This Camera Changed My LIfe!

The Canon L2-A Life Changing Camera!

Canon L2 with 75-300 Canon IS: Elk County Pennsylvania

When I acquired the L2 in 1997 I was an avid squirrel, woodchuck, and turkey hunter, but my first and foremost interest was hunting the whitetail deer, whether it be with gun or camera.

A favorite activity was hunting turkeys in the fall, which coincided with the mating season of the whitetail deer or “the rut” as it is commonly known. I acquired my first SLR, a Minolta SRT 101 in 1974 and from that point on usually had a camera along. When I changed to video in late 1990, the SLRs were replaced by a VHS camcorder. I didn’t carry a tripod so that I could also have the firearm along.

This approach worked well for several years, but over a period of time I found that I enjoyed the whitetail photography and video recording more than the turkey hunting, and often wanted to kill a turkey quickly so I could put the firearm away and concentrate on the photography. Although I didn’t have inkling at the time, this compromise situation was about to change.

As I mentioned earlier, I bought a used L2 camcorder in May of 1997. That fall I bought a Canon 75-300 EF IS zoom lens on the recommendation of the same Kim Morris who introduced me to the long lenses on the Canon L cameras. This lens worked quite well and became a favorite until I replaced it with the Canon 35-350 L.


I was literally like “a kid in a candy store” with this outfit. For the first time I was able to really reach out and get video footage. Where previously one had to hide in blinds to get subjects close enough, now larger animals such as deer and elk could be photographed at extremely long range so I was able to range over the countryside in search of wildlife and still get good detailed video footage.

One drawback was that the L2 required the use of a tripod in almost all cases. In time I came to realize that this applied to all camcorders as I became very aware and intolerant of shaky footage. However, with the L2 and the powerful lenses it was even difficult in some cases to get good footage with a tripod because of vibration.

When fall arrived I realized that I had to choose between my old methods of operation or I could leave the firearm at home and pursue the wildlife with the camera. When it came to the crucial test the camera won out, at least until deer season.

I did hunt deer that year, but a new way of looking at things was surfacing almost unbeknownst to me. I videotaped a nice nine-point several times in the fall of 1996. To my surprise I saw and recorded him that summer on a farm less than a mile from where I saw him in the fall. He was definitely the same buck, but he was now a large ten-point. When rutting season arrived he moved back into the area and I recorded him on numerous occasions. One day I realized that there was no way I would shoot him with the rifle if I saw him in deer season. Even though I had not encountered him at close range and he had not bonded with me, I now viewed him through different eyes and felt a bond with him. As luck would have it I did not encounter him and so was not put to the test, but I am certain that I would have let him live.

That was one factor, but another of equal importance was that this camera caused me to spend more time afield and to see animals doing things I had never witnessed before. I began to identify with them, and changed from observing and photographing them as possible targets of a hunt, to photographing the animals and interacting with them being the entire reason for being in the field. This may not have the excitement of putting an animal down with a bullet, but to me it had a much deeper satisfaction and I felt much better about things at the end of the day. As one gets older, they require less and less excitement anyway.

The following year I only took the rifle one day on a half-hearted walk into the mountain. I hunted one morning and evening with the muzzleloader and that was it. My gun hunting was over!

Within a year this camera would inspire me to travel to Shenandoah National Park and in 2001 to Cades Cove in The Great Smoky Mountains

Young Bull Browsing In Spring: Althugh not taken with the L2, that camera was responsible for renewing my interest in still photography and I got the Minolta's back in service in 1999 and changed to Canon DSLRs in 1999.

To Be Continued:

An Important Milestone in Videomaking: The Canon L2

The Canon L Series Camcorders

In this segment of our series we take a close look at the Canon L2 camcorder. It may be dry reading for many, but it does explain why this model became so important to me, not to mention that it and Billie Cromwell were largely responsible for making the PGC Elk Video something more than just another wildlife agency video release.

Canon is known to most of us as a manufacturer of great still cameras, but it has also been a leader in the Prosumer camcorder field. With the introduction of the L series camcorders in the 1990s they put a powerful tool into the hands of the wildlife cameraman.
I have not been able to find the exact dates of production for these models, but the following is true.

The introduction of the L1 marked the first time an interchangeable lens camcorder was available at a price that was affordable for the serious videographer. After a time the L1 was replaced with the L2, which was cosmetically identical, but had an expanded array of digital effects and featured embedded time code.

Billie Cromwell purchased his in March 1995 and shot the elk rut that year with it, using the combination of the normal lens and a 2x extender that was especially made for this camera lens combination. The street price for this camera was in the $2,500.oo range so I didn’t consider it when I bought the Panasonic, which was about $1,000.00 cheaper.The Panasonic compared favorably to the L2 with its’ normal lens although it wasn’t quite as powerful, but I was soon to learn that the Canon was well worth the price difference.

The Canon featured a normal lens with a range of 8mm-120mm. That doesn’t sound like much, but in comparison to a 35mm camera that was 43mm-648mm, which is quite impressive. With the 2x multiplier it was 86mm-1296mm equivalent and that is not to be sneezed at. The only drawback was that it was slightly soft with the extender but it worked well under good light conditions.

Canon L2 Showing lens mount and rear portion of normal lens

Things really got interesting when one attached a 35mm telephoto lens to it. This was done by means of an EOS adapter, which went between the camera body and the lens. The camera had a ½ “ sensor and one multiplied the stated focal length of a lens by a factor of 5.4 which made a 35-350 lens a 189mm-1,890mm equivalent.

Billie and I discussed this option quite a bit but the cost was intimidating. The EOS adapter was about $300.00 and a Canon L 35-250 was near $2,000. (This was still cheap compared to a professional rig, which could easily run $60,000 for a camera and lens. The Canon L1 and L2 did not match the performance of these cameras, but it did give one the same ability to shoot at long distance and the picture was good enough for broadcast and documentary purposes if one shot it right and transferred it to a professional format tape for distribution.)

We belonged to a video club at Sunrise Electronics in Chambersburg, Pa. One evening in the spring of 1996, a fellow club member, Kim Morris, showed up with a used L1, an EOS adapter and a 200-400mm Tamron Lens. He gave a demonstration of the equipment and showed footage that he had taken. I was stunned! This setup gave one the ability to record wildlife footage at extreme range!Billie did not attend the meeting so I called him and said something to the effect of,” Billie you just have to buy that adapter and a telephoto lens”. In time he did just that! I well recall the first footage he showed me. It was of deer feeding in the woods between 150-200 yards away and one could see the flies on them!

L2 with 300mmF4 IS and EOS adapter

Billie used this outfit to tape wildlife for the rest of the year and the footage I saw was enlightening. It was unbelievable what one could do with this camera.

After this, I was very dissatisfied with the Panasonic and tried to purchase an L2 early the following spring, but to my dismay found they were discontinued. I wrote to Canon to see if they planned to introduce an upgraded version, but they refused to comment other than thanking me for my interest in Canon Products.

This led me to purchase a used L2, and the experience turned into a nightmare as it quickly developed a problem with the viewfinder and then with the tape transport. In time these difficulties were ironed out and it turned in respectable service until I replaced it with a mini-dv Canon XL-1s in 2002.

In the meantime Billie and I were about to have a lot of exciting encounters with wildlife which we would not have otherwise had!

To be continued: