Canon XH A1: My First Impressions

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work together on the Canon XH A1 in our BlueScreen shoot. I was not the camera I was hoping for – that being a Panasonic HVX200A, but it was still a great camera. In the 3-4 hours I was their (Platypus Studios in Cape Town South Africa) I got to fiddle and mess around with the camera – albeit in it’s locked off state on the tripod. During this time I was able to make a few observations.

Pros

1. HD/SD-SDI: While I had hoped for the Panasonic HVX200A because of it’s 4:2:2 color sampling, the Canon does allow for live capture through the HD/SD-SDI at 4:2:2 color sampling. However Platypus did not have the ability to perform any transcoding/capture/whatever to enable the ingest of such an output. Pity – it would have been the bomb.
2. 20x Zoom: I did not have the reason to use this but it is something I wish I had on my Panasonic AG-DVX100BE – especially when filming church.
3. Audio Auto Levels: This was to me the most convenient option on the camera. I wish I had this on my camera when filming events that have huge dynamic range.
4. Manual Iris Ring: Very cool – better then a little thing-a-me-jig on the side that you keep missing.

Cons

1. FW-Audio Out Spacing: Oh man what an irritation- the 4 pin FW port and the Audio output jack could not allow for headphone jacks with a converter to bring the full sized jack down to a quarter inch at the same time as the FW cable being plugged in. Come on, how many professional headphone come with the smaller jack????
2. No Flash Card Technology: The SD card slot is only for stills. Hmmm, in this day and age HDV cameras should come standard with some form of tapeless media like P2 or SxS.
3. No 720p: hmmm, I would rather have filmed in this rather than 1080i. And the 24f option on the Canon is not 25p.
4. Confusing Audio Inputs: Ok maybe not a complete con, but I was confused with the switches and options for which XLR input to use and which channel. Only after trial and error did I get it right. Not as intuitive as on my camera. Maybe biased by familiarity.

Conclusion

The image quality is great and can compete well with the Panasonic HPX170 and the Panasonic HVX200A yet is over $2000 cheaper.

I will be obtaining the footage that we shot within the week and will be keying soon after that. Then I will be able to make a better judgment call on the image quality and whether it is a good camera or Blue Screen shoots.

Depending on the cost and simplicity I would be happy with this camera if I were able to make use of the HD-SDI output, even at 1080i25. But I am guessing that that solution may be close to what a Panasonic HVX200A currently costs.

Spread the Word and Share