GL2 zoom died
 

I was helping a friend to film a wedding yesterday, and while we were testing our stuff, the zoom on his 2 or 3 years old GL2 suddenly died.

Has anyone else experienced this, is it a common failure? Any info much appreciated.

Edit: searching this forum I see the problem mentioned and also the easy fix cleaning or replacing the main rocker. Unfortunately in this case it seems to be something else as both zoom buttons are dead...

Thanks,

The issue I had (and documented here: http://penguin.nu/lynn/diy/gl2zoom.aspx ) was only related to the main rocker, not the zoom controller on the top handle.

It does seem that the main rocker overrides to handle control, so it sometimes would cause problems, but I usually saw that then the main controller would stick in the zooming position and the handle control wouldn't stop it from trying to zoom.

Mine also was only periodic, it would work sometimes but not all the time. Or it would just act weird. Some times pushing the main rocker side to side would get it working.

Not sure that I have helped at all but hopefully you can figure it out.

Lynn

zoom stuck
 

What I discovered when my rocker zoom failed, I had no zoom control at all, the cam would stay at wide angle. What I found, one end of the potentiometer in the zoom rocker had opened. It was the equivelent of holding the rocker down in the wide angle position, it overroad the LINC and the zoom control on the handle. Once I went inside the camera and unplugged the flex connector, the camera was ok. I made a temp repair of the broken flex circuit to prove that the defective assembly was the cause of the problem, I then ordered a new rocker assembly. You will find several posts on this forum where others have replaced the rocker. The price from Canon was under $14 if I recall.

Hope this helps - Jim

I am having the same problem.

I used mine 2 weeks ago and it was fine, but I went to shoot a short today and found I couldn't zoom. Neither of the rockers worked.
I got it home and thought maybe the battery pack was bad or something, so I connected the power adapter to it and turned it on. The handle zoom control worked, but the rocker on the main body still did not work. I switched over to VCR mode to find a blank piece of tape in order to see if I could record okay. I switched back over to REC mode and I noticed that my lens was zooming all the way out (WA) without me doing anything. And once again both zoom controls would not work.
Its like something is overriding the controls an it keeps wanting to zoom out into wide-angle.
I am thinking about sending it to Canon, but I am afraid they are going to say its going to be like $1000 to fix or something....what to do what to do....

btw my GL2 is about 2 1/2 years old

It's an easy fix
 

My friend had his camera fixed by a technician friend after ordering the part from Canon ($20). It's a real easy fix, if you have ever opened up your old radio or tape player, or added RAM to your computer... you should feel confident you can do it - just follow the instructions on the web page listed above.

And James is right, the main rocker overrides the handle zoom switch. What goes bad most of the time it's a ribbon cable - pretty poor design from Canon... opening and closing the tape compartment repeatedly will eventually cause the ribbon cable to break.

I received the rocker replacement from Canon yesterday & I am talking with a technician at our school in hopes that he will replace it. If not, I guess it'll be up to me...
The rocker cost me $14.15
And shipping I am not exactly sure, but I think it was about $8

The website with instructions is still up so you should be fine.

Once we got into the camera we realized it wasn't the zoom ribbon cable, it was the zoom ribbon cable that connects into a CONNECTOR on a Circuit board that connects to other boards in the area, so in other words I have to replace the circuit boards that have the standby switches and all along there...and Canon has no idea what I am talking about so it's driving me nutters and i have a wedding in less than 2 weeks...

I had it happened once it is at max zoom in position. I had to sent it back to canon. It's already out of warranty but they repair it at no charge.

The repaired unit is locked at max zoom out position. I have to send it back to Canon second time to fix it.

the man I talked to this morning, seemed much more intelligent than the previous 4 people I spoke with yesterday. I ordered the piece I needed and they are shipping it to me Overnight Shipping. Cost? less than $50 not bad considering if it actually arrives here. By the way the piece I speak of is in this picture:

http://penguin.nu/lynn/diy/gl2images...3-ec-small.jpg

the red arrow pointing to the connector and all the circuit boards that connect via the ribbon cables is the piece I needed (not the rocker assembly :P )

Thanks to Lynn Roth for the picture.

Thought I'd attach this: it did arrive the next day. And I got it fixed that day! What a relief. A while back I got an e-mail from someone that needed the same piece as I did, and I am sorry, I saw it while I was in Argentina and couldn't respond and now I can't find the e-mail. So here is the info I have, as I am not sure which is the part number:

CC177255
DG1-4455-010

FPC ASS'Y, TRIGGER

I think the part number is DG1-4455-010.
Hope it helps for some.
I would recommend ordering this part as well as the actual zoom assembly, since it also contains ribbon cable in the area.
Sorry to make this long and confusing :P

Matt, thanks for the update. This hasn't happened to me (yet) but it is always good to know how the fixes go (and how soon the parts are in the fixee's hands).
Take care,
Sandy

I wish I'd discovered this forum a few years ago.

The zoom on my XM2 (I assume the only difference is the name according to the region it's designed for) developed a mind of its own after about three years. It would suddenly zoom all the way out while recording. At first I could just zoom back in again, but it got worse. I would have to wait for IT to be ready to zoom back in- which might take a few minutes or a few days! I sent it to Canon who cleaned the camera and sent it back. A few days later the fault returned. I sent it back to Canon who said they "couldn't reproduce the fault". The problem here was that sometimes it would zoom out immediately after switching on (whether it was recording or not), sometimes it took half an hour and sometimes it would run for a few whole sessions before zooming out.

The only positive thing about it is that I had an excuse to replace the camera as soon as the XH A1 came down to my price range.

Yep, that definitely sounds like the "zoom flu." I had entered the Apple Insomnia film festival (24hrs create, shoot, edit) and brought it out, and low and behold it would not for the life of me, zoom. (at least we brought a back up). So yes, it's has given me a reason to but a new camera, haha, I think I am going to make the switch to HD now...seems like that's the way everything is going these days.. :).

I too had the zoom on my GL2 go bad. I was in New Zealand a few years ago with my family, visiting some of the more spectacular places that had been filmed in The Lord of the Rings. The zoom would occasionally start to go wide all by itself, and sometimes I could take charge again and sometimes not. It was sporadic. The only advantage in this case, Annie, was that the start of the zoom-out was as smooth as if I had used a radio controller. And of course, just once or twice I realized afterwards that a zoom-out was exactly what had been needed at that point. Pollyanna.

When I got back to the States I had it fixed by Canon and it hasn’t gone bad on me since.

- David