Just picked up my copy and find a few oddities. The auto-focus can be heard running all the time, even when focus is not shifting. It is quite noticeable and I think you can even see it registering on the levels. Anyone else struck this?

Also, the EVF has two dead pixels - what's the dead pixel warranty on these? The viewfinder will not self-support - you set it to the angle you want and it just slowly sags. I can't see any obvious means to tighten this.

Any fellow sufferers out there?

I haven't noticed a lot of auto-focus noise. I barely even notice it when manually focusing. I think the zoom noise is significantly worse on the XL2.

About the viewfinder: I had the exact same problem at first (the lack of self-support), but after about a week or so it just sort of went away. I think Canon really greases up the joint before shipping it out of the factory, but it gets a little stickier as time goes on. It might have a lot to do with surrounding weather conditions too. I'm sure it would stay where you put it much better in cold temperatures than it would in hot temperatures.

That really sucks about the EVF display though. I've heard fixing dead pixels can be a costly repair. Not sure what the warranty is on that, however.

Jeff, are you sure the noise is from the autofocus? I haven't got my XL2 yet but I own a few Canon EF lenses with stabilizer. My experience is that the stabilizer is noisier than the autofocus and whats more important, the stabilizer works all the time.

Try switching off the stabilizer and listen if the noise is gone.

I tried all the lens functions and it definitely only stops the noise if I turn the auto-focus off. I even sat it on a tripod to make sure it was absolutely still, and it didn't help.

This is quite strange since the zoom and image stabilization should be much more noisy than the focus.

Are you using the 20x zoom lens? Where did you buy the camera? Seems like your camera has some interesting quirks.

are you guys talking about these noises being recorded to tape? Are they heard when palying the tape back? If so, is it only when using the onboard mic?

I had on a pair of headphones the other day and could definitely hear the Zoom. It is unacceptably loud. I don't know about the auto focus because I have never used it. Luckily I use lavs and a boom for sound so I rarely use the on camera mic.

The Zoom noise has always been there. Instead of a warranty or retrofit, Canon offered owners to buy an isolator to partially remedy.
But! Since this is a pro device, it is assumed that you will not be using the on board mic.