Focusing with a CANON XH-A1S

julesmctrainspotter

I have both a Canon XH A1, and the XH A1s, owned for some years. For the life of me I can't get either of them to focus sharply using AF, and my eyesight is not sharp enough any more (at the grand old age of 65) for manual focusing. I have set sharpness and coring to high levels in the personal functions but still not getting sharp footage. Have shot both of them again today using the strongly illuminated buildings and trees in current strong sunshine, etc, but still really disappointing blurred footage. I use a high end pro body Canon DSLR and professional Canon L lenses so I know that Canon delivers with their optics. Is there some kind soul in the Berkshire/Home Counties who has extensive experience with these camcorders who could very kindly give me a crash course in how to set them up and get excellent footage with them please? I would be eternally grateful for one on one tutorage.
Many thanks in advance!

stearman65

Have you tried up-dating the firmware? XH A1 - Support - Download drivers, software and manuals - Canon UK

julesmctrainspotter

Just looked at the link, no firmware update available. Same applies to the XH A1s too.

stearman65

This comes up when I use the link???
                                                                       

julesmctrainspotter

I use Adobe Premiere Elements 10 to transfer shot video off both camcorders to my PC by FireWire. When I look at the footage on my HD monitor it is usually blurred. Yet it looks sharp on the camcorder monitor in the main.

stearman65

Have you tried transferring by hardwire not the firewire?

julesmctrainspotter

I did not think that this could be done, only FireWire.

stearman65

See page 86 of the manual, P36 describes setting focus, not sure if it will help.                                                                       

julesmctrainspotter

I set both up as Instant AF. I may try and see if Normal AF makes any difference.

12harry

Have you established it the footage is sharp  enough in the first place?
- With an older camcorder the recording may be SD ( not HD ) and this  ( by comparison ) may look bad.... as recent TV content we see is from HD or even 4K cameras.
If yr eyesight is not that good, I can sympathise only, since using a magnifying glass on the camcorder screen will be only for the best standard the camcorder can produce.... If that isn't HD, then you can only expect limited pixels in the viewfinder and magnifying these won't improve things.
However, if the camcorder has a "playback-edit-magnify" feature ( which tbh I've never seen ), then you may be able to check branches of dead-trees at infinity setting, using the camcorder . . . this is about as good a "Test" as you get, having plenty of contrast for the AF to sense.

[ I think you said you use the AF-mode . . .  and after allowing the camcorder time to adjust, the infinity position should be very good.... but subject to the "standard" the camcorder is capable of delivering.].
Can you confirm this is an HD camcorder?

If you can transfer files, IMHO it is unlikely they take-on a blurred look, if they were OK in the Camcorder.... but that screen is very small.... which may give images a sharp-effect...