An excellent choice for the up-and-coming Professional Videographer
Written: Sep 06 '01
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Pros: Great Picture, nice features, and solid feel.
Cons: Audio, Weight, and low-light performance
The Bottom Line: Its a great buy for the price. With a better mic, the GL1 is a very compelling package. Highly Recommended.
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| jimbach27's Full Review: Canon GL1 Mini DV Camcorder |
Canon has combined the professional look and features of their high-end XL1, with the ease of use and price point of the average prosumer camera in a camera that is anything but “average”.
Professional Features:
Fluorite Lens – Canon has included one of the most beautiful lenses I have found on a sub-$2000 camera. It is fast, captures color with admirable accuracy, and has an excellent zoom. The standard 58mm size makes it easy to pick up a UV filter for it at nearly any photo shop and the included hood keep sun flare to a minimum.
Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) – Many of the cams in this segment get by with something called Digital Image Stabilization (DIS) wherein a computer interpolates each image in an effort to correct some of the shake inherent with hand-held recording. The problem with this method is the resulting image quality is often greatly degraded. The advantage to OIS is that all of this high-tech wizardry is bypassed and all of the stabilization takes place in the lens via a thin fluid layer. It works very well and the resulting footage is of the highest quality.
Dynamic Range – I find that one of the plaguing problems faced by digital media artists is the blasé dynamic range that most cameras seem to have – that is, the breadth of color that digital cameras and DV cams are capable of capturing on “film”. The Canon GL1 is one of the two reasonably priced cameras I have had the pleasure of working with where the output video exhibited acceptable accuracy in color. The Sony DCR-VX2000 is the other camera and it commands a significant premium in price.
Full Manual Mode – Most every feature on this camera can be manually controlled – allowing a breadth of control that is lacking in many of the other aspiring prosumer cameras on the market. Unfortunately, there is no manual mode for the Audio levels.
Top-Load Cassette – This is one of those easily overlooked parts of a great many of the DV cams on the market today. The advantage of a top loading DV cassette is that you can change the tape while the camera is still on a tripod (which in my world is most of the time). Bottom-feeders often must be dismounted, have the quick-change shoe removed first.
Big Battery Availability – It is really nice to have a 14-hour battery on this camera – enough said. The included battery is a good backup.
None of the Gee Whiz Stuff – Unlike many of the other cameras on the market, this one is unfettered with to much gadgetry. It includes a few transitional effects, and “Zebra-Stripe” overexposure control, but as a whole its layout is designed around easy access to a few well thought out features. It will not take 2 megapixel stills (it will take relatively good ~1/2 megapixel stills), it can’t print a screenshot onsite, and no, it does not have an MP3 player.
The Missing Professional Features:
A Good Microphone – The included mic on the GL1 is, in a word, lackluster. On an otherwise delightful camera, attaching such an under performing device makes no sense to me whatsoever. Go out and buy a Sennheiser MKE300 or a BeachTek adapter and a pro level mic.
Manual Audio Levels - It would be nice. Not required, but nice.
Use:
Handheld Video – As a handheld, this is a heavy camera; it is lighter than the VX2000 (the other camera I regularly use) but still, this is no pocket cam. That said, I find that with the external mic attached, this camera is the closest to ideal I have yet worked with. The OIS does a fine job of quelling the jolt of my gait, it does an admirable job in quickly changing lighting conditions, and its battery gauge is accurate enough that I can reliably let it run down to 1 minute before I have to take the 15 seconds to snap on a second battery. The pop-out side display is a great monitor and makes it possible to shoot overhead and still see exactly what I am getting.
On a Tripod – In the studio this thing functions just like a Canon N-1 (35mm SLR). The controls are similar; the lighting settings are the same and the results fantastic. Very highly recommended for studio use. Outside on a tripod everything looks beautiful. My critique here is that, even with the color adjusted to the red, greens either look VIBRANT or dead. Also, even with a wind-sleeve protecting the mic, and the wind filter turned on, wind does a number on sound quality. This is not unique to this camera, but the poor standard mic is unusually outclassed.
Editing:
Macintosh – I find that iMovie2 – the program put out by Apple – is a great way to get into computer editing. It is a great program. Moving up from that, I know like the new version of CineStream, which is compatible with the GL1. Adobe Premiere 6 with After Effects is the ultimate. Go buy a big 7200 rpm ATA/SCSI hard drive and at least 512 megs of ram and you are ready to go.
PC – Windows 2000 is probably the best Windows platform for Non Linear Editing (NLE) because of its stability. Get the most ram you can afford, at least 512 megs(www.accessmicro.com has excellent prices) and the best FireWire card you can. Again - the big fast HDD is the way to go.
FireWire is Apples' name for the IEEE1394 interface that connects the camera to your computer. Pinnacle Systems makes two very good packages for the PC user – both bundled with Premiere 6 (at a savings in the hundreds of dollars). Old versions of Pinnacles' software that came bundled with Pre-Premiere 6 packages did not reliably support the GL1 so be sure which version you are getting - I use the DV500PLUS package and have been thrilled with the results.
Closing:
The GL1 is a great camera at an excellent price right now – at below $2000 there is precious little that competes with it (the Sony VX900, the JVC GR-DV2000, and – at a higher price – the Sony VX2000). Check out these other cameras as well, but the GL1 is a great camera with an established following – and it won’t take long for you to figure out why.
Take a look at www.GL1-411.com
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1979
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Epinions.com ID:
jimbach27
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Member: Jesse Imbach
Location: Napa Valley, CA, USA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Just another Tech Geek in the Silicon(e) Valley who loves big kid toys.
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