Firewire Port
 

A couple of years ago the firewire port on my canon XM2 stopped working. The unit was sent to a canon service unit at Stoke who repaired it. The repair lasted for less than 24Hr and the same fault reappeared. I returned the unit to the same service centre and the service engineer informed my that the firewire ports on canon camera's were unstable and it was likely to be caused by the way I connected the lead into the camera. They refused to repair it again and after several arguments returned my repair money. After this I still used the camera and used my old sony camcorder for the transfer to my editing unit.

When the XH A1 came out I convinced myself that if the firewire port on the XM2 had been suspect it would have been sorted for this new camera, and purchased one.

Now one month after the garantee has expired the same thing has happed to the XH A1 and it is now awaiting for a repair estimate, this time form Canon UK Borehamwood.

Am I just unlucky or is there an issue with the firewire port??

Hi Melvyn. A third possibility is that it is the way you are connecting the cam that is causing this to happen. I always make sure that my cam is switched off before connecting the FW cable. I know FW is supposed to be hot-pluggable, but there are so many stories around about similar problems that I decided to err on the side of caution.

Richard

With any firewire device, you want to turn it off, then plug it in, then turn it on. I have personally seen two firewire drives fried due to hot swapping. Just because they claim you can doesn't mean you really can.

Thanks Richard & Bill

Since my experience with the XM2 I have been most careful with connecting the XH A1. That said I'm not the only one to connect the firewire to the camera in my workshop, but don't like to blame anyone who all swear they switch of the camera before connecting.

Maybe I'm just unlucky

I also had my firewire port repaired, under warranty. I sent it to Borehamwood.

Ian
Festival Video and Audio Previews - Festival Previews Ltd

Price For Repair???
 

Cost on the 4 pin firewire repair for the A1 ...Anyone?
Thanks

Just took mine in and was $250. They said it could be as high as $750. Mine was from plugging the fire wire cord in backwards on the computer. I dont know how that happened but it did. I will also always turn my cam. off before pluggin in just in case also.

The most important factor is to ensure the cable is already connected at the computer side before connecting the camcorder. This is to make sure the cable's shield is already grounded.

Personally, I always hot swap and have never had an issue. Then again, for my main PC, the four or so FireWire cables I have connected are permanently plugged in at the computer end. And all the DV/HDV kit I use is Sony. It seems that over the years reading this and other forums, Canon and Panasonic seem to be more prone.

I've lost use of my FX1 fire wire port. I blame that on the angle they have it on the camera. Results in stress on the port if you have it sitting on a table top.

SONY DSR-11's are noted for fried video boards when connected to a "LIVE" firewire cable.

Very important to power-down the camera.