By that I refer to the infamous "2 minute" auto-shutoff which regretably occurs when you have it on pause while recording.

Of course once the power is axed, that destroys all of the settings just tweaked such as color,level of light and others!

Is there any method or way to defeat that very annoying "battery preservation" feature and have it on indefinite pause until one is ready to resume shooting?

I sure hope so.

Looking forward to the answer.

Yes, it's there in the manual. It's so long since I used a GL2 (XM2) that I can't remember how off-hand, but I certainly stopped that auto-shut-off very soon after getting the camera.

Note that the auto shut-off is a feature included to protect tape from excessive wear, and heads too. If you disable it, be aware of the added risk to your tape. However, if I recall correctly, you cannot disable auto shutdown on the GL1.

Many camcorder settings are retained when going into "Lock" mode, but that depends on the camcorder model.

Auto shutdown does not apply if there is no tape in the camcorder.