Hi All as a new owner of an XL2 I now need to get the footage to my computer.Firstly I have tried the free download that is on a sheet that came with the camera to no avail (Canon Mini DV Camcorder Camcorders - Canon Europe (http://www.canon-europe.com/for_home/product_finder/camcorders/digital/)) All I seem to get is a corupt file message.
Also is it best to download via firewire or usb? How do I know if my computer has firewire?.......Any help would be great Many Thanks Pete.

Don't have an XL2 myself but have lots of experience with older DV cameras as well as current Canons.

You will not be able to transfer your video to your computer via USB - it's only recent tapeless cameras that do that for video, though that's usually how you access the still images on a camcorder which has a memory card for photos. You will need Firewire aka iLink or IEE 1394. You should do a bit of Googling if you are not sure what to look for - IEEE 1394 interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394_interface) will do for a start.

You will need a Firewire card on your computer and probably a 4 pin (camera end) to 6 pin (computer end) Firewire cable.

One piece of advice - best to connect the cable with both camera and computer tuned off as quite a few people have had a nasty experience and fried either the camera or their computer's F/W card by trying to "hotplug" a cable. Shouldn't happen but it does.

BTW, Instruction Manual (http://software.canon-europe.com/software/0024545.asp?model=) should let you down load a pdf copy of the user manual. It's the quickest way to find things though you should read the whole thing through a few times (seriously).

This link XL2 (http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010189.asp) should let you download the latest software for your camera from Canon Europe.

Thanks for your reply.The next question is are PC's made with firewire anymore as I cant seem to find any!!!!!!!

They can be, but you pay a premium. Just buy a PCI firewire card for around $10.

Peter, are you using Vista on your PC? I have found that many PCs and laptops running Vista will not recognise the XL2, but computers with XP will pick it up no problem.

Hi All and thank you for your replies. My situation so far is I have a new Pc with Firewire and have downloaded a few test clips rom my XL2 to my Pc with no problem.
If rewind the tape to use again,but use only half the tape when it comes to downloading would the new clips
plus the old clips be downloaded? what is the way around this?........................Pete.

Hi Peter,

ONLY - if your budget will not allow it - you should refrain from rewinding a tape and re-record on that same tape again. You might experience dropped frames, due to scratches, etc., on tape.

If you do rewind and re-use tapes - once you rewind and hit the record button - new images will replace old images - if I understand your question ? Another important issue is - find a tape brand you are happy with - and stick with that one. Changing from one tape brand to another may (or not) cause clogged heads, dirty heads - especially if you switch back and forth between "dry and wet" tapes. Ask your tape source company if your tapes you buy are "wet lube or dry lube" tapes. Then - stick with same type of "lubed" tape.

As I recall - Canon cameras seem to prefer "dry lube" tapes. This "should" result in less tape particles clogging up your tape transport mechanism and making your recording heads dirty (faster). Also - buy a good brand of head cleaner tape (again - dry or wet) and NEVER EVER rewind this cleaning tape to stretch the life of this cleaner tape. I used to label my cleaner tapes so I used the same cleaner tape for the same camera - never mixing back and forth - as I owned more than one Canon video camera.

Good luck --

There is some risk to reusing previously recorded tape. The main issue being the possibility that old recorded material might show through the new material if there is some sort of glitch in the recording process. Highly use tape is an issue as well, because tape does wear out. However, a few playing is no big deal. Tape is cheap (about $2.30 per hour), especially if you want to retain material for possible future use years from now. Best not to recycle tape for an important shoot.

If you record over material, that material is lost, but the part you do not record over is still there and you can capture it. However, there might be a brief glitch at the point where you stopped recording new material, and you might have issues with time code breaks.

Best to avoid use of the LP speed (90 min on a 60 min tape). It does not provide highly reliable playback on a different machine, and may have an issue on the same machine in the future.

The tape lube issue was back in the 90's between Sony and Panasonic-type brands/stock. That big problem was resolved years ago, but because tapes are somewhat different, and leave different deposit patterns in the camcorder, it is still possible to see an issue if changing tapes after a long diet of one specific brand,or if you use some ancient tape.