flashing cassette icon
 

weird problem -
was getting the flashing cassette icon a good amount, figured time to get a head cleaning casette...popped it in, now i'm only getting the icon no matter what I put in...cleaner casette or protape. Won't record or play coz it doesn't recognize the tape...

sorry to be a bit green with this camera, nothing in the manual or online -
anyone run across this before?

thanks in advance TM

Are you being sure to close the inner tape loading mechanism before shutting the outer cassette compartment door? See "Two Doors to Close" at http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/tips.php.

How long did you run the head cleaner? Hopefully no more than about 4 or 5 seconds...

umm..D'oh!

Clearly a degree in Film was a waste of money.
Thanks Chris for the quick suss of the situation.

I think i'll like it here.
Tegan

Don't feel bad Tegan, everyone here with an XL1 has done it at least once.

The only reason I haven't done that (yet) is because everyone warned me about it first...of course it was right here on this board!

I don't think I have either yet.... BUT, the last time I said that
about always looking in the viewfinder to see REC being displayed
and thus not shoot during brakes and stop shooting when you
need to shoot, I did exactly that on my next shoot.... So, I'm
anxious awaiting what happens now!

No worries Tegan!

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : I don't think I have either yet.... BUT, the last time I said that
about always looking in the viewfinder to see REC being displayed
and thus not shoot during brakes and stop shooting when you
need to shoot, I did exactly that on my next shoot.... So, I'm
anxious awaiting what happens now!

No worries Tegan! -->>>

Heh, I did that yesterday for one take. :)

Shhhh....

Man, I did that one shooting an interview on the top of a float at Krewe of Tucks...

Oh man, when I first got my XL1s on the 9th (October, 2003) I had to get that thing on as fast as I could and look through it. This meant not opening the instruction manual. Well, I couldn't find the power button, so I opened the manual. Now it was on. I had loaded a tape too. It took me another 10 minutes to figure out I had to push the inner door in first. So then I went around shooting stuff. Third thing I saw was a battery icon in my viewfinder. I had a small watch type battery that came with the camera, and I couldn't figure out where to stick that for 3 days. I looked through the manual serveral times, but it wasn't until the 3rd day that I actual saw the page that showed where to load it. (Underneath)

Those were the 3 main things I had problems with when I got my camera :-p
so don't worry about the tape loading. I couldn't even get the camera on until I opened the manual :)