I'm about ready to pull the tigger on an xa20 (will be going from an xha1) and am escited about the size and will have to get use to some functions being hidden behind within the menu...

With that said, can those of you who use these for weddings or other events where there are a lot of camera flashes please tell me this is an isolated case and not the norm (see video - not mine but has me a bit concerned)...

thanks in advance

CANON XA20 major problem - YouTube

Nope, not isolated but related to the cmos sensor I believe, all my new camera's display this behavior. I had a xh-a1 before as well, as I recall ccd technology scan the image in a different way as cmos where you don't see that half exposed image when a flash goes off.

Thanks for the reply.

I realize the flash going off will effect the camera, what i'm worried about is not that but the "lines" going through the picture after the flash goes off.

These lines occur when the shutterspeed is not the same as the refreshrate from the lightsource where you are shooting, the fact that they appear during a shot should be because the shutter is in automode and the flash triggers the camera to compensate the shutter, this should not occur if you set the shutter to manual.

thanks so much for the help!
Matt

Also, and this you should check before purchase, I"m not sure if you can lock the shutter on this camera while retaining manual control over other functions, these handicams usually allow only one fucntion manually at a time, so it can be you can controll the iris manually but not the shutter, or you can lock the shutter but can't controll the iris manually. Maybe some xa20 owners can comment?

The shutter can be locked while controlling the iris manually.