Canon GL 1 dropout problems!

[CraigS]

I have a Canon GL1 that I bought used(BASICALLY NEW) off EBAY from a very good seller. I have had it for the past 3 months & have filmed over 6 hours of footage with it. The first month I had it I expericenced a problem with some video over lapping. I accidently recorded over some old footage & found that instead of recoreding the full new image I only got 3 parrelal lines of footage with 2 more lines of the old footage. I thought it was just a clitch in the tape. Until now!

Yesterday, I filmed some very important shots & thought everything was great until I tried to play it back. There's a short section that had some lines just like the above & then nothing but blue screen for 25 mins of recording. This was a brand new Sony Premium 60 tape & I use them reliougously. I switched the tape & began filming with a new tape & everything turned out great! I have a Sony VX-2000 & have never had a problem like this.....I ran a head cleaning tape through it when I got home & I filmed about 10 more mins of footage on another tape & had no problems.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Craig S.

[daamon]

Hi CraigS,

If you don't get any luck here, a really good site dedicated to camcorders is www.camcorderinfo.com - try there.

Good luck...

[choirislife923]

have you tried cleaning the video heads with a cleaner cassette?

[seinman]

I have a GL1, and that happens to me every other month or so if I don't clean the heads. So I got a head cleaning tape, do it once a month, and haven't had the problem since. I think that the heads on the GL1 get dirty easily or something, because that never happened on my old camcorder, and I never had to clean the heads.

Also, i've heard that it happens more if you use LP recording mode, although I only use SP so i've not had that experience.

[VideoTechMan]

Its also important to stick with one brand of tape when it comes to DV equipment...since you bought it used from Ebay, another brand tape couldve been used in it when you gotten it. Different formulation particles from different brand tapes could cause issues in DV equipment. Another reason I dont buy stuff from ebay, especially used; with equipment like that I prefer to buy it new, and then can decide what brand tape I want to go with.

VTM

[choirislife923]

Different formulation particles from different brand tapes could cause issues in DV equipment.

i guess you can say i'm a newbie on this, but why would using multiple brands of miniDVs affect recording?

[Karate Media]

choirislife:

Videographers of all stripes have debated this topic, from newbies to long-time professionals. Some say they that this is a myth, or at least is no longer a problem; others say they have seen the problem happen to them firsthand.

The problem is caused by the type of lubrication on the tape. Yes, I know, you miniDV tape doesn't look like it's covered in Vaseline, but there's lubrication there regardless. As the tape rolls through the transports and play/record heads, etc, some of this lube is left behind. Theory has it that if you change brands, you run the risk of the different lube formula interacting with the "left-behind" lube and causing gumminess, dropouts, etc. According to some, even tape brands from the same manufacturer can use different lubes.

The problem is fixed by cleaning the tape heads before you use a different brand of tape. But since cleaning heads is an abrasive process, it is something you only want to do when absolutely necessary. Therefore, people suggest that you stick to one brand of tape, as oppossed to continuously cleaning the heads.

As for VideoTechMan's comment, as I mentioned, cleaning the heads is sufficient when using a new brand. There is no reason not to buy a used camera simply because the previous owner used a different brand of tape than you. They are many other ways they may not have taken care of their equipment, but I've not met any other video professional that would say that continued use of a single brand of tape will cause long-term problems if the tape brand is ever changed. And like I said, many DV professionals will tell you that the "lube problem" is now non-existent.

But you will not find a definitive answer on the topic of lube -- I've looked high and low, and even called the manufacuters themselves, and have never gotten a definitive answer.

As for me? In the camera I make money with, I use one brand. In my cheap, $300 camera (that also doubles as a deck), I will switch brands. And I have seen dropouts occur when switching brands in the cheap camera -- but at $300, I don't mind cleaning the heads.

As for the OP: clean the heads (no more than 5 secs. or so!) and try sticking to one brand of tape for a sustained period of time. Use only new tapes if possible (instead of recording over old tapes/old footage). You might even consider starting off by running a brand new tape of your chosen brand through the heads for 10 or 15 minutes -- but don't use the tape again: running new tape pasts the heads can be a non-abrasive way to pick up any accumulated gunk -- but if you ever use the tape again, you'll just spread that old gunk around more. If you still encounter dropouts after all this, you might have a more serious problem.

[Ron B]

You can run a new tape from begining to end on "Record" with the lens cap on, rewind and do your recording. Sometimes this helps with the tape-recording head alignment. Doesn't cost anything to try it.

[seinman]

About the mixing tapes thing, I had a recent bad experience. Like I said, I use the GL1. I've only used Maxell tapes since I got it, and have about 60 tapes piled up thus far. Each one has been recorded fully and played back many times, so that represents hundreds of hours of just one brand. A friend gave me two JVC tapes that she had laying around, so I used one. Instantly, it fucked up my camera. I recorded on it for six minutes and didn't even play it back, and I couldn't play ANY of my Maxell tapes any more. Ran the head cleaner, and it only played a tape for a minute then went to blue screen. I had to clean the heads FIVE times to get it back to normal. I wasn't sure about the mixing brands myth before, but needless to say, i'll ONLY be using Maxell cassettes from now on.

[cdcox]

This is interesting as I have had some problems with my GL1 as well. I also bought it used to be a backup or second angle camera to use with my GL2. I get shifted pixels in frames and the condition comes and goes. I sent the camera to canon and they replaced the drum and head assembly and aligned the tape path. $400.00 later, I still have the same problem. I called and they told me to send it back so they could look at it, but it sounded like gumming of the heads causing tape drag. I told them that I tried cleaning the heads and use only 1 brand of mini dv tape in the camcorder since I bought it. They said it is normal condition and a way around it is to fast forward and rewind the tape from begining to end before you use it. This will help to remove excess lubricant from the tape and keep the heads from gumming. I am waiting to hear back from them to se if this is the case and I wonder why they did $400.00 worth of work if it is the case. This time I was cable to grab some stills from a capture that I did before and after the repair with the same results. If I can figure out how to post images on here I will so others can see what I am experiencing and see if it is the same condition. I will post back once I hear from canon, they recieved the camera on friday so I hope to hear something this week. If someone can help me figure out how to get a pic in here, I would appreciate it. I've tried everything I can think of.

http://us.f1f.yahoofs.com/bc/4c33e260/bc/My+Documents/pic1.jpg?bfzW6sBBmjB8uJ6d

There I did it this way follow the above link.

[choirislife923]

a way around it is to fast forward and rewind the tape from begining to end before you use it. This will help to remove excess lubricant from the tape and keep the heads from gumming

oooo! so thats WHY!
back in the days when i was 8 years old (and i just got a TV/VCR in my room!), when a VHS tape i was watching would get screwy (jumping, audio fades in and out), i would do that. afterwards it would run fine. i never understood why. flash forward another 8 years, and i finally understand!

[cdcox]

okay so if it is caused by diferent lubricants on different brands of tapes, I need to switch I guess. Sometimes I record events that can run up to 2 hrs and the maxell brand does not make an 80/120 min tape. I've tried panasonic and that is the brand that has caused all my problems. I am currently running tests on fuji brand, and will post back some results on that. Sure would be nice to have some kind of standard in the mini dv tape industry, (ha ha ha, whatever)

[BJ_M]

a way around it is to fast forward and rewind the tape from begining to end before you use it. This will help to remove excess lubricant from the tape and keep the heads from gumming

oooo! so thats WHY!
back in the days when i was 8 years old (and i just got a TV/VCR in my room!), when a VHS tape i was watching would get screwy (jumping, audio fades in and out), i would do that. afterwards it would run fine. i never understood why. flash forward another 8 years, and i finally understand!

that actually may have been another problem - when tape has uneven tension or to much or to little ...

[cdcox]

Just heard from canon, they replaced the zoom mechanism and cleaned the head and adjusted the tape path. I don't think the zoom mechanism had anything to do with it. Almost sounds like a way to justify charging me $400.00 for the last repair that didn't fix my problem. Also tested a extended play fuji in my GL2 with no problems. Since I seen the same problem on my GL1 and GL2 with a panasonic extended play tape recording in LP mode, I chalk it up to the tape.

[gummi]

I've seen this happen once (before I started having the issue two days ago), when the media house i was working with had purchased panasonics at a cheaper rate and the tech wrangler got screamed at for using them- that time my tape ended up with audio which was unusable and picture that pixelized in any other device but that camera it was recorded in, and ruined 4 hours of recording time. The other day I got a bunch of old super8 film transferred to minidv for easy capturing, and i thought that the original super8's just had funky audio. The next tape I put into the camera wouldn't play correctly. Some tapes will, some won't- depending on the brand. A tape I fast forwarded and rewound before recording on works fine. I tried a head cleaner, but the original tape i put in after the super8 minidv is still warped. I guess my only option is to find another way to capture the tape I want, but it's pretty lame that i just can no longer use that tape. Any other suggestions?