[alex_wlu_82]

My 11 month old camcorder is skipping frames. Even when placed on a solid surface while recording, when i bring review the tape both on the lcd screen, viewfinder, and the imported DV file in iMovie 4 or 5 frames are skipped. Does anybody else experience this? Did a search here and google and found nothing... (Taping on SP, not LP)

[Rev-O]

My almost 2 year old Canon ZR50-MC hasn't had this problem. About a year ago it started eating tapes, which was fixed promptly under warrenty. I was Mr. Crankypants when my Canon decided that it was hungry for tapes, but a friend of mine who runs miniDV camcorders for his business (can you say 'insurance fraud'?) has had similar issues with every miniDV camcorder he has had. Seems like it goes with the turf, a bit.

[brianb]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but it sounds like your heads are clogged. Mini DV cameras get Head Clogs very easy. The first thing you should try is getting a head cleaning tape. Be very careful when using these things as they can damage the video head as well as cure your problem. Most likely the cleaning tape will say use for only 10-15 seconds. I wouldn't use it more than twice to try and clear the heads.

I work for a company that sells TV gear and also services Panasonic, Canon, Sony, and JVC gear and we see clogged heads alot. The man cause is the tapes that are bought off the self. There are basically two types a wet lubricant and a dry lubricant. When people use the wet lubricant tape it tends to clog heads fast.

OK here is my quick RANT

DO NOT BUY SONY MINIDV TAPE. It will clog a head the first time you use it. (You may get lucky, but ....) We had a customer buy 2 brand new JVC Cameras that cost about $9000 a piece with lenses and batteries. They went to shoot a wedding the next day. Guess what they were using SONY tapes and both cameras got clogged heads. You can clean heads on the camera but it is very hard to re-shoot weddings and vacations.

SO my rant again

DO NOT BUY SONY MINIDV TAPE

Good tapes to buy are TDK, Maxell, or panasonic, but look for the Dry lubricant tape.

Hopefully if the tape cleaning doesn't work you can get them cleaned at a pro service center, worst case secenerio would be to replace the heads which could easily cost 75% of what the camera was bought for. The parts aren't that much but the labor is probally $200

[alex_wlu_82]

Originally posted by brianb:
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but it sounds like your heads are clogged. Mini DV cameras get Head Clogs very easy. The first thing you should try is getting a head cleaning tape. Be very careful when using these things as they can damage the video head as well as cure your problem. Most likely the cleaning tape will say use for only 10-15 seconds. I wouldn't use it more than twice to try and clear the heads.

I work for a company that sells TV gear and also services Panasonic, Canon, Sony, and JVC gear and we see clogged heads alot. The man cause is the tapes that are bought off the self. There are basically two types a wet lubricant and a dry lubricant. When people use the wet lubricant tape it tends to clog heads fast.

OK here is my quick RANT

DO NOT BUY SONY MINIDV TAPE. It will clog a head the first time you use it. (You may get lucky, but ....) We had a customer buy 2 brand new JVC Cameras that cost about $9000 a piece with lenses and batteries. They went to shoot a wedding the next day. Guess what they were using SONY tapes and both cameras got clogged heads. You can clean heads on the camera but it is very hard to re-shoot weddings and vacations.

SO my rant again

DO NOT BUY SONY MINIDV TAPE

Good tapes to buy are TDK, Maxell, or panasonic, but look for the Dry lubricant tape.

Hopefully if the tape cleaning doesn't work you can get them cleaned at a pro service center, worst case secenerio would be to replace the heads which could easily cost 75% of what the camera was bought for. The parts aren't that much but the labor is probally $200

Thank you very much for your input. The only tapes i've ever used are Panasonic and FUJI. I still have a couple weeks left on the warranty, maybe i should send it in?

[brianb]

Yes do before that warranty runs out. could save you a couple hundred dollars