• Blogs
• Forums
• Tradeshows
• Partners
• White Papers
• Events

 

Shoot Review: Canon XH A1

Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM, Reviewer: Jan Ozer

A small HDV camcorder fills a high contrast order.

The Canon XH A1 is as close to perfect as any camcorder in its price range, with great resolution, very high contrast ratio, and extraordinary customizability. I did find the auto-focus somewhat lacking, which may be a concern for some potential buyers.

The XH line has two camcorders, the A1 ($3,999) that I reviewed and the G1 ($6,999). The difference between the two cameras is the G1 has a Professional Jackpack with HD-SDI, genlock, and timecode connectors. Both camcorders use electronics identical to those of the XL H1, which means three 1/3in. CCDs with a pixel count of 1.67 megapixels. If you do the math for Canon's (and Sony's) flavor of HDV video (1440×1080 rectangular pixels that are eventually scaled to 1920×1080), it comes to 1,555,200 pixels. This confirms that the chip performs a pixel-for-pixel capture when shooting HDV — no upward interpolation is required.

The camera shoots in HDV 60i, 24F, and 30F modes, as well as DV in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Canon calls these “frame mode” rather than progressive because the camera uses interlaced chips — although the company claims the result is visually identical to 24p and 30p. I didn't test the XL A1 in these modes, but my earlier tests of the XL H1 (described at digitalcontentproducer.com/cameras/revfeat/film_look) confirmed Canon's statements.

Tour de XH A1

Like virtually all camcorders in this genre, the XH A1 has a similar body style to the Sony VX2000 and HDR-FX1. It is about 14in. long, 7.4in. tall (including handle), and 6.4in. wide, and weighs 4.6lbs. without the battery. An external (empty) microphone holder sits on top of the upper handle, which was a touch too big for my Shure SM89 shotgun microphone — rubber adapters would be a nice touch. The top handle also has separate zoom, start/stop, and photo controls, along with video playback controls and an intelligent accessory shoe.

The camera comes with a fixed 20X optical zoom (best in class) with optical image stabilization, which you turn on and off via menu controls, rather than a switch on the body. Because you can't access menu controls while shooting, and can't allocate one of the two custom keys to enable/disable OIS, this could be a problem if you frequently change from tripod to handheld. Of course, this is a problem shared by most camcorders of this form factor. When set to variable, the zoom controls have 16 separate speeds that you select with variable pressure on the control. A switch behind the zoom control lets you set zoom speed to constant, with a dial to choose the speed.

Two XLR connectors sit on the front right, with relevant controls such as line/mic toggle directly above. The connectors can supply Phantom power (+48V) to microphones that need it. There's another 3.5mm stereo mini-jack input directly below the microphone holder that supplies no power. Wheel controls for adjusting incoming volume are on the back left of the camera, with volume meters in the LCD or viewfinder. Overall, the audio setup is top notch.

In the back is a closed battery compartment that is large enough for most Canon long-life batteries, although users on the message boards have complained that it's too small for some third-party batteries. The battery door doesn't swing below 90 degrees, so I had no problem changing batteries on any of the three tested tripods. Also on the back is an I/O bay with LANC control, FireWire, headphone jack, and analog output with composite video, but no S-Video output. There's also a standalone BNC connector for composite video output.

The 2.8in. 207K TFT LCD panel folds into the top of the main camera body, and displays in native 16:9 mode. Visibility in direct sunlight was OK, but I've definitely seen better. The 0.59in. viewfinder — also 16:9 — shows more detail with its 269K pixels. As with most camcorders, the bulk of the controls are on the left side of the body, but Canon did move the menu button to the back left and the select flywheel to the back, where it's much easier to access and configure than on the XL H1.

Camera controls

You set the main controls via the familiar power dial that toggles you through VCR, automatic, TV (shutter priority), AV (aperture priority), full manual, spotlight, night, and easy recording modes. It took me awhile to get used to the operating controls. For example, there are five different white-balance related switches scattered throughout, up from two on the XL H1. That said, the controls are highly functional, with presets for the sun and incandescent bulbs, plus manual white balance and the ability to dial in a specific Kelvin color setting.

You control gain with an on/off switch and three-button gain toggle with configurable low, medium, and high settings. You control shutter speed via a simple dial, with iris adjustments moved to a dial around the lens. While familiar to SLR users, the control is now one of three (focus, zoom, iris) located within millimeters of each other in a 2.5in. span. Although they all have a slightly different feel, I found aperture easier to find and adjust when totally separate from other controls, as it is on the Canon XL H1 and XL2. The camera provides a two-step ND filter and configurable zebra pattern to assist setting exposure.

The XH A1 features a new Instant Auto-Focus (AF) system designed to quickly adjust focus to close to optimal, with the normal system perfecting the focus. As you'll read below, neither the Instant nor normal auto-focus performed well in low light. For those focusing manually, the camera provides peaking and preview magnification buttons on the left body panel, but you can't use the latter while shooting. You can press an auto-focus button to quickly engage that function, then revert back to manual. In the same area, Canon also provides a display button that lets you eliminate some or all of the onscreen text and other messages — a useful option.

Custom controls are very extensive and include gamma curve, knee point adjustment, black stretch and black press, master pedestal, sharpness, horizontal detail frequency, two settings for noise reduction, and color matrix and color gain settings. Many of these have cine settings to assist those transferring to film. There are also skin detail functions to soften detail in the face, a sky detail feature with a similar function, and color correction. This is easily the most customizable camera I've ever seen, and the description in the manual is unusually well written and helpful.

Our tests

I performed two rounds of testing with the camcorder, an extensive series of lab and real-world testing that revealed an auto-focus problem that prompted me to return the camcorder for diagnostics. (At press time, Canon had yet to report the results of its own tests.) Canon was kind enough to send another camera for an abbreviated round of final lab testing to finish the review.

During the first round, I tested the camera in my studio, primarily in manual mode, and then shot two concerts, a ballet, and several interviews. In lab resolution tests, using several test charts from DSC Labs, the XH A1 actually outperformed the XL H1 by a hair. Low-light tests were similar, but the XL2 clearly produced less noise than either camera under similar conditions.

One of the concerts was on New Year's Eve, and it was an absolute contrast ratio torture test with men in black tuxes and white shirts, and the lead singer in black, all against a black background. Still, working in manual mode, the XH A1 produced absolutely stunning images, with good detail retained at both ends of the IRE scale — good color in between and great contrast between the various shades of black.

One major but infrequent caveat was that the camera lost focus for a moment or two, becoming noticeably blurry in the ballet footage. Interestingly, this occurred primarily at the point in the stage shown in Figure 1 on p. 18, both in dim and adequate lighting. Although I shot the ballet and both concerts using normal auto-focus (as opposed to Instant), neither concert revealed similar problems. Some random footage I took of the band during rehearsal did have this problem, however. Scanning the Web, I noticed two other reviewers reported a similar problem with the Instant AF that resolved in normal AF, which was different than my experience.

I sent some test footage to Canon that illustrated the problem, and we swapped camcorders. While I can't duplicate the same test situation after the swap, some ad hoc testing in the lab with the second camera indicated that in low-light conditions, the XH A1 tends to lose auto-focus faster than other cameras that I compared it to, including the XL2.

If you tend not to use auto-focus, this isn't important, because the Canon XH A1 is otherwise exceptional. On the other hand, if you frequently shoot using auto-focus, particularly in low-light conditions (weddings or other similar events), this is a concern.

---

bottomline

Company: Canon
Lake Success, N.Y.; (800) 662-2666
www.usa.canon.com

Product: XH A1

Assets: High contrast ratio

Caveats: Instant Auto-Focus occasionally produces blurry footage after losing focus, particularly in low-light conditions.

Demographic: DV shooters who don't use auto-focus.

PRICE: $3,999 (A1); $6,999 (G1)

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.