The Canon XL2 succeeds the XL1S, which has garnered high praise in the market since its launch in July 2001. Inheriting the outstanding integrated design and innovative features of its predecessor, the XL2 boasts vastly improved image quality, functionality and operability to meet the performance needs of professional videographers.

 
Canon's XL2 camcorder employs a progressive-scan 3-CCD image-sensor system, which assigns a separate 1/3" 680,000-pixel CCD image sensor*1 to each primary color - red, green and blue - for outstanding detail and faithful color reproduction. The model also incorporates advanced CCD technology called Horizontal Pixel Shift which, by horizontally shifting the green CCD one-half pixel, effectively increases the system's total pixel count by half to achieve a horizontal resolution of 540 TV lines - the highest level possible in the DV standard. Moreover, a newly developed signal processing LSI (large-scale integrated circuit) optimizes color-space reproduction and boosts processing speed for greatly enhanced image quality.

Offering improved wide-screen performance, the XL2's high-resolution 16:9 Wide TV Mode effectively uses the wide area of the CCD to capture true 16:9 wide-screen images. When recording the images to tape, the system employs the Electronic Anamorphic method to then "squeeze" the horizontal aspect and record the images in the standard 4:3 aspect ratio. When the images are replayed on a wide-screen television, they are "stretched" back again to fit the wider format. Capturing 2.5 times as many pixels as the XL1S when recording in 16:9 mode, the XL2 achieves minimal degradation of image quality compared with the cropping method used previously.

The Canon XL2 features the exclusive XL interchangeable lens-mount system, which enables users to select the most appropriate lens for each individual shooting situation. In addition to exclusive interchangeable video lenses, when outfitted with an optional EF mount adapter, the system also permits the use of a range of Canon EF lenses for EOS 35mm SLR cameras.

The camcorder also offers videographers an expanded choice of shooting modes with which to achieve their creative objectives. In addition to the 60i (60 fields per second, interlaced) standard-video and 30p (30 frames per second, progressive) modes of its predecessor, the Canon XL2 offers a "cinema look" 24p (24 frames per second, progressive) mode, which uses the same frame rate as movie film. While the 60i video mode is suited to recording news, sports and documentaries, the 24p and 30p modes are ideal for recording movies and television dramas, where the look and feel of film is usually desired. The camcorder also offers a wide variety of new image quality adjustment functions that enable video images to more closely resemble film, including a film grain adjustment, and gamma and color matrix settings in a choice of two modes: "video" and "cinema."
 
A range of new features and enhancements has been incorporated into the XL2 in order to better respond to the needs of professional users, including: the industry-standard SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) time code; a 15-item Custom Preset, which permits users to activate their preset picture control settings at the press of a button; dual XLR audio inputs, which supply 48-volt phantom power to microphones; and a host of manual functions for improved performance and ease of use.