I'm happy with my XM2 overall. The only really difficulty I have is when trying to film landscapes. The pictures appear to be blurry and without detail. If I zoom in in a subject the pics fine but when zooming out the pics bad!!! Is there anyway I can increase the picture detail?

Sorry, but I think that you've found the biggest drawback with small CCD DV camcorders, and Standard Def DV as well. You just won't have the resolving power of the system to allow for the fine details in landscapes. Close shots will be fine - as you've discovered.
The loss of resolution is even more marked if you use the faux-widescreen setting as well.
Another reason - although I don't think so somehow - could be a fault with your lens; though with fixed lenses, there shouldn't really be anything to go wrong...

Robin

I agree with what Robin says.

As a remedy, you could zoom in a bit and try your hand at a very slow pan.

Thanks for your replies....any 3 ccd cams you can recommend which would be good for landscapes? I've heard the Sony FX1 is good at capturing landscapes?

Stupid question time again for me - what f number (aperture) are you shooting at? Generally, the higher the more dof and the sharper the image seems.

I think the last time I took some video of a local landscape it was set at f4 or something near that!

f4 on dv is quite sharp, but it cant hurt to try higher values

I've just been trying my cam out through my bedroom window and at the local mountain at f1.6 the pictures a great deal sharper! I think I need to experiement more!

The problem is the resolution limits of video. 720x480 will not resolve fine detail, and wide landsacpe shots need fine detail. The same issue can be encounterd with still photography, but because film is generally much higher resolutionit is notas pronounced and arises ar much greater distances fromt he subject.

The sweet spot for lens performance is likely around F/5.6, give or take a stop.

People have made some good points here. The relatively low resolution of standard definition DV is a big limitation for shooting landscapes, and the small chips in your camera don't make things any better. But with some experience you can compose shots that are still effective by concentrating on large, bold shapes or dramatic skies. Here are a few still frames from my Z1 with a .6x wide angle lens, scaled down to half resolution (960x540). If landscapes are important to you then you might consider the FX1 or one of the other new HD camcorders:

http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=3707&fullsize=1
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=3705&fullsize=1

Have a look at this old thread which contains some interesting info and also links to some tests I did awhile ago: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=28087

Cheers and thanks for the great advice from everyone! Amazing still pictures by the way!