Kevin, I had this happen with my XL1s. To make a long story short, I had to send it back to Canon and have it fixed. They explained what happened, but it was Greek to me.

J--

Jay,

So it was a malfunction within the camera? That would actually make sense, since the setting that is "what you see is what you get" still does it.

Not fun considering the time & repair bill involved, but at least I'm not going crazy.

I'll talk to Canon tomorrow (send positive DV thoughts my way).

Thanks

K

To be sure, Kevin, I don't have any experience with the GL1. Too, when this happened to me, it was less than 90 days from the date of purchase. So the only expense I had was shipping it back to them.

No, you're not going crazy. I had spent the better part of an entire morning shooting an interview with a fella in various locations. Where natural light or tunsten light was used, there were no problems. However, all the footage shot under flourescent lights was ruined. Just as you described it, ". . . a steady in-n-out from a blueish tint to a yellowish one . . . a constant wave that repeats itself about every 2 - 3 seconds." I was fit to be tied!

Anyway, whatever they did--whatever they replaced--it took care of the problem. Still, knowing that it happened once, now I always have this little fear in the back of my mind during every shoot when I'm under flourescent lights that it will happen again.

My friend, I am sending as many positive thoughts your way as I know how!

Best wishes to you and your camera! Let us know how it turns out, please.

J--

I'm also curious how you resolved this Kevin.
I seem to be having the same symptom with my Sony TRV720 Digital8 camera.

Mark

Apart from the issue of a faulty camera, fluro lighting can be a real challenge. The standard ones turn on and off at double whatever the mains frequency happens to be. This can cause some strobing / flicker with video. Thats apart from the very variable color temperature of the things.
This doesn't mean fluros are no good for video lighting, the ones designed for the task switch at high frequency and have flatter colorimetery.

It didn't get resolved. According to Canon, it's just "one of those things that happens." My point is, if someone can "get what it looks like" from a $300 palmcorder, why can't a prosumer camera do it. Don't know about the TRV, but the GL-1 has 4 white balance settings - Factory Outdoor, Factory Indoor, Manual and then "Nothing." Regardless of the settings, under certain light conditions I get the drift (almost always flourescent, but not every flourescent). I've heard people say it is a chip problem. I've also talke d to some people who throw blue film over the light fixtures and white balance from there. 99% of the time, I can just set up lights and kill the flourescents all together. It's that 1% that concerns me, because the "drift" from blueish to yellowish is painfully obvious, and there's really nothing you can do to correct it completely.

Perhaps its the GL-1. Or maybe just MY GL-1. I'll grab a GL-2 here pretty soon and see if it does the same.

On a hunch, I entered "fluorescent lighting ballast drift" in Google and came up with an interesting site: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lights/msg111229472000.html
It's an article about growing plants under artificial light, specifically a fluorescent fixture from Home Depot. The discussion centers on over-driving the fixture, i.e., applying more voltage than the tubes are designed for.

One statement stands out as a possible explanation for your color shifting.

"The more times a bulb is overdriven, the less efficient it becomes, as it is starting to drift out of the bulbs optimal design parameters."

Since you are white balancing on the fluorescent lighting at the begining of your shoot, is it possible that the fluorescent tubes and ballast are creating subtle variables in the color temperature that your tape is registering? Too subtle for the eye, but not for the electronics? This seems like an interesting hypothesis to explore, given that the camera is performing perfectly under incandescent lighting.

I think fluorescent lights are a "known" problem with Cameras But the fluorescents have improved. You can buy proper flo tubes designed for cameras and give a really nice evenly diffused light.I would try and avoid flos unless designed for the job or unavoidable.