Camera Guide
Guide to Canon EL
In order to insert a battery into a Canon EL, you must raise the eye piece.
To zoom in and out, use the button marked with a T and W. T stands for tight. W stands for wide. To the left of the zoom button, there is a slide button labeled open/eject. This will open the mini DV slot (If you do not have a battery in the camera, the actual slot where your mini DV goes will not open).
When putting your mini DV into the camera DO NOT press on the top of the mini DV slot. Instead, push on the side to close the metal casing and wait a couple seconds for the entire slot to retract.
The Canon EL power switch knob has a green button that you have to push in order to move the knob. The two settings you will use are PLAY(VCR) and CAMERA. PLAY(VCR) lets you watch video you’ve shot in the view finder. CAMERA lets you shoot video.
Guide to Canon GL
Camera on/off switch. Move to camera for shooting video. Move to VCR for watching video on the camera.
When shooting video in very bright sunlight the camera will prompt you to turn on the neutral density fliter. You can do this by pressing the ND FILTER button. To toggle in between auto and manual focus press the FOCUS A/M button.
To zoom in and out, use the button marked with a T and W. T stands for tight. W stands for wide. To the left of the zoom button, there is a slide button labeled open. This will open the mini DV slot (If you do not have a battery in the camera, the actual slot where your mini DV goes will not open).
Hitting the eject button will eject your mini DV tape, but it takes a couple seconds to activate. DO NOT try to force it open. The parts are delicate and will break.
Conversely, when putting your mini DV into the camera DO NOT press on the top of the mini DV slot. Instead, push on the side to close the metal casing and wait a couple seconds for the entire slot to retract.
When using the Canon GL you will want to use the M video shooting setting on the settings knob.
In order to insert a battery into a Canon GL, you must raise the eye piece. The red circular button located next to the battery slot is the record start/stop button. As the name indicates, you push this button to start and stop recording video.
When you first start shooting video in a new location you must white balance the Canon GL cameras. To do this you must zoom in on a blank white piece of paper, or something with a completely white background. Once you’re zoomed in press the select button, then press and hold the white balance button to the right of the select button. You will see the white balance icon flash in the eye piece. When the icon stops flashing, your camera is white balanced. Every time you start shooting video in a new loaction you must white balance your camera.
Guide to Canon XL
The Canon XL power knob is slightly different from the EL and GL. Much like the EL and GL you can turn the knob to VCR for watching video that you’ve shot. To record video you need to turn the knob to the video recording setting that you will shoot with.
To white balance a Canon XL, you will still need to zoom in on a comletely white surface. Just press and hold the white balance button until the white balance icon stops blinking in the view finder. Occasionally when a Canon XL is powered on but not used, it will go into standby mode. To exit standby mode simply press the standby button located to the right of the white balance button. Conversely, if you want to enter standby mode to conserve battery power you would also press the standby button.
There are two audio chord jacks on the back of the camera. You will want to plug your audio chord into the left jack.
When you shoot b-roll or interviews you will use different audio settings. To shoot b-roll you will use the boom mic attatched to the top of the Canon XL. To turn that microphone on you need to slide both recording level buttons to A and the input select button to MIC. For interviews with either a stick of LAV mic you will slide both recording level buttons to M and the input select button to AUDIO 1. To change either the volume level or balance you will use the corresponding buttton in the lower portion of the audio panel.
On the front left side of the Canon XL cameras there is a panel with four buttons: stabilizer, ND filter, and two focus buttons. The top stabilizer button keeps your video from shaking. When shooting video in very bright sunlight the camera will prompt you to turn on the neutral density fliter. Simply slide the ND filter button to the on position when promted. Sometimes the previous user of your camera may have been shooting with the ND filter on, so you will want to make sure it is not on when you begin shooting. The bottom two focus buttons are very important when it comes to the visual quality of your video. The lower focus button is a slider for autofocus (AF) and manual (M). You should NEVER shoot video with the slider on AF. This will cause your video to blur if there is any action. First you’ll want to set up the framing of your shot, which will be covered in the video framing section(need link). Then with the focus slider in the M position you can press and hold the PUSH AF button. This will automatically focus your current shot. You should use this focusing method every time you set up a new shot.
