- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 26 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"XL series has always had weak results for prosumer"
Pros: Interchangeable lens system is fabulous
Cons: Lower quality imagery than can be had for less money
Summary: Well, I've been using DV since its inception, and have an educational background in broadcasting and comp-sci. The Canon offerings have always offered unique and useful features, including this XL2, but simply can NOT compare to Sony's offerings in the same category. The Sony VX2100 (consumer) / PD170 (pro), offers a substantially superior image. The image isn't oversharpened like it is on the XL series, and offers cleaner results with better color reproduction. To top it off...the XL2 is only 5.5 lux min rated, which is very poor, and not suitable for professional use. It's "okay" for home use, but the lux rating (for those of you that don't know) is the measurement used to define how sensitive the imager is. The lower the rating, the less light required to generate a decent picture. In most indoor venues (homes, restaurants, bars, churches, etc.) the lighting is not enough to generate a decent picture on a greater-than-4 lux camera without lots of gain, which introduces substantial noise to the image. The Sony VX2100, in contrast, is priced about $1000 less, and is rated at a far superior 1 lux (natively, not with digital enhancement) which means that indoor shooting is very natural with no additional lighting to lug around, and without the introduction of noise due to higher gain requirements. Overall, the Sony prosumer line (VX2100/PD170) is a substantially better offering. The ONLY advantage to the XL2 is the interchangeable lens system, which is really not that useful unless you have a very specific need. For most uses, a standard lens with telephoto, wide, and anamorphic adapters are more than enough if you need to add lens capability. For widescreen shooters, the Sony offerings can utilize a manual focus pulling anamorphic adapter by Century Optics... which really makes the interchangeable lens system of the XL2 a nicety rather than a necessity.
- 2 replies to this review
-
First off, your correct that sony has the lowest lux for their cameras which is 1. But There is no possible way for any of the sony's vx2100 or pd170 to have a higher image quality then the xl2 becuase the xl2 has 680k gross pixels and the vx2100 & pd170 both have 380k gross pixels. Next, the canon offers progressive scan and a true 16 by 9 ratio; this combined with its nice interchangable lens system, their is no possible way anyone could declare the pd170 a better camera then the xl2.
-
I had my earlier video experiences with some sony cameras and was very impressed with the quality, however through some trading I was able to obtain a Canon XL1 and expected some great things from it. I had used it for almost a year for all kinds of shoots. I found it to be lacking in many areas by comparison, and the quality was sort of O.K., but none the less it was a 3 chip unit.
I recently had an opportunity to upgrade my camera systems and I chose the canon XL2, that camera was so impressive I bought another one within weeks of the first!
What I really like about it is the Color quality. to me it shoots naturally like the "the food channel" with no extra enhancements. In manual mode I can work the shutter and exposure to obtain even better quality than what is in front of me!
My wife does not usually like me to make purchases like this, but after seeing the responses of my clients she is recommending that I purchase a third one in the coming months! take a look at some of the quality:
http://www.americanwebcast.net/19thannualconference/openingsession/index.html
Where to buy
XL2 Camcorder:
$2,799.00 - $3,625.00
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
|---|---|---|---|
|
$3,399.00 | Yes |
|
|
$3,499.00 | Yes |
|
|
$3,599.99 | Yes |
|
|
$3,499.00 | Yes |
|
|
$3,499.99 | Yes |
|
