GS400 Auto shutdown
 

I hear this camera does the annoying shutdown after 5 minutes of non use...is this true? If so, can that feature be overrided...I had that on my VX2000 and I hated it.

Probably with a tape in the GS400. Have you checked the manual?

All miniDV cams will auto shutdown after a certain time of non-recording/playback to prevent damage to the tape (unless they allow over-riding this. If you don't want the cam to shutdown because you are recording directly to hard drive, remove the tape from the transport.

I just got my GS400 yesterday, and was playing with it when I got the same shutdown. Scouring through the mostly unintelligible manual, I finally saw it mentioned (on p.27):

When the Recording Pause Mode continues for more than 5 minutes, the power is turned off automatically for tape protection and power conservation. (If the AC Adaptor is used, the power is turned off only when the tape is inserted in Tape Recording Mode.) When the tape is inserted in Tape Recording Mode and if the Recording Pause Mode continues for more than 5 minutes the power is turned off automatically. To resume recording from this condition, turn off, then turn on the power again.

It doesn't look like it's a configurable option. Even without a tape, unless you're plugged into the wall, you can't play with the camera for more than 5 minutes without it shutting off on you!

Not a big deal, but I wish you could turn this option off, or at least restore power with a quick press of a button, rather than the press-slide OFF then press-slide ON you have to do. Sure, I'm just lazy, but I also don't want to break my ON/OFF switch!