Hi, I have seen cheap new/used mini dv camcorders for sale on Ebay,If I was to take the tape out of my XL2 and put it in one of these cheap machines would the quality and widescreen shooting ect be downloaded to my PC as if I had used the XL2 to download.............Many Thanks Pete.

Likely, but not guaranteed. While they are supposed to all be the DV standard, some tapes could not be read, for instance, between Canon and Sony cameras in early days of DV. Some surmised it was due to where the code was actually laid down on the magnetic tape, and differences in the pickups on each manufacturers tape heads. I did successfully use a cheap old Sharp for many years to record my Sony VX2000. Hopefully the XL2 can be read similarly.

I think you will need to find a Canon model that also has the 24P frame rate. My Sony GV-HD700 recorder/playback deck can playback Canon SD or HDV 60i, but it won't play the tapes shot with Canon's 24P frame rate mode.

Mark

As Mark has pointed out, if you're shooting Canons 24f you're going to need a compatible camcorder in order to transfer the data.

As far as quality & widescreen are concerned, as long as the other deck can actually get the data off the tape, it will be identical to what would come off the XL2.

It's digital, it either gets it all or it doesn't get anything.


CS