Starting March I will be filming a feature film - the problam is, the camera.

For months I have been saving for the GS400 and I am in a position to buy it, however a friend of mine has just told me he can get us a Canon XL1 for free - what should I do??????

I know the XL1 is a more proffesional camera but what if the camera breaks down on set? What if at the last minute the deal falls through - I'd be left with a cast and crew with no camera!!!!

I wanted to buy the GS400 now so I could get to know the camera - but now, oh I just dont know, any suggestions?

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Originally posted by bign2000:
I know the XL1 is a more proffesional camera but what if the camera breaks down on set? What if at the last minute the deal falls through - I'd be left with a cast and crew with no camera!!!!

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Uh, the same could happen with the other camera.....

I'd say go with the free camera.

I suppose but if it were my own camera breaking down, then that would be fine - but if someone else camera broke down - sure I'd fix it for them but what would be stopping them from saying "u broke it once, u wont do it again"

Take advantage of the free camera! You're saving yourself ton$ of money by doing that. If you're worried about accidents or whatever, you should think about insuring the camera. Trust me, go with the free XL1. feels kindof weird saying "free" and "XL1" in the same sentance.

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Originally posted by Trespasser:
feels kindof weird saying "free" and "XL1" in the same sentance.

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Ha ha, I TOTALLY felt the same way. Free xl1!! you must be crazy to pass that up! that's a 3000 dollar camera! (well, i guess it's a little cheaper now since the xl2 came out, but still!)

Thanks guys. I think I'll still by the GS400 - after all, theres nothing like having a camera THERE and NOW, especily when writting - and if my friend lets me down, at least I'll have an alternative ready in the wings ...

the gs400 is a realy nice camera. got one myself. v.cool camera

I have an idea....how bout you use BOTH cameras. If you are going to buy the gs400, then why not use the xl1 as well, if it's free. You'll have more angles and perspectives if you use two cameras! It's like getting two cameras for the price of one.

Seriously, don't pass up that chance. You can use both.

yeah...do what Durden said, shoot with both of them. it makes it go a LOT faster, since for a given action, you only have to do it once, all the way through, because you already have two different angles. This also reduces the amount of continuity errors later when editing. Even if the two cameras don't look exactly alike, you can always tweak it in post to get them to look more even.

As long as you white balance them correspondingly and set the exposure settings - f-stop, shutter speed, gain, and some chroma settings (f the camera has them) equal to each other, the only difference in the image will be the resolution from the cameras, which shouldn't be that distinguishable.

trespasser that's not true. even when you whitebalance, different chips/cameras will white balance differently.

but you can always fix the colors in post, as long as they were at least similar.

RFranco is right. Different Cameras dont white balance the same. The 3 main camera brands have slightly different colour strengths in their chips, Sony is particularly famous for its reds, canon and panasonic(luckily for you) are very familliar, with strengths leaning towards the blues and greens.

Thanks guys for all the info. I ordered my Panasonic last week - better to be save than sorry and all that - hopfully we'll get the XL1s as well, but if not at least I have a month or so to discover the GS400's secrets.