Dead camera, What a drag.
 

Hi Folks,

This is my first post here, although I've been learning alot here for about a year. I bought my HD100 in June due to all I've learned here. I want to start off saying thankyou to everbody here for all the great info.

Now on to my story,

I just got back From Chicago where the camera worked great for me on a very tough run and gun shoot. This morning I had a small shoot to do so, I got up early to prep the camera. I inserted the the AB batt and it wouldn't turn on. I plugged it in to the AC power and nothing.

What to do? Of course, go to DVi and look around. I found a post about a guy whose fuse had blown. I wasn't sure how it had happend but that sounded resonable, and a little disturbing. I've only had the camera for a few months and only run about 23 hours of tape through it. I got ahold of JVC service and the guy says must be a fuse send it to the Il office. Damm I just got back from there yesterday. This is when I realize that I have left a tape in it. The AV company I use for Business is an authorized dealer and have 2 100s in there rental pool. One of theirs had also blown the fuse awhile back. They called JVC service to see if it was ok to replace the fuse for me so I could get my tape out before sending in the body to them for factory repair. they said ok and after testing the fuse, which was dead, a new fuse was put in. DIDN'T WORK.

So off to JVC it goes, with me very sad, and a bit worried that such a tiny and hard to replace fuse seems to blow so easily. I love this camera and baby it carefully. Since I put it in my bag on Sat at the end of the shoot it has been handled gently. I have never had any camera just refuse to turn on with out any major trauma. I was just contemplating buying a 250 to go with this unit but now I'm not sure.

I hope they find the problem. I know The Service has been good for most everybody so I'm not worried about that. I just wanted to let people know about a problem as this is the leading repository for knowledge for this camera.

Any thoughts, comments, ideas, or what have you is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for everything.

I will continue to update this story as events progress.

Seems that the battery (The JVC supplied battery, not a IDX) shorting across the contacts can cause the fuse to blow. This happened when I was testing the HD 100, although looking at the design it didn't seem to be that easy to do.

Thanks for the info. I'm using Anton Dionics. In fact I haven't touched the JVC Battery since I unpacked the box. I can't think of how I might have crossed the contacts.

Someone at JVC told me the most frequent cause of blown GY-HD100 fuses is mounting the original battery improperly. This is why the HD100 fuse blew in my case, anyway. They say the GY-HD110 has a re-designed battery mount to help prevent this. I haven't seen a 110 to check this point out, however.

Same as mine?
 

This happened to me last week. Sounds very familiar...3 hours on the brand new camera. Seems to be working ok so far....
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=74953

Well the story continues.

I called JVC pro service to find out where they're at with my camera. The phone rep gave me my receipt # and told me to go to jvcservice.com to check on the unit along with the phone number for the service center. I called and left a message to call me with info. I then went to service website, not much info there except that it had been received.

I then saw a page to check the service history of products so I thought I'd give it a go. I was suprised to find that my serial # had been in for servicing in Dec,05 & bought in Nov,05. I called the service # again to see if they could give give me some info about this since I bought what I thought to be a new unit in June,06. They told me it had been sent in by another camera store in Dec but were unsure exactly what had been done. They thought it may have been sent in for the (a) upgrade since the serial number I was told is "quite old". I then called B&H to ask them about the situation and they informed me thay had no record of the serial # for the camera they sent me. I guess the # should have been on the receipt but it wasn't. They are going to investigate to find out if I was sold a refurb unknowingly.

So, I now have a dead camera with no info on when I'll see it again, and now find out it probably wasn't new to begin with. The parties involved seem to be wiling to look into all this, but I could use some advice form the gurus on how I should handle this form here. My first thought is to ask for a brand new unit with a newer run #or a 110.

Please tell me if I'm wrong in my thoughts. If the camera was never used but was sent back to the factory for a software upgrade and put back into circulation, isn't that still a refurbished unit?

Any thoughts and advice is welcome.

I was in love with this camera until all this happend.


Thanks,
Bryan

To my mind, if there is a service record on the camera from a previous sale, it was not a new camera. You should receive a new camera, and because of all the problems and money you have been out, and loss of use, the new camera should be a 110.

I don't know how long B&H takes to sell out their stock of the JVC cameras. I know a couple of months ago they had 100 in stock... so I'm guessing that they did not sell the camera in Nov '05, then restock it and resell it in June 2006. I think their stock goes faster than that.

There are sellers that specialize in refug JVC gear. I bought an NAB proHD vtr this way, and it actually had 0 hours and was in the original packaging.

I'm guessing your camera got out of the regular pipelines and you shouldn't have gotten it, but rather a true new camera. I hope JVC works out something fair (which would I think would be a 110).

Bryan, this is interesting...what is the URL for the service website?

..Never mind, you had it there...jvcservice.com
Thanks and good luck!

Hi Jack,

Thanks for your advice. I agree that B&H wouldn't have turned it around that slowly. I also realize I wasn't too clear in my post. According to JVC, the Dec service was for a different camera company, not B&H. The more I keep going over this, I do think I should ask for another unit. Especialy with the past service record and the fact that B&H didn't have the serial # for the camera they sold me. Thanks for reminding me about my loss of time with the camera I've had to reschedule 2 shoots so far because of this.

JVC Contact
 

Hi Bryan,

I have sent you, via e-mail, the name and contact info for the JVC rep that serves B&H. Please get in touch with this person regarding your situation.

Regards, Carl

Thank you very much Carl,

I haven't seen the Email yet but if it dosen't show up in a bit I'll let you know.

Thanks again.

fuse blow issues;
 

I'm not sure if the Anton Bauer plate has a built in fuse prior to the camera fuse, but my IDX battery plate does. I have blown it a few times when running an on-board monitor. Usually a result of stupidly mounting a fresh battery with the camera switched to "on" position. The IDX battery plate fuse is a very common one that can be bought at any Radio Shack.

Good to know...

john
evilgeniusentertainment.com