Canon XL1 optical magnification

[barneyu3a]

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a 2nd hand Canon XL1 for filming birds but before I do can anyone tell me what the actual total optical mag would be if I added a Canon 75 - 300mm zoom.

Regards,
Barneyu3a

[rogpow]

I've got the XL2, and the magnification in 16:9 mode is about 7.8x and it's 9 point something (haven't got the manual in front of me) in 4:3.
I think the same would apply to the XL1. So you'll end up with something like a 580-2300mm lens.
Better budget for a big tripod to put it on.

Rog

[barneyu3a]

Hi Roger,
Thanks for that info, but now I am confused because I understood that the XL1 was shipped with a 16x optical mag.

To Quote an old 2008 reply on this forum,

I've seen footage from a XM1 (same chips as XL1 but without the removable lens making the XL1 more feature rich) edited with 35 mm film footage and I needed the guy who shot the footage to point out which was which The quality is great and will serve you very well like I said before if you can get the lens adapter as well that then turns the 75-300 cheap Canon zoom to a 2000 mm monster due to the size of the DV chips compared to DSLR chips. If you cannot get near enough to use that then you really need to give up.

Barney

[rogpow]

Originally Posted by barneyu3a

Hi Roger,
Thanks for that info, but now I am confused because I understood that the XL1 was shipped with a 16x optical mag.

To Quote an old 2008 reply on this forum,

I've seen footage from a XM1 (same chips as XL1 but without the removable lens making the XL1 more feature rich) edited with 35 mm film footage and I needed the guy who shot the footage to point out which was which The quality is great and will serve you very well like I said before if you can get the lens adapter as well that then turns the 75-300 cheap Canon zoom to a 2000 mm monster due to the size of the DV chips compared to DSLR chips. If you cannot get near enough to use that then you really need to give up.

Barney

Hi Barney,

The 16x lens the XL1 shipped with refers to the amount of zoom from wide end to telephoto end. In that context, a 75-300mm lens is a 4x zoom (4x75=300).
The 7.8x magnification refers to the amount the focal length of a lens designed for 35mm photography (i.e. the 75-300mm) is magnified when it is fitted to the camcorder whose sensor is smaller than 35mm film.
Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Rog

[barneyu3a]

Hi Roger,

Thank you for your answer, and yes it does make it clearer.

Regards,
Barney