Okay to turn off auto-off?
 

I do a lot of filming myself using the remote. But a lot of times I'll be sitting there when the camera is in standby, memorizing lines or what have you, and after the 4 mins and 30 secs, the camera begins the "auto shut-off" routine, and requires me to hit start/stop to keep it from shutting off, which would mean I would have to constantly get up and down.

Do you think it is okay to simply turn off the "auto shutdown" feature and let my camera run in standby longer than the set 4 mins and 30 secs? It is really starting to annoy me, but obviously that feature exists for a reason. How bad is it if I were to let my camera run continuously for say 6-8 mins between recordings?

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You can turn "auto shutdown" (or whatever it's called) OFF & it will still go into a standby mode where the tape unthreads from the drum (I think) at roughly 5 mins or whatever. The only thing is... it will take approx. 8 secs to actually roll tape from the time you hit start.

Bill

Hi Deke.....
 

I, personally, do not recomend turning off the auto shutdown (Power save).

May I suggest instead you dive into "System Setup" and assign "VCR Stop" to either one of your custom keys. This allows you to shut down the VCR section of the camera by pressing the allocated custom key button. It will fire up with another press of the same button or pressing the record/ pause button.

Saves on battery and head/ tape wear.


CS

Chris, VCR Stop was what I was referring to. I also have a custom key set up for that, but that power down default always had me scratching my head as to WHY anyone would want that. :-\

Bill

Hi Bill....................
 

All made the more confusing as my XL1s manual refers to "VCR Stop" (XH A/G1) as "Standby" (it's even on the ZR1000 controller as "standby" from memory).

I can only assume they envisaged a scenario where someone leaves the camera in "Play/ Pause" mode, "Paused" and walks off and forgets. Some time later they return to find camera has worn large hole through tape, tape head is clogged with garbage, camera and the shoot is cactus. Or something.

Bit of a bugger but the VCR Stop is pretty handy - used to shoot a lot of wildlife which could be pretty long winded, the "standby" facility was a life save as the camera was 100 metres away.


CS

Hey Chris. Like I said earlier though... turning off Power Save will still engage VCR Stop after 5 minutes or whatever it is. It's one of the 1st things I was curious about when I 1st got the A1.

Hey guys.. thanks for your help... however I am fairly confused.

What I am referring to is when the camera is in a shooting mode, like Manual, not the VCR mode.

What happens is, I'll set the camera up on a tripod, turn it to manual for shooting, then take the camera's remote and sit in front of the camera and start shooting myself by hitting the 'start/stop' button on the remote. Since I memorize my lines as I shoot myself, I'm constantly starting and stopping record (all while the camera is in Manual mode). But sometimes, between recordings, it takes me longer than 5 mins to memorize a set of lines, or what have you, and the camera will go into that auto-shutdown, and it just annoys me that if it does shutdown, I have to get up out of my seat and go turn the camera to off and back to manual to get it up and running again.

I certainly don't want to do anything that can damage my camera or tape heads, etc... but if I read Bill's response correctly, if I turn auto-shutdown off, the tape heads will still dismount after the 5 mins, but the camera simply won't turn off... which seems like a great solution to me (I don't care that it will take the 8 seconds to start recording).

So just to make sure I understand you guys correctly, if I do as Bill says and turn off the auto-shutdown... I'm not risking anything as far as my camera is concerned right? I don't want to do anything that will damage anything.

Thanks so much for your help guys!

Deke, the only difference between Power Save & VCR Stop is one saves power by shutting down & the other doesn't. They both serve the same purpose (protecting tape & heads from long periods in pause mode).

Bill

by the way, to clear up confusion... the VCR Stop doesn't have anything to do with what operation mode you're in (Camera or VCR). It still needs a "VCR" to record anything :)