aperture
 

Tom,

No Pro by no means of the word so forgive if this is simplistic. I purchased my XL1s from guy in DC who shot pro for a while. He told me to all ways leave the gain on -3. Based on your comments, could this then be to keep the aperture open wider by chance?

Yes, but only by half a stop. It's mainly to reduce the noise floor even further.

There are still XL1s' floating around out there? Wow. ;)

Dave,

It is not so much knowledge as a lack of fear.

People are so scared by all the bogus rumors about destroying their cameras by cleaning them that they don't do it. This often leads to the heads getting so dirty that they will not clean up with the 10 seconds that the people DARE to use the cleaning tape.

Think of the camera heads like your shower doors. If you don't clean them often, with a good cleaner, the mineral deposits get so thick that it is really hard to get it off. Cleaning tapes are a very mild form of cleaner and must be used more ofter than the harsh chemicals that the service centers can use.

I would guess that within the first year of ownership, 25% of the owners do not even own a cleaning tape. Most don't read, or worse choose to ignore the part of the manual that says to clean it regularly. So blame it on the cleaning tape and send it in for repair, or worse yet, complain about it endlessly here on the forum and tell everyone how bad Sony, JVC, Canon, Pany and all the other companies are!

Pick a brand of tape that you can buy in bulk and stay with it. Clean your camera regularly. If you experience a problem with drops outs and you have used and cleaned your camera properly, try switching tape brands. I bought a used XL1s years ago that would just not work with JVC tapes. I had the JVC tapes because I had a JVC camera too at the time. I switched BOTH cameras to Sony Premium and have never had one single drop-out.

Be smart, not afraid.

Mike