Well, I finally got an XL2 20x and I've been playing with it and going through the manual all day. I can tell you that everything I read on this BBS definitely seems clearer now that I actually own the camera.

One quick question. I've been shooting in Manual 24p, 1/48 and I've noticed that my Iris level changes depending on the brightness of the subject. According to page 60 in the manual, I should be able to set this as low as F1.6. However, sometimes it won't go that low and sometimes I set it low and it goes back up on its own when I the lighting increases.

Since the camera is in manual mode, how is this happening? I assume I am missing some setting in the camera, but I can't find it in the manual.

Thanks,

Kelly

Kelly,

The minimum aperture setting is dependant on the zoom position also as I understand it. Zoom all the way out and you should be able to achieve F1.6.

Just a guess... are you zooming in and out? If so, then that would explain the iris change. Like just about all camcorders, the XL-2 has different maximum iris openings at the wide and telephoto ends of the zoom.

See this post for a technical explanation:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?p=268028&postcount=8

I went to go try some things out and found it that it was the zoom. I came back to post and you guys had the answers here.

Isn't the internet great? You can have an obscure question about just about anything and the answer comes within seconds.

Thanks guys!

Kelly