A friend just bought one of these cams-Canon XH A-1.
I am unfamiliar with prosumer cams, but offered some advice anyway.
I suggested she could buy a cheap MiniDV camcorder to use as an ingest/VCR.
will a generic mini dv camcorder play back the tapes this cam uses?
thx

Only if she shoots in DV mode. If she shoots in HDV the miniDV camcorder won't be able to read the tape.

For anything recorded in HD, the answer is no, unless it's an HDV camcorder. Your choices there are Sony or Canon. A Sony HDV camcorder will play back 1080i60 video recorded on the XH A1 but not the Frame modes (24F and 30F).

Consider the Canon HV10, HV20 or HV30 consumer HDV camcorders as those will play back all frame rates from the XH A1, including 60i, 24F and 30F.

Thanks guys.

Several people use the HV10, HV20, & HV30 as decks to their cameras... Which is a pretty good camera as far as the consumer market goes...