Video for multimedia engineers

The Canon XL1 – my favourite video camera

I bought this Canon XL1 about six years ago on eBay, having sold my Fender Jazz bass and Stratocaster, both of which had been collecting dust in the studio. It was already a bit of an antique when I bought it, but this video camera has a fantastic zoom lens and records broadcast-quality footage.


After years of intensive use my footage had started to display digital noise (intermittent blocks of colour in the recordings) and the usual head-cleaning solution failed to solve the problem. It was time for a service!

The only Canon-approved photographic engineers in Scotland are A. J. Johnstone & Co Ltd in Glasgow, and although it took a month from delivering the camera to getting the call to say it was ready to collect, I've just put it through its paces and my Canon XL1 is now squeaky clean. The service cost £153.60 (including VAT at 20%) which I find quite reasonable considering the work involved: dismantling to overhaul and service, resetting and aligning the deck assembly, cleaning contaminated tape paths and guides, followed by a systems check and test.

If you are using a mini-DV-format camera for your footage and think it may be ready for a service, please check the following before laying out your cash.

Check list

Does the footage look okay when played back in-camera? If so, check the leads you are using for video capture. Firewire (IEEE 1394) leads are easily damaged, so try another lead. If you are capturing to an external hard-drive also check that it isn't at the end of a daisy chain. There's a limit to the number (length) of Firewire leads you can use for video capture and digital noise will be introduced if you exceed the limit. I don't know what the limit is but have certainly experienced noise during capture which was solved by connecting the hard-drive in question directly to the computer.

If your footage does look blocky in-camera then try using a tape-head cleaner. It may save you paying for an unnecessary service.

One thing I'd advise strongly against is dismantling your video camera in order to clean it yourself. If you don't know what you're doing and/or can't do it in a dust-free environment you will probably be doing more harm than good.