End Search is crippled?
 

I note with dismay that End Search will not work once the tape has been removed/replaced. This sucked equally with my Sony TRV-30, but I assumed this was Sony's quaint little way of encouraging me to buy the pricey tapes with the memory chip. (Yes, you guessed it, the tapes with the memory chip have no such limitation when used with a compatible camera.) (...and oh, yeah, isn't magnetic tape also a form of memory?)

So why does the Canon XL2 do this?!? Didn't they build their own (i.e., non-Sony) tape transport that doesn't even support the chipped tapes? I can think of no *technical* reason why End Search would not work just fine after removing/replacing the tape. It's not rocket science to search the tape for the end of any recorded signal and cue up there and I find it a real PITA to do manually. Sure End Search can be fooled if you leave gaps in your recordings, but you can just as easily do that the 1st time, 5th time, or 20th time the tape is in the camera. It makes no difference.

And the irony is that they go through all the trouble to detect and keep track of the fact that the tape has been removed/replaced, but it's somehow too difficult to locate where the recorded signal stops?!?

Please pardon my frustrated rant. This just seems like a really stupid flaw and I'm at a loss to explain it.

Spare clue?

-cw-

If it's any consolation, all of the Sony prosumer cameras (not just the TRV-30) behave like this too....