The phenomenon of metal transfer has been investigated for different transfer modes using a digital high speed motion analyzer and an arc shadow-graphing system based on a laser source and related optical system. It was observed that the pinch instability phenomenon did not occur for the globular transfer mode, since the liquid globule was then spherical rateher than a cylindrical liquid bar. On increasing the ratio of carbon dioxide to argon, the transition current from globular to spray transfer generally increased, but it is interesting that the transition was observed to occur at the lowest current in a 5% CO$_{2}$-95% argon gas mixture. For pure carbon dioxide and helium shielding gases, the drop frequency increased slowly with increasing current. At high currents or an argon based shielding gas, the length of liquid bar decreased as the carbon dioxide content increased. The acceleration of a droplet within the arc was determined using the gas drag force theory and was found to be greater than the experimental results.