48V phantom power for powering professional microphones. The XL H1 goes one better by making these inputs switchable between microphone and line levels, allowing them to interface with virtually all types of audio gear. And as the HDV standard includes four channels of 16-bit audio, the XL H1 can record four high-quality audio tracks at once.

Due to the addition of an SD-card slot, the XL H1 offers some limited photo functionality. It can output stills at resolutions as high as 2 megapixels and record them as fast as 5fps. It can also drive an external flash and capture single-megapixel stills while shooting HD video.

Finally, Canon offers three new options for an extra price. First is the Console software package, which enables a FireWire-equipped PC to control just about every camera function and serve as a hard disk recorder. Second is a package including the FU-2000 Color Viewfinder and the ZR-2000 Zoom Remote Control, which together enable remote monitoring and control of the camera.

Performance
The Canon XL H1's stock lens shows the strengths and weaknesses that have characterised the XL series since its inception. On the plus side, this sharp and contrasty lens offers an unrivalled 20x zoom range, a terrific selection of motorised zoom speeds, and a spectacularly effective optical stabiliser. However, those wanting to shoot wide will be disappointed -- at its widest, the zoom provides the 35mm-camera equivalent of a 39mm lens. And the zoom and focus controls are as clumsy and imprecise as ever, making precise manual adjustments difficult. A superb fully mechanical zoom is available to rectify most of these issues, but it adds about £1,000 to the price of a camera that is already more expensive than its competition.

While every other manufacturer offers a flip-out LCD in addition to a viewfinder, Canon continues to offer only a viewfinder -- one that has not significantly improved from the XL2's. To put it simply, a camera capable of 1.5-megapixel HD imagery deserves a viewfinder with higher than 0.25-megapixel resolution. The Magnifying feature helps ameliorate this weakness, but this focusing aid cannot function while the camera is recording. Finally, there is no way to override the viewfinder's underscan, making it impossible to see the full image -- a serious limitation if you're shooting for distribution in a format that displays an overscanned image (streaming Web video, for example).