Canon XL H1 Camcorder Review

Still Features (7.5)
Thankfully, Canon made no attempts to make the XL H1 (Specs, Recent News, $7947.89) a competitive hybrid camcorder / still camera. Yes, it takes stills, but to a simpler end. Stills can be taken in four resolutions – two widescreen (1920 x 1080, 848 x 480) and two 4:3 (1440 x 1080, 640 x 480) – mainly for the purposes of ensuring continuity on a shoot. You can set the image quality to normal, fine, and superfine. Stills are saved to SD card, which loads in an almost hidden card slot along the inside-bottom of the hand grip on the right side of the camcorder. A 16MD card ships in the box.

There is a still mode that you switch to from video mode via a tiny switch on the right hand grip. There are also a few standard features that you’ll find on virtually every Canon camcorder. There is a Focus Priority, which can be turned on and off. Focus Priority can create a shutter lag of up to 2 seconds. There is also a continuous shooting mode (3fps), a high-speed continuous shooting mode (5 fps), and an auto exposure bracketing (-1/2EV, 0EV, +1/2EV). The XL H1 has multiple metering modes, as well. The Evaluative mode measures several zones across the frame. The Center Weight Average looks at the entire frame, but gives more weight to the center. Spot metering creates a small target box in the center of the frame, from which the exposure is measured.

A cleverly hidden SD card slot

There is one very powerful tool that pros should love. First, the camcorder must be in tape mode, not card mode. Next, find the option in the Recording Setup menu labeled Still I. Rec., and then choose ON+CP DATA. We’re drawing this description out because we want everyone to try it. It’s a great idea. When shooting video, this feature actually ties all your custom preset data to a still when you hit the shutter button. You can then access the still at a later date, and import all of your custom presets to keep the look of a project continuous. I guess this means you can scratch that Camera Assistant from your budget.

The Canon XL H1 can also accept E-TTL II compatible Canon Speedlite flashes, the same kind which are used on Canon SLR cameras. Flashes attach to the camcorder on the hot accessory shoe located at the front crest of the handle.

Still playback is accessed by the putting the card/tape switch in card mode and the mode dial in VCR playback mode. The VCR controls located along the top of the handle move you through the images. Forward moves forwards, backwards… backwards, and the play button initiates a slideshow.

Still Resolution (5.74)
The stills of the Canon XL H1 were tested for their resolution by shooting a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and running those stills through Imatest imaging software. We tested the largest still, 1920 x 1080, and found it to produce an approximate resolution of 646166.43.

This score is right on target for a 1920 x 1080 still. As we state in the Still Performance section below, the stills look very sharp. Our resolution tests seem to confirm that.

Still Performance (4.5)
Most experienced users may already be aware of this, but it never hurts to cite the fact that video and still photos handle color differently. That means that a machine designed to perform one service will likely not perform the other with equal adeptness. Take, for instance, a camcorder… any camcorder. Camcorders are designed to shoot video. Yes, most of them can take stills now, but they are “still cameras” only in the most nominal sense.

The Canon XL H1 is no different. It can take stills, and it even has a few still camera tricks up its sleeve (Canon was a camera company first, after all). But the stills do not approach the quality of the video. We found the stills to have a duller look to them than the video, with a bluer cast, even after white balancing. The reds and greens look like they took a sick day and called out. Like the video, there was a definite lack of sharpening, which is preferable for anyone working in post. That’s the time to play with the image, not the moment the shutter clicks. There’s a lot less noise in the stills than in the video, though the brightness levels were about the same. The pictures looked very sharp at the maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080.

If your primary intention for shooting stills with this camcorder is digital documentation of your shoot, you should find this a satisfying feature. The stills do not match the videos in every regard, but for the purposes of recording the costumes, makeup, prop placement, location of light sources, and other continuity issues they suffice.