Hello!

Does anyone know how to pause recording on Canon XH-A1s? When I press start/stop button when recording, camcorder automatically pauses recording, but if I wait for a while (about 1 minute), the recording stops - and when I want to start recording again, it needs about 15secs to start recording which in my case is not best option :-)

Sometimes I really need camcorder to starts recording FAST...

Does anyone know if there is an option to set that camcorder is always in pause when I press stop button?

Thank you in advance!!!

Ales

you could go with a DN-60 solid state HDV recorder; instant start/stop, M2T files on CF cards, and no more tape issues.

The A1s will have a similar Power Save system as the A1.

After 4 minutes 30 seconds in Rec Pause mode, the camera will enter Power Save mode [VCR STOP], after another 30 seconds the camera will power off completely.

You can, at your peril, disable this using the Customised Functions section and turning [POWER SAVE] to OFF (item 16, page 85 in the A1 manual, no idea in the A1s).

This leaves the tape system fuunctioning come what may, however, this is not advised for longer than about 10 minutes.

Alternateivly, you can assign the [VCR STOP] function to one of the Custom Keys, which shuts off the tape mechanism but leaves the camera electronics and settings operational.

Check out "Power Saving Mechanisms" in the manual.

The easiest thing to do is to just leave the tape running, no delay and you have built in "pre record" if you're a bit late to the trigger.


CS

The Power Save mode [VCR STOP] can happen at about 3 minutes in low temperatures on the XH-A1s.
(PAL manual p29)

This might be a new feature as the original models manual doesn't mention it, or maybe just what Canon have noticed happens when it's cold. If it's happening a lot sooner than that (OP mentioned 1 minute) then maybe it needs checked out.

If you will be starting and stopping within short periods of time, then just let the tape roll as Chris suggested.

If you really do need rapid stops and starts within short periods of time, then go tapeless as Panagiotis suggested. By "tapeless" I mean running with no tape in the carriage, with "Power Save" turned off in the XHA1 menu, with "DV Control" set to "on" and tapeless recording unit connected.

Panagiotis has had good luck with the unit he mentioned, the Datavideo DN60, which costs about $480 ($US). He has posted on using it. See this link:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xh-series-hdv-camcorders/485365-xh-a1-recording-compact-flash-how.html

I use a Sony MRC1k which is currently going for about $750 ($US). When running with the MRC connected (and set to "synchro" mode so it is started and stopped by the record button on the XHA1), and running without a tape in cassette carriage, the Canon stops the MRC in about 6 seconds. (Actually, it stops recording immediately, but it takes about 5-6 seconds to finish saving the file to the Compact Flash card.) Press the record button again, and it starts up again in about 2-3 seconds. If you run the MRC in "cache" mode, I understand that it will keeps current with about 5-10 seconds in memory and saves that (the 5-10 seconds immediately before you pressed the record button). There is a long thread, which started in 2008, on using the MRC with the XHA1. See:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-hvr-mrc1k-cf-card-recorder/116520-awesome-news-canon-users.html