Hi,

My mate has offered me his little used Canon XL1 for £1000 as he wants to buy the new XL2 when it arrives next month.

I know the camera is in excellent condition, has been little used and well cared for.

Is this a good price?

Best,

Mark

[klr10]

£1000 is about the right price, make sure it hasn't got any scratches on the lens, that the LCD viewfinder works correctly (they are easily damaged by sunlight) and that all the accessories are present (particularly the remote control). The XL2 is widely expected to cost over £4000 but not sure when it will hit our shores for certain, also not seen many reviews on it yet, apparently it's designed to compete with the Sony DSR570 (which cost considerably more).

A grand is ok for a used XL1.

Is it an XL1 or an XL1s.

The XL1 could be anything up to five years old, an XL1s will be 18 months max.

They are both good cams, the differences slight (multiple manual WB memory on the XL1s, better audio set up on the XL1s) but you must check everything works.

Ask for a trial first of all, & run a couple of fresh tapes through it.

If it's an older Xl1 offer £800, if its an XL1s and everything checks out it could be a bargain.

I'm sure the XL2 will be very good, and am considering selling my XM2 to help buy one, but it will not be a patch on the DSR570, DVCAM system is more relaible (higher tape pitch so less dropout) cam has bigger chips, more flexibility, superior image processing, Hyper HAD FIT CCD's, built in colour wheel filters as opposed to fully electronic WB.

Prosumer cameras are fantastic value, but pro cameras are better.

A subaru imprezza gives you a lot of thrills for the money, but a porsche 911 is a different class of machine altogether.

Thanks guys for your quick replies.

It is the xl1s and it works fine as I have used it myself.

He is letting me pay for it over 12 months so I think it is a great deal.

Best,

Mark