Canon have a habit of making cameras obsolete before their time. Having set up the studio and also with a documentary due to start I had a need for a second camera that would complement the current XL-H1. tried buying another one and found that it was obsolete!! so bought the XL-H1S. The ‘S’ I THINK stands for studio because it has teh additional SDI and Time Code BNC connectors (just like the original XL-H1).
One very good improvement is the usage of large firewire connectors. The small ones (on most cameras) are a pain and downright expensive. I have heard of a number of people who have blown their mother board by connecting/disconnecting this small fiddly connector (it happened to me with the XL-2 and cost the guts of 500 to fix – OUCH!). The bigger 6-pin is a huge improvement.
A small gripe with Canon. The rotary wheel is great for switching between shooting modes but why have they changed the position of ‘M’ (for full manual).
I will post up some studio videos in the near future to give an idea of quality. Personally, I think this is the way to go to get broadcast/studio quality at an affordable price. I run this camera (and the XL-1H), from the mains, without a tape (so no drum wear) and straight into a 4:4:4 video switcher for full quality HD broadcast at a tiny fraction of the cost of just one studio camera from other suppliers.
Sure does look the same as the XL-H1
