yup. Kinda

Interesting. This is from the manual:

I use a battery grip -- which doesn't really help with the heat. It doesn't sound like the t2i is the right camera for your application...

I think I've come to that conclusion too. The videographer that sold the camera to me used for the price of a new one (they were hard to find at first) probably found this out too and that's why he sold it....ah well one to look for a better second video cam.

it's a real shame that panny screwed the gh1 hack community because a hacked GH1 delivering 44Mb/s AVCHD is every bit as good if not better than any of the Canon 50Mb/s MPEG-2 DSLRs. I've got both and can say the footage is truly stunning.

Beyond that, you get an articulating LCD, a fully useable EVF that is good enough to pull focus with in broad daylight (@ 2.8 and over), no recording limits, no overheating problems, and a much better and more efficient codec. It really is the best of the best right now, although I do prefer 1.6x to 2x crop factor.

FWIW, the Canons shoot h.264, not MPEG-2.

Yeah, Canon DSLR shoot H.264 in QT wrapper, not MPEG-2. It's superior than AVCHD.

It's Panasonic limited vision to block the hack. They might think by blocking the hack people will switch to their high end camcorder? I don't know. To me, I switch to buy 3 T2i instead.. :)

thanks jon & taky for that correction. I'm buying more 550Ds as well.

How is the heat problem not a deal breaker for you. It seems a camera that "has to rest" every 30 minutes due to overheating is not a viable video option.....My first and possibly last use was a concert where I set up the 500D on a tripod with RODE SVM mic and 24-105 F4L lens and basically started recording and between each song would stop and restart the camera quickly just as I'd done with my 5dmk2 - I then used the mk2 to shoot close up videos for editing later with the full song recording on the 500D. But off course after 30 ninutes of continuous shooting the heat warning appeared at which time i retire the camera for the day.
Maybe i just need to adapt to this and use it but right now i can't see how this camera would ever be dependable except for short clips.