My TRV120 has some particles (dirt) that are visible in the viewfinder. I am not able to see how to take that assembly apart, or where dirt could even get in, for that matter. Are the particles actually inside the viewfinder or somewhere else? Any suggestions on exactly where to look?

Also, some parts of my recorded Hi-8 tapes are blocky when playing back. I have never cleaned the heads on this recorder so I am looking for a cleaner online. Any suggestions on wet or dry with this camcorder? My other fear if the cleaner doesn't work is that the image stabilizer or digital zoom is causing this problem. If either of those are failing, would I see a problem while I am recording? Now I do not see any problems while recording.

Thanks for your assistance.
Jon

Your camcorder's viewfinder is a wysiwyg device up to a point. The image you see is at taking aperture, gain, shutter speed, focus, zoom and white balance settings, and it'll also show you the side-effects of image stabilisation. Admitedly it's a pretty low resolution device, but even so you should spot shooting problems.

What it won't do is warn you if you've got a gummed up head. If both heads are blocked then a 'Clean heads' warning usually appears, but I do feel it's time you went out and got yourself a (dry) head cleaning tape and ran that through the mechanism. Read the instructions on the tape, as I've heard of folk who run it end to end on one play!

The v'finder does come apart for cleaning, and your instruction book will tell you how. Dirt in there will not affect the recording of course.

tom.