Reviewed by: Ben Wolf
Edited by: Aimee Baldridge
The Canon XL series is the Porsche 911 of DV camcorders. Through continual technological upgrading, that Porsche has remained a state-of-the-art sports car for more than 40 years. And love it or hate it, no other car looks or drives like a 911.
Canon first introduced the XL series in 1997 with the groundbreaking XL1, the first prosumer DV camcorder created as a modular system, with interchangeable lenses, viewfinders, and other accessories, and a unique shoulder-mounted design. Arguably the most significant tool of the nascent DV revolution, it was one of the first cameras to put professional video capabilities into the hands of everyman.
In 2001, a few modest technical improvements were added, and the camera was rereleased as the XL1s. By late 2004, with Panasonic's AG-DVX100A stealing most of the technological thunder from the XL1s, Canon again responded, this time with a major upgrade known as the XL2.
This new model adds such state-of-the-art features as 16:9 native CCDs, three progressive shooting modes, and deeper image-control menus, but as with the Porsche 911, the Canon XL2 retains the unique configuration and character of its forebears.At first glance, the Canon XL2 could easily be mistaken for the earlier XL1 or XL1s. The new model shares its predecessors' black, white, and red color scheme and odd hybrid shape--something between a typical handicam and a shoulder-mounted pro camera.
Many people have found this to be an ergonomically awkward design that is too large to be comfortably supported in the hands and, with its enormous zoom, too front-heavy to balance easily on the shoulder. However, with the addition of the formerly optional XLR-adapter/shoulder pad--which is now wisely built into the camera--others have found the XL2 to be easier to keep steady than its Handicam-style competition. Any way you look at it, the XL2 is about twice as big and, at a solid 7.8 pounds, twice as heavy as the alternatives. It's hardly discreet, but that can be asset for those needing to look like a pro.
You'll find plenty of physical audio controls behind a flip-out cover on the left side of the camera.
Balanced audio XLR inputs, formerly part of an optional shoulder-pad accessory, are now built into the back of the camera. A BNC composite video connection has also been added.
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.
Controls for selecting a frame rate and aspect ratio, adjusting the exposure, and activating color bars are easily reached on the left side of the camera.
You can adjust white balance and image gain with the dials and button at the bottom.
The XL2 continues the XL1's legacy of providing nonstandard but easily accessed 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 than on 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.
This dial on top of the camera lets you make quick exposure adjustments.
You can adjust the zoom speed, as well as choose whether it's constant or variable.
Perhaps the most noteworthy additions to the Canon XL2 are its three great progressive video modes: 30P and two types of 24P, in addition to standard 60I interlaced video. Without getting too technical, the important thing to know is that progressive video goes a long way toward giving digital productions a cinematic look (as opposed to the look of a soap opera) and can also make for a superior transfer to film. These are particularly important issues for those shooting narrative projects on DV. Until the XL2 came along, Panasonic's AG-DVX100A was the only prosumer camera offering the progressive modes.
Another significant--though, in this reviewer's opinion, overrated--feature of the XL2 is its 680,000-pixel, 16:9 native chips. In a nutshell, this means that the XL2 has been optimized for shooting in wide-screen and will produce a slightly higher resolution wide-screen image than cameras with 4:3 native chips. Unfortunately, this also means that the XL2 will not perform quite as well when shooting in 4:3, so the significance of this development really depends on which aspect ratio you're shooting.
The XL2 now incorporates 12-bit digital signal processing (DSP) and much deeper image-control menu settings. The net result of these changes is that the user now enjoys much more detailed and subtle control of the imagery via such functions as gamma, color matrix, knee, coring, and red/green/blue gain. Furthermore, three sets of preferences--in essence, three distinct "looks"--may be stored within the XL2's memory as custom presets, and can be shared between cameras via the FireWire--neat! The only other camera in this range to offer this degree of customization is the Panasonic AG-DVX100A. The Panasonic does have one significant advantage here: its settings are displayed numerically, while the Canon uses difficult-to-remember bar graphs for each of these menu items.
The stock XL2 comes with a servo-controlled 20X monster of a zoom, an update of the XL1's standard 16X zoom. On the plus side, this is a sharp, contrasty lens with a great optical stabilizer and a huge telephoto reach; when you're shooting 4:3, it gives you the equivalent of a 1,036mm lens on a 35mm camera. That's great for nature videography and event work.
Besides gaining more telephoto zoom reach, the stock lens has also acquired a second built-in neutral density filter, as well as a zoom and focus preset mechanism. This last feature enables you to 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 an optional manual lens, this does make the stock lens somewhat more functional. Unfortunately, the short end of the 20X zoom range is not very wide (the 35mm equivalent of a 51mm lens), and for this reason, you might want to use the excellent optional 3X wide-angle zoom for shooting in cramped interior spaces.
Both the 20X lens and the 3X lens are clearly optimized for autofocus use, as the pseudo-manual focus ring is frustratingly oversensitive and imprecise. Similarly, while the motorized zoom is silky smooth and has a wonderfully superslow speed, there is no true manual control over the zoom, the zoom ring being only a sluggish electronic impersonation of a manual control.
Fortunately, for those who want to control their camera manually--and a camera with the XL2's capabilities deserves to be used this way--there is an excellent, fully mechanical 16X lens available. However, be aware that the optional lenses cost upward of $1,200 each, a very high price to pay on top of a camera that already lists at $5,000. Buying the XL2 body without the stock lens and purchasing one of the optional lenses separately is the most economical approach for those who don't need the 20X optics.
Audio functions have also been beefed up, most significantly via the addition of two XLR balanced inputs with switchable phantom power. Unfortunately, as was the case with the XL1's optional XLR adapter, these inputs are microphone-level only, making it difficult to connect the camera to some audio mixers. Another awkward carryover from the XL1 is the XL2's inability to record from the onboard mic on only one track when capturing 16-bit audio; it's both tracks or nothing. On the positive side, the XL2 shares the XL1's ability to record four separate 12-bit audio channels and now offers improved independent level controls for channels three and four.
Finally, Canon has added some nice internal electronic features. The camera now produces full SMPTE color bars and audio tones that you can use to calibrate monitors, mixers, and other devices, and it offers a complete professional assortment of time-code options. Canon is to be congratulated for avoiding digital gimmicks; the one dubious feature to appear on early XL2s, a digital film-grain effect, has been abandoned.As noted in Features, both the stock 20X lens and the optional 3X lens are optimized for autofocus and equipped with imprecise, oversensitive focus rings and no true manual zoom control. However, the Canon XL2's stock lens does have some strong points: in addition to its seemingly endless zoom, it offers a vast range of motorized zoom speeds and an incredibly effective Super Range OIS image stabilizer.
As with both the XL1 and the XL1s before it, the Canon XL2 has an impressive assortment of automatic and semiautomatic modes, none of which I'd recommend using on a camera of this caliber. The autoexposure and autofocus do work well, but I strongly recommend learning how to manually control a camera before spending several thousand dollars to buy one. With the optional manual lens in place, the XL2 is a responsive joy to use. It starts and stops almost instantaneously, and there are no noticeable delays to any of the standard control inputs.
The viewfinder is the other major component of the modular XL system. While every other camera in this class offers both a conventional viewfinder on the back and a flip-out LCD screen on the left side, the stock XL2 viewfinder attempts to combine both options in one unit, by allowing the viewfinder eyepiece to flip up and expose a small 2-inch, 200,000-pixel color screen that can be viewed at a slight distance.
While this viewfinder is significantly sharper than that of the XL1, it does not hold up well against the current competition, nor does it offer peaking, a focus aid that would be very helpful in dealing with the stock lens's vague manual focus control. Fortunately, Canon again offers a solution to the discriminating user: a high-resolution, tube-based, black-and-white viewfinder that does offer focus-peaking but again at a steep $1,500 price.
Canon claims audio performance from the XL2 is also improved. While we were unable to confirm that claim for this review, the built-in stereo mic certainly does an adequate job. It's not terribly directional, but it's better than most camera-mounted units.
There has been no significant improvement in battery life, so you should expect to get an hour or two of use out of the included cell. This is comparable to much of the competition, but it's not in a league with Sony, which has figured out a way to make its cameras run all day on a single battery.While the XL1 offered a pleasing but rather soft image, the Canon XL2 has as high-resolution a picture as the DV specs can support. And while the XL1 produced a specific warm and edge-enhanced look, the XL2's deep menus and 12-bit DSP let you dial in almost any look you can dream up--from traditional hypercrisp interlaced video to a softer and more cinematic 24P that could easily be mistaken for film-originated material. Canon also gave the stock 20X zoom lens a fluorite coating that seems to have increased its sharpness and resistance to flaring.
We found the XL2's image quality and controls generally comparable to what the Panasonic AG-DVX100A offers. Due to its 16:9-native chips, the XL2 comes out slightly ahead in resolution when shooting wide-screen, but loses its advantage when shooting 4:3. Perhaps due to its smaller pixels, the XL2 is slightly worse in low light and also offers somewhat less latitude. While another of its slightly lower-priced competitors, Sony's PD170, can shoot only standard interlaced video, it remains the reigning champion when it comes to clean gain and low-light performance.
