I was going to pick up the Canon VL-3 tiny 3-watt video light for use as a catch light on my XL-H1. Before I went to Hokkaido, I tried it out at the Bic Camera store in Shinjuku but it wasn't compatible, the light didn't turn on irrespective of the various settings. The VL-3 came recommended by XL-2 users, but it looks like Canon yanked support for the XL-H1?
Updated 2005.12.21: Other annoyances? The EVF (viewfinder) can't rotate 180 degrees so that it faces the front of the camera. This makes it hard for me to set the XL-H1 on a tripod and tape myself talking to the camera. It's odd, Canon has a mode to flip the viewfinder screen upside down and right-left (for upside down mode) but doesn't physically allow the viewfinder to twist that far. Or am I missing a hidden release button somewhere?
I guess I should say something nice: WOW.... low light performance is fantastic. Last night I was taping some of my informants with psychiatric disabilities as we were waiting in the parking lot of the local hospital at around 8pm. The only light was some spill from the building windows and yet the XL-H1 still managed to pick up an amazing amount of detail. It was almost like Sony's NightShot mode, but without the weird IR-nightvision type coloration. In any case, the +30DB boost on the camera is for real and is really, really good.
Also, battery life is amazing. The stock battery lasts me about 6-8 hours of standby filming (i.e., waiting around that long with the camera ready, but only shooting about 1 hour of footage). I bought the larger battery as well, which would literally last me an entire day. You don't need the CH-920 dual-battery pack unless you're going to do a 24-hour marathon.
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