MiniDV Camcorders

[rico]

Came back from Bruntingthorpe earlier and went through the footage i shot. Few problems...

1) The whole clip of me in AdamT's RUF at 207mph isn't there... ggrrr but may have been me accidently clicking record off...

2) The camera is eating the tape! Whenever i go to rewind it stops and "remove tape" comes up and part of the film has been stuck in the mechanism!

I've got a passenger un in a 360 on there so i don't want to anything more up.

It's a Canon MV400i. I'm using JVC MiniDV tapes which i was assured by the man in D*xons that they were identical to all others.

Possible causes:

1) It was a dampish day... could my camera have got a tiny bit wet and the insides are sticking a bit? If so, will leaving it out overnight dry it off?

2) Any known problems with JVC tapes?

3) Any other ideas?

I'm really gutted about this as it was my first time over 200mph.. ggrrr

Thanks all

Rico

[simpo two]

rico said:

1) The whole clip of me in AdamT's RUF at 207mph isn't there... ggrrr but may have been me accidently clicking record off...

If you don't press the pause button properly, you can end up recording the parts in-between the shots you want, and not the actual shots. There's no substitute for looking to see if the spools are actually going round and red light is on.

And yes, condensation can cause tapes to foul up - do you have a 'dew warning'? It can be fixed by leaving the camera out to acclimatise.

[Edt]

Can recommend Maxell tapes - using them happily for years.. about 2 or 3 dropped frames & thats all

Ed

[whittaker52]

not had a problem with my Canon MV650i after its first outting yesterday at bruntingthorpe in the wet, although i did try to keep it covered up as much as pos.

[roop]

The tape mechanisms in MiniDV cameras are so lightweight and tight on tolerances that it's easy for them to be misaligned either through wear, heavy handedness or a knock. Best bet is to get it to a Canon authorised repair centre to get all the tape mechanism checked. If the camera is over 18 months old and sees a bit of use prolly worth getting the heads cleaned properly while it's there too.

Don't even think about taking it apart to get the tape out. If you send it to a repair centre and request they extricate the tape for you without cutting it you'll be fine, hopefully.

[rico]

Update: Left the camera with the tape bay open since sunday night. Just manually rewound the tape (as part of it was damaged) and now its working fine. Will be getting the footage off to Mr_Tony.

I'm just about to mpeg a 360 vs M5 run so i'll post it up soon

Rico

>> Edited by rico on Tuesday 23 March 16:54