Okay, So I originally purchased my GL2, close to a year ago now. I started experiencing the power off problem shortly after winter. Great right? My feelings exactly. Clueless as to what was causing this. I seeked the web to see what I could find and bam I arrive here, to 300 other people having the same problem.

Already shady on sending my camera in for the first time after hearing other peoples stories, I had no other option but to deal with the random power off or send it. So I send it in. 5 or 6 long weeks later I receive back the same camera. Apparently the "main circuit board was replaced." Go out for the first time in 5 or so weeks planning to shoot free of problems. Within two minutes the power off problem was happening all over again.

Frustrated as all hell, I send it back... praying that it's done right this time. Again, another 5-6 weeks without a camera go by. The time comes, I pick up my camera at the store I had send it through to Canon, where I originally purchased the camera. I was told it was replaced with a NEW camera so that boosted my spirits a bit.

I arrive and they get out the camera. I take a look at it. It had been replaced with a refurbished camera. This camera had clearly been used as there were marks all over it. A bit dissapointed, I take it home anyway to see if it even works. Halfway home, I discover it doesn't have the internal battery inside the LCD; which I had originally sent with my camera. Back to the store I go. Understanding of the problems I had already gone through, they supplied one free of charge.

I get home and gave the camera a deeper inspection under a bright light. Only to find a massive scratch all the way across the lens. Faint but clearly visible when light hit the surface. Thoughts were flying through my head. What else could possibly go wrong right?

I return the camera the next day to the store to send it back to Canon. Even they were amazed by what I was going through. With the camera, I typed up a nice long letter of what I was experiencing. Which I had done previously when I first encountered the power off problem. I specifically asked them to replace it with a NEW camera. So again 5 weeks go by without a camera. Not to mention that MY camera hasn't even hit its one year anniversary yet. So it is still under warranty.

Weeks go by another camera comes in. I go to pick it up... still a refurbished camera, but at this point about any camera would please me. Still minor wear on the body. Myself, disgusted. They told me to go home and test it out. So I do that... once again within 5 minutes the camera shuts off then right back on. Not once but probably about 65 times within an hour period. I was then about ready to blow, as I've had friends with $200 Mini DV cameras for over 4 yrs. that have operated better.

To think that I forked roughly 3 grand for this product and that I haven't had it all summer makes me sick. Also, the fact that they obviously cannot repair this problem is a huge issue. I treated my camera like a baby. Sent it in mint condition with the power off problem only. In return get way worse condition refurbished cameras, not even in working order, which I have no idea where they have been and used and how long they will last. I feel if they cannot repair the problem on my original purchase, they should REPLACE it with a NEW product. Not some refurbished used garbage. If I wanted a used camera, I could've bought one for alot less then I payed for a brand new one.

In conclusion A CAMERA, I wont even call it mine, is at the service center AGAIN. Probably to be sitting in a box for some 3 weeks to be looked at for 5 minutes then sent back. I don't even know what to expect this time. In the future I won't be purchasing Canon products. That's a fact. A few of my friends have had Sony VX series cameras (VX2000/VX2100) almost 2 yrs. and have absolutley no problems. Thoughts of demanding a refund have crossed my mind. But well see what happens when a product is returned.

Lastly, I don't see a bright future for GL2's if this many people have gone through this problem and this kind of treatment with service and what not. From what I've read they cannot repair this problem. Meaning in which any camera they replace yours with will probably do the same thing over time. A recall or refund sounds more then resonable to me. More on this later...

"In return get way worse condition refurbished cameras, not even in working order, which I have no idea where they have been and used and how long they will last. I feel if they cannot repair the problem on my original purchase, they should REPLACE it with a NEW product. Not some refurbished used garbage. If I wanted a used camera, I could've bought one for alot less then I payed for a brand new one."


Dear Tom,

This is one of the worst camera horror scenarios I could ever imagine.

My sympathies to you....

All I can offer is to urge you to somehow contact the President or CEO of Canon and demand a new camera. The fact that they are replacing your $3,000 new camera with a questionable used and refurbished one that has a scratched lens and unknown hours is totally unacceptable.
Try google.com to find the Canon personnel hierarchy. If you're not successful, I will gladly do what I can to help you find the appropriate recourse. You may also want to threaten them with going to the Better Business Bureau and Bizrate.com with your complaints. I'd do that tomorrow in any case...and alert Canon of these complaints. I think you will be surprized with their quick efforts to resolve your problem. You must be pro-active in demanding your rights in these situations.

Good luck buddy,

Stephanie

This is not good!

I think we must have stronger and more "urgent" consumer laws here in the UK. Depending on what the item is I immeadiatley go NEW replacement OR money back, right here right now, period! If I bought new, I GET new! No questions. Polite, but firm.

Not good . ..

Grazie

Tom, just reading your story made my stomach knot up, and it wasn't even my camera!

I agree with Graham. Too many of you folks are way too patient, too forgiving. When it comes to high-ticket items, like video cameras costing thousands of dollars, you need to be more forceful--polite, but FIRM, like Graham said. Be insistent!

And I also agree with Stephanie, call Canon USA and demand to speak to someone in authority and get this fixed once and for all.

Jay

Someone gather the various stories from here and let's send them to EVERY SINGLE video related publication and website. Canon must answer for these incompetent service centers.



ash =o)

Tom,
Any idea which Canon center it was sent to? New Jersey or California?

Thank you to all who have read my story. If any of you have information on contacting Canon U.S.A. or the company CEO, please post. I will take charge as soon as I can aquire information. I need to get this resovled as soon as possible.

Also, Canon claims they don't produce GL2's anymore and they're aren't any new ones at the service center. I kind of find it hard to believe that the companies factory doesn't have atleast a few brand new ones laying around. I mean hey, the stores still carry them. They least they could do is order me one or something, for all that I have been through.

I feel for those experiencing the same type of problems. I hate to even imagine what I would be in, if I didn't have a warranty right now. The money they would try to suck out of me for service and what not. Honestly the only thing keeping me going, is knowing what this product is capable of when it works. Also, knowing that I'm not going to get cheated out of $3,000.

Did you purchase it with a credit card? If so, does that give you any benefits of extra insurance or anything that may help? A phone call to Visa, for example? If not, go and stand outside Canons' HQ with a giant plackard...!

Canon U.S.A., Inc.
One Canon Plaza
Lake Success, NY 11042
Phone: 516-328-5000

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., April 1, 2005 — Canon U.S.A., Inc., headquarters for Canon operations in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean, has announced the appointment of Yoroku Adachi as the company's new President and CEO effective today. Adachi has also been named a Managing Director on Canon Inc.'s Board of Directors.

"To think that I forked roughly 3 grand for this product "

How did you end up spending $3,000 for a GL2? Every time I checked B&H around a year ago, prices were around $2300 before rebate. You should have gone on-line for purchase.

Something doesn't sound right because I had my GL2s serviced directly by Canon NJ and they were more than competent and prompt. I suspect your retailer is playing games with you.

The retailer isn't playing games with me. I originally purchased it from the store because I didn't trust ordering online. The total price payed was about 2,800$ with everything. This including a BP-930 series battery, tapes, lens cloths and what not. With tax nocked on... a rough gross amount would be about 3 grand. The camera after the mail-in rebate was $2,250. Keep in mind I did buy it in a store and 6 percent sales tax add's up rather fast. I completely trust the store in which I bought it from because all they do is send it to Canon. At there expense, not mine. They have nothing to do with the repair/replace process. They basically function as the "mailbox" so to speak. It also saved me alot of hassle with packaging and paying for shipping there and back. Thus why I sent it through them. Leaving them responsible if it was lost/damaged in the process. It has gone to the New Jersey service center each time. And with everyone elses problems I've read about here, I'm not suprised by what I'm going through. I mean hey, if the camera would work I wouldn't be going through all of this right? Each persons situation is different with repairs and what not. Canon has obviously been able to repair other problems. But on everything I've read, they've just replaced peoples cameras who have encountered the power off problem. In most cases I'm guessing other people have been returned a refurbished camera as well.

Tom, did you try to reach Mr. Adachi?

Jay

Is the "lemon law" just for cars or does it extend to other consumer products as well? I think Apple computer has a policy that if one of their computers goes in for warranty repair three times within a certain time frame they give you a brand new unit (not refurbished).
Might want to bring that up in your conversation with whoever you talk to at Canon.
And, just for the record, if you have the ability. I highly recommend even a good, used current incarantion XL2 .
Going on 5 months without a single problem or complaint. (knock on wood, down on my knees praying to God).
Best of luck.

A really basic question: how are you powering your GL2? Could it be that you are powering all these cams with the same power source, i.e. a battery? Maybe THAT battery is the problem and not the cam?

Sorry, don't mean to be critical, just offering some help.
Or is Canon actually acknowledging a fault in the cams?

Cheers,
Marius
---------

Canon has tested the batteries. A bp-915 and a bp-930. Both are fine. The problem is the camera. I have sent both in numerous times when I sent the camera.

I would bet a six pack of beer that Canon reads this site. If they don't they should! Maybe someone from Canon will respond to these problems on DVinfo net some day . I'am sure that Chris Hurd has told the Canon people to check the site out when he has worked some shows with some factory reps. Good luck...Steve

Im positive Canon, at least the people at the Irvine Service Center read this site. As I mentioned in my "horror story" the manager refered to postings I had made during my still ongoing fiasco. I think seeing the numbers this site pulls in helped put pressure on Canon to resolve my case in a quicker fashion than they had originally planned. I agree though it would be nice to hear Canon's take on this board.

i no this is stupid and everything but where were you using it? It sould like electromagnetic interferiance.

Im positive Canon, at least the people at the Irvine Service Center read this site. As I mentioned in my "horror story" the manager refered to postings I had made during my still ongoing fiasco. I think seeing the numbers this site pulls in helped put pressure on Canon to resolve my case in a quicker fashion than they had originally planned. I agree though it would be nice to hear Canon's take on this board.

Canon has a policy I'm told, that prohibits employees from posting here in representation of the company. That doesn't mean they don't read this stuff though.;-) So you won't be reading Canon's 'take' on any issues posted to this forum.

=gb=

If any of you have information on contacting Canon U.S.A. or the company CEO, please post. I will take charge as soon as I can aquire information.

Tom, I provided the info you asked for, and asked if you contacted them. Did you?

Jay

Hello All!

I, yes I, must be by far the unluckiest GL2 owner that has ever walked the planet. Besides Phil, I was one of the first to report this problem to Canon (or so they tell me). Well, I won't get into it here. Check out this thread... there's video of it and all:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=30557&highlight=Buerhaus

Basically, they replaced two cameras with the shut-down issue. For almost 7 months things were great! Then this started happening (audio problem):

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=48092&highlight=Buerhaus

After sending the cameras back to me and slapping me with a $500 repair bill, after pulling them out of the box there was still the audio problem. They 'rigorously' test these things only to find 'factory spec'. I test it for 10 seconds and can duplicate the problem... video of which can also be found in that thread.

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEKEND! One of the replacement cameras started shutting down mysteriously on me!

If these things weren't so expensive, they would have turned into footballs and I John Elway throwing downfield to no receivers.

It's obvious Canon simply does not care about these issues as it sounds like the GL2 is on its way out the door. They tell EVERYONE that 'this is new to us' and treat us like we're morons... basically playing stupid. The only way around this in my mind is a refund of any repair charges shelled out and maybe even a class action lawsuit. To be treated like this is wrong... flat out wrong.

I'm ready to throw in the towel... either Canon gets out the next generation cameras or off to Sony I go.

This is really bizarre. I had my camera now for almost a year and never had any sort of problems, cassette error or random shutdown being the most famous.

It's like there was a certain batch of cameras that had the problems but Canon, instead of removing them from the market when the consumers sent them for repair, keeps them around.

I've had a cheapo JVC $600 camera for almost five years now and never had any sort of problems... just not acceptable on a $2.5k camera.

I wouldn't be surprised if dealers aren't just swapping cameras either in some situations. Maybe this was happening to Tom. Remember they're on the hook for return shipping and costs too. Just a thought.

I've used my GL2 for the last 6 months, no problems yet either. Here's hoping.

not to insult the canon gl2, but damn i love my vx2000. I bought it used , the person i bought it from had it for 2 years atleast, he babied it as he is a pro camera man. After i received it, i filmed an episode of a series in India, in quite possibly the most humid and hot place (as well as populated) in India. The primary was a canon gl1, that thing suffered tape errors like nobody's business. my camera being used, and never serviced it soldiered on through the shoots. it even stood up well against 300 degree + shots near tandoors (ovens). It sucks spending so much money on these things and not being able to spend time with them. I hope you contact the people in charge and let them know your problem.

Add another one to the long list of people experiencing the same problem with the GL2. I am having the same power off problem as everyone. I had it in service for the problem and just got it back a couple of days ago. Needless to say, it has the same problem. I just found thread today after looking to see if anyone else has been experiencing this problem. Just to add, I have also experienced the ever popular "remove casette" promt as well as one more. When hooking the camera up to a computer (mac G5) along with my external hard drive, the computer won't recognize the hard drive. I will keep an eye on this ever growing list of responses to see if anything else comes up.

Never had a problem with a GL1 or an XL1

It's this kind of info that we need... keep it up. i'm looking to buy a camera and now I'm seriously considering a VX2000 not because of the camera so much as because of the serious issues with Canon's customer service.

Joa

The GL2 is shaping up as a classic case study in quality management. A potentially brilliant product plagued by defects in design and manufacturing.

The zoom rocker is clearly a bad design, just not robust enough to stand up to normal aging and wear. The transport is frail. I suspect that it has several failure modes, some mechanical and some in the controlling electronics.

The electronic failure modes in the transport and the auto shutoff problem could very well be caused by Electrostatic Discharge damage to semiconductor devices (i.e., assembly workers zapping them with accumulated static electricity in handling) if Canon manufacturing doesn't manage ESD issues properly. Finished camcorders can function normally during in-house testing with injured components that have latent defects which will manifest themselves over time. An even more common site of latent defects is the circuit board that the other components are mounted on. The cummulative effects of aging, thermal cycling and vibration expose things such as hairline cracks in the copper traces, and random micro "whiskers" of copper or solder trapped under the soldermask that lay between tracks just microinches shy of shorting them out. I spent a lot of years in the circuit board industry fighting those things. Troubleshooting these things in a complex finished product is a nightmare. High quality houses have learned to avoid them by doing some hard work up front.

Does the GL1 have these issues?

Joa

It would be nice to have a live chat site in DV info net where from time to time a rep. from mfgs. would be invited to be online and chat about problems or anything that was new or old related to the DV world. Crazy thought I know!

Steve

At one point I was selling my GL2 kit, but then decided to keep it since I now have the time and resources to do so. I hope my GL2 doesn't start acting up on me.

I don't know about the law in the US (?), but here in Denmark, when you've had your product in for RMA three times with the same problem you can demand to get your money back!

Well, another one for the record:

After 6 months of use, the REMOVE THE CASSETTE problem started appearing frequently on my GL2, mostly during rewinding. I brought it to the Canon-licensed service center here in Montreal (AMT Acadien). 3 weeks later, I got the camera back, after they changed the tape drive: it took them a while to get the spare part from Canon.

The next day I shot 4 tapes for a show, and the problem did not appear. Note that I did not rewind the tapes in the GL2. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping the problem won't reappear, but I'm going to play it safe: I don't intend to ever rewind tapes in my camera. I'll always use my Maxell rewinder instead. However, because I capture my logged footage in batch mode, the camera sometimes has to rewind a bit during the batch job, and it's often in this situation that the problem occurred in the past. I'll be looking to buy a cheap, used camcorder for capturing.

My camera was still under warranty, so the repairs were free. When I picked up the camera, I did notice that the store copy of the invoice said $350 (canadian).

Well, My GL2 was ok for awhile, but now the Zoom on the grip is sticking and causing the top zoom button to not function properly if it gets stuck. I try my best to not use it at all but sometimes you can bump it by accident and then I have to bang it around a bit to unstick the zoom grip.

I do think maybe these cameras weren't made too good and if I knew about all these horror stories I might have went a different way.

I'm not sure I even want to send my camera away to a service center now after hearing all these stories. Too bad I have so many things fitted for the GL2, like the wide-angle lens and steadi-cam. I've also already shot a bunch of footage that still needs polishing.

At least the camera works but it's not fun to have something this expensive broken in any way shape or form.

You guys think I should just sell it or try to get it fixed?

How much might this zoom grip cost anyways? Has anyone had this problem?

Well, I do have one camera that has a zoom problem (thanks for reminding me...lol). It seems to zoom on its own sometimes... like if I start a slow zoom and stop with my finger, the camera keeps zooming all the way in... or out. Other times it works fine. Nothing wrong with the button at all, I don't think. Anyway, if the camera is still within its one year factory warranty period, they'll fix it at no charge. If it's no longer in warranty, it will cost $250. They have a steamlined charge for regular maintainence... if you just want the heads cleaned and the camera refurbished back to 'new' factory standards... $250. If you need a new LCD because yours stopped working... $250. Whenever you send it in for a repair of a faulty camera part (the button in your case), they do the refurbish process as well during the same visit.

As a side note, I've found Canon to be very efficient with minor problems like these... it's the ones that they can't duplicate (like the shut-down problems) initially that take time to get fixed by sending it in over and over again.

I think though that they've finally agreed that some of these 'mysterious' problems exist now, like the shut-down problem, that they've become even more efficient in addressing the problems.