Rating: 
Summary: Big Money...bad Camera
Review: After upgrading from standard 8mm tape to MiniDV I could not be more happy. Very simple to operate for a novice, but the more I learn the better I am in photo situations which used to leave me flat on my face.Menus, manual parameters, automode, optical stabilization, 3 CCD's, and the design and ergonomics are great. My only gripe is the poor response in low light situations. My previous sonycam did MUCH better. I better invest in a light.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Digital cam on the market
Review: After upgrading from standard 8mm tape to MiniDV I could not be more happy. Very simple to operate for a novice, but the more I learn the better I am in photo situations which used to leave me flat on my face. Menus, manual parameters, automode, optical stabilization, 3 CCD's, and the design and ergonomics are great. My only gripe is the poor response in low light situations. My previous sonycam did MUCH better. I better invest in a light.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's expensive. Yes, you get what you pay for.
Review: First, the visceral. The image quality is stunning, and the creative license and possibilities afforded through DV are staggering. With a GL1 and a good NLE like Premiere, the only limit is your creativity. Effects that just a few years ago started at tens of thousands of dollars on film can now be rendered realtime. Now the practical. I spent a fair bit of time looking through the market at the 'low pro' end. Canon's GL1 and XL1 were clearly in the running, as were several Sony products. What finally sold me on the GL1 was the flourite lens, which to my eye has a noticeably brighter image, as well as the optical image stabilization, which provides a more natural looking view also. I have to say that I find the manual zoom feature useless as it's a servo controlled focus rate, and very difficult to 'stop' in a slow focus. I've found that using the 'automatic/manual' focus switch to allow the camera to bring the subject into focus, then switching immediately to 'manual' to lock the focus is very effective as a workaround. The only time this doesn't work well is at the limit of either the optical focus or the digital focus when the subject is poorly defined versus its background. In these situations, the rangefinding system seems to 'hunt', giving a nauseating soft in/out blur. Truthfully, using the camera under these cirucumstances is rare, and this is the only criticism I've got for the system. An often overlooked feature of DV is that the audio quality is about the same as CD, and is digital. This means that even your home movies now have DAT audio quality! Despite many comments to the contrary, I've been very favourably impressed with the quality of the audio, including the stereo separation. I also mentioned the XL1, but the only difference I could see was perhaps better audio, and for the considerable extra expense and size, it wasn't a good tradeoff for me.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the Price
Review: I bought this camera about 10 months back, and at the time made a compromise in choosing it because I couldn't afford the XL1S. What I've learned though after using it for so long now is that Canon didn't compromise on this camera. The GL1 has essentially every feature the aspiring film maker or video professional needs to get underway quickly and easily. My favorite feature of this camera is the frame mode ability that allows you to shoot non-interlaced video, with results that are very similar in appearance to film rather than video. After shooting in frame mode and seeing the results, I've yet to shoot interlaced video again. The one thing that this camera lacks is any ability to manually control the audio levels for the internal or external mics, which can sometimes give you less than optimal results in situations where the noise volume fluctuates noticably, or where you are trying to achieve a specific audio effect. Summary - Excellent camera worth the price tag. Across the board, far more features and better quality than all competitors in its class. Probabaly the only camera that can top the GL1 in this class is the GL2.
Rating:
Summary: Big Money...bad Camera
Review: I don't know if it's bad luck but it is a lot of money to spend on a camera that has terrible pixelization problems after 1 hour of use. 1 hour into filming it spit out the tape and wouldn't film anymore...
Rating:
Summary: All news stations better switch to this BABY,and the XL 1
Review: I got this nice little gadget from my family since i have always loved making home movies. i was amazed by how much better it was than with my my sony TR818. The resolution was so much better with 3 CCd's. i never imagined the movies that came through my head when I held up that camera. I found it easy to use. Light and very cheap for the price they gave my mom, well tht's what she said. I have enjoyed doing many things with this camcorder. From getting california redwoods looking more red than ever in the shot nd the ocean so blue, and you can record stuff that wouldn't be seen anwhere else with other camcorders, like the jellyfish before it stung me. I love this nice camcorder. If you know someone who has a love of homeade movies, I recommend this for them. ( Please say this review was helpful, PLEASE)
Rating: 
Summary: feature packed
Review: I have been using the GL1 for nearly 3 years now. I take it out on shoots for a website I work on... sometimes I create QuickTime Movies, sometimes I take stills from footage and convert the stills to .JPG files. The 30-lux capacity means you can walk into a subdued lighting environment such as a dining room lit by a single candle and get very good, balanced exposure. It is not like an infrared camera or anything, however... there must be SOME non infrared light, or you get nothing. The 30x zoom can't be beat. You can be 50 yards away from a person and zoom in and get a shot of their nose... in many ways, it must be seen to be appreciated. Considering the features, the unit is light-weight, but newer digital camcorders of similar strengths are now on the market for far less and weigh half as much. Still, the GL1 is easy to hold with one hand while using the eye piece or the LCD panel. I only have a few criticisms. For one, the unit does not ship with a firewire cable. If you are ordering this item for its firewire compatibility, you will need to order a 6-to-4 pin firewire cable separately. (6-pin for your Mac, 4-pin for the GL1). Also, the GL1 has a tendency to eat tapes. For a while, I thought I was just getting deffective tapes, but a co-worker got a DV deck and the deck was able to view and use the tapes without difficulty. Just viewing the tapes on the DV deck seemed to "fix" whatever the GL1 perceive was wrong with the tapes. On occasion I will get an all red "WARNING: EJECT TAPE" display on the LCD panel... I then eject the tape, rewind it a bit on the DV deck and then I can use it fine for several weeks w/ the GL1. This has been a problem from day one and I have head-cleaning tapes. The unit has a tripod screw mount on the bottom and a hot shoe on top, so it's a good piece of hardware for professionals. The battery that ships with the unit will only run for about 30 minutes on a full charge... but that's 30 minutes of actual recording, rewinding, etc. I highly recommend getting an additional 2 hour battery as back-up, especially if you're stuck somewhere and don't have the luxury of having an AC wall socket nearby. You can run the camera straight off AC power, but it is awkward... you must run the cord from the GL1 to the charger and the charger is then plugged into the wall. This extra cord does not come with the unit and you must buy it separately. It would have been nice if they had included this cord as well as a DC charger for the car. Back when I was ordering this item, I spoke with Canon directly to ask them information about the firewire capabilities, etc. Afer speaking to a customer service rep. for over 1 hour, it was obvious that the folks answering the phones for Canon absolutely know NOTHING about their own products or terminology used in photography or videography... if the answers are not in the little book in front of them, they are worse than uninformed... they tell you the wrong information. If you want more information about the features of this camera, seriously examine the specs featured here on Amazon and read all of the reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Good zoom, color, shutter, controls= medicore image?
Review: I just purchased a canon GL1 for use with filming sports (I am a golfer). My overall experience has been good but things are left to be desired. This review gives you the good the bad and the silly, so read on! The Good The controls on this thing are great, it's almost like having an SLR in a camcorder. The lens on this thing is great! Images come through very bright allowing for high shutter speeds. The zoom is 20X optical and something like 100x digital, and the digital zoom is usable, trust me on this one. You can switch between interlace and progressive scan with the use of one button interlace=60 1/2 frames per second, progressive= 30 full frames per second. The image stabilization is great, and it is very easy to shoot with. Shutter speed is good up to 1/15000 of a second. Oh and did I mention lots of manual controls if you want them. The Bad The CCD's on this thing have no resolution. I would almsot have to lie to tell you I get 500 lines of horizontal resolution. When displayed on a big screen pixilization is obvious. Still images stink too. You can't even get VGA out of this thing. Also the auto focus is amazingly slow. Terrible for action sequences but not a problem for a normal situation or say filming a golfer tennis player. The Silly/trivial You need to push a seperate button to eject a tape. Canon could have made this thing smaller to. The camera has an uncomfortable inbetween size. It is by no means small, not even medium sized, but not really one of those huge shoulder mounted things. The LCD screen on this thing could have been bigger too. In all honesty I think cannon wasted a ton of space on this thing. I know some will say the lens head is big, and that is fine, but the tape deck is way too big and the LCD is almost an inch thick, not excusable. Overall I am satisfied with it. A very nice piece of machinery. The best camcorder for recording golf hands down.
Rating:
Summary: Great Camera..just great....
Review: I love this camera caompared to the Xl1. People say oh if you have the money go with the Xl 1 its alot better. How do they know that? Its just more expensive and harder to drag around. It would cost a fortune to waterproof it and I think its just alittle overrated. The GL1 looks weak for its small size but it really is the best one...easy to drag around and the Firewire/capability makes it easy to edit on your home computer. The camera makes smooth nice shots and has a pretty good range. Im started on a film and I want to buy this camera. ....
Rating:
Summary: Good zoom, color, shutter, controls= medicore image?
Review: I produce news programs and documentaries, and I use my GL1 to suppliment video from the professional grade cameras used by my videographers. Only a professional can tell the difference in video quality. The unit is easy to use and has performed flawlessly in the field...and I can be pretty hard on equipment. The only thing that keeps it from getting five stars is the small flip out screen...there are larger views on the market, but on DigiCams that I believe are more awkward to operate.
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