I am a newbie to videography so this may be a somewhat stupid question but does the Canon have a backlight feature? I couldn't find it in the manual. Or is this what the Neutral Density filter function is for?

There's no backlight mode as such, but there is a surf and snow mode which may well amount to the same thing - ie open the aperture by a stop or so to compensate for under-exposure.

But Canon are right to abandon the backlight mode as it's like a stopped clock - only right twice in 24 hours of shooting. The spotlight mode they offer is far more useful, as it's an intelligent program, varying the exposure depending on the contrast difference across the frame. At least this is how it works on the Panasonic and Sony cameras I have - and I'm assuming Canons will be just as good.

The neutral density filter is there to stop you shooting at small apertures with camcorders that employ tiny chips; 1/4" in your Canon's case. Diffraction losses degrade the picture quality from about f/8 onwards, so use the ND if ever you see f 5.6. 8 or 11 as a set aperture value.

tom.