problem with Canon XL1s

[joe bingham]

recently aquired for a youth group, our Canon XL1s was working fine when last out of the box but now ; vcr is fine will playback previuosly recorded material, the camera section not ; the red power light works for about a second while the viewfinder screen lights (grey not blue) then powers off again after about ten - fifteen seconds this repeats. this is either with the battery or the mains adaptor. I can't find anything in the manual to help. Have we broke It?

[filmboss80]

Try it with different tapes -- or no tape at all. Also, are you bringing it out of one climate into another? Oftentimes, taking a camera from the warmth of indoors to cold outdoors (or vice versa) can trigger the humidity/moisture shutoff response. It could also be a short in the power switch.

Hard to say, since I can't see the camera physically.

[joe bingham]

The camera lives in it's box in a cupboard of the same room that it was taken out in. The manual shows a couple of screens for moisture warnings, take out tape , shut down etc, but I don't get this far. it just lights for a second then shuts off again, the viewfinder screen gets white (grey) for a second at the same time. this happens on any of the camera settings, it appears to be fine on the vcr setting. Thanks filmboss80.