Cannot agree more with Chris's comments, I have had the XM2 since Oct 03 and have never had so much fun learning. Yes it is my 1st real Cam and what a learning curve, but an enjoyable one. I can now safely go out and shoot a reasonable video but have fallen over many times (not literally) and will continue to learn over the years to come.

Get out and enjoy!

The thing I don't really understand is what, then, is the really the best method? It seems like there is are pros and cons to the REC PAUSE and VCR STOP. The rec pause being it's not good to pause long periods of time, but if you want to use VCR stop, there is backspacing involve which will erase 1-2 seconds off of the tape! Aghhhhhh!

David,

Just use pause all the time when you are shooting. But if you are going to do a major changes to the scene that are going to take a long while (but you still want to be able to view the compostion while you are setting up the shot) then hit VCR stop and give the moving parts of the camera a rest.

And as for your worry about 2 second rewind, thats easy, just shoot a few seconds of footage hit pause again and then VCR stop.

David, there is no one best method. Different people have different shooting styles and methods. Try one and see if it works for you. If it does great, if not, then try another method. Eventually you'll find what works best for you.

Well... I think I'm not into the more which one is "best" or not... I am actually into which one is safer to the camera. I mean, if there is a 1-2 second backspacing.... that would mean, hypothetically speaking, that you're rewinding back ONE or TWO seconds EACH time you use the VCR stop, thus resulting in ... overwriting footage, which would be bad, would it not -- and I am unsure whether this affects timecode or not.

It's a DESIGNED feature on all good camera to help prevent interrupted time code, something that could cause trouble during capture. There is NO CAMERA SAFETY ISSUE involved.

I understand that the PAUSE REC. is there to help prevent, like you said, interrupted time orsomething that cause could trouble during capture, BUT, my question was ... if there was a backspacing of 1-2 seconds each time of VCR stop (in which I frequently use, unfortunately) There would mean an excess of overwriting previous footage, even if its one or two seconds, right? When you stop it, it rewinds, so cutting off a second or two ...now would this be, in this case, bad for the tape or even the heads of the camcorder if its consistent?

It wouldn't be bad, unless you stop and start every few seconds throughout the whole tape, especially with using cheap VHS tape.

If the backspacing works correctly you won't loose any frames. The recording doesn't start at the point it backspaces to. Rather, it uses the one or two seconds to roll forward when you start recording again. Most times it will start recording at exactly the point at you left off. Rarely it will record over a frame or two or perhaps start a frame late and leave a TC break. But this is a very rare occurrence. If you are worried about recording over your last scene, record an extra four or five seconds at the end of the take, just like the pros.

Frank, I meant I was referring to the DV tape on the camcorder through GL2's "VCR Stop" function.

Jeff, what you have mentioned is fowarding, but whenever I see the backspacing, it is usually 1-2 seconds rewinded.

That's perfectly normal, David, and it is not over-writing any video. When you press "stop," the tape disengages from the recording heads. The big loop of tape that the transport pulls out of the cassette in order to engage the heads, now has to go somewhere while the transport is fully stopped. So, it's rewound back onto the tape inside the cassette. Press "record" again and the tape is threaded back onto the heads, almost always precisely where you left off. If you're worried about that precision, use the "rec search -" button to back up a frame or two into your previous shot, preserving your timecode. And, always let your shots roll a few seconds longer than they need to. Hope this helps,

Ah.... I see. I forgot that when you press RECORD again, the tape is repositioned therefore if you pressed the VCR stop button, it'll rewind to one second, but it will go back as soon as you press record again?.... That's what you're saying, correct?

What happens if you record, then VCR stop, then eject the tape and put it back in..... it wouldn't get "repositioned" or realigned, would it? Because this is what I normally do. After I am done filming, I would just press VCR stop and then eject it.

Ejecting the tape throws everything off. When you re-insert the cassette, while in rec-pause mode simply press the "rec search -" button to pick up the last frames from the previous shot and you're good to go.

Can you ever foward too much a frame while using the "rec search minus/plus" button therefore, breaking the timecode or making the casette realigned/messed up even further?

Try it and see what happens. The "rec search" keys do not alter cassette alignment. They merely move the tape forward or back frame by frame. You have a GL2; experiment with the "rec search" buttons yourself. The best way to learn is by doing. Pretty soon you'll become an expert at it and we'll come to you with questions!