Dropouts
 

I recorded the first hour of footage with my new Canon HV10 and viewing it I counted 6 dropouts, although I used a Sony HDV grade cassette, that should be appropriate to minimize these errors. To prevent any problem, I always remove the cassette when I stop using the camcorder for the day and I’ve never taken it in dusty or sandy environments.
All of these dropouts occurred in the last third of the tape (from 40th minute on), so I may guess that a contributing cause could be the different stress on motor and tape when the tape is almost fully wound.
I also noticed that most of the dropouts occurred when I was in a rather cold environment, just a few degrees centigrade above freeze point, but with my previous miniDV camcorders I often shot in far lower temperatures (below manufacturer’s specifications, I must admit) with no problem, apart from the battery level going down faster than usual.
Other than the dropouts, the picture quality is really wonderful and I’m overall enthusiastic of this camcorder.
I posted this just as an information and for any comments.

Marco Durando

Marcos, it's not unusual to have dropouts with new camcorder heads. Sometimes these need to be run in for several hours. But what's interesting is that my buddy has an FX7 like I do (in addition the HV10) and was using the same Sony HD tape you were when the cam was brand new. He got a number of dropouts with the FX7, but when he switched to the regular, non-HD mini-DV tape, the dropouts stopped. Now was it a coincidence or was the tape bad? Interestingly, when he was experiencing dropouts, even older tapes he had recorded (and were fine) were playing back with dropouts.

So it seemed that a particle or two from the Sony HD tape had come off and lodged in the heads. At least that's just a theory. The bottom line is that he no longer uses the HD tape and hasn't had a problem since.