Help!!! Does the XL2 take stills??? How???/
 

I had a friend that had an xl1 and he used to take headshots with it, now i just got an xl2 and the manual doesn't mention how to do it. Anybody know how??

If I remember, on the XL1s (I don't know for sure on the XL1) there was a button marked "photo" right near the regular record button, that froze whatever you were shooting at the moment you pressed it and recorded it for six seconds. You then just captured it like regular video footage, except it was the same image for six seconds.

The XL2 doesn't have this feature, and really, who needs it? These cameras are super low res for stills (you'd be working with either a 720x480 or 960x480 image). If you really want to use it for that anyway, just shoot regular video footage, capture it, find a particular frame you like, and save it as a jpeg (may need de-interlacing). Even my cheapy $150 still cam shoots much higher resolution photos, though.

Not if you shoot progressive.

I've got to go with Josh though, there are many much better ways of taking stills. DSLR's can be had for $400 these days.