I managed to step on the headphone cable whilst it was plugged into the XHA1 today. The plastic bit inside the socket is broken and I now can't hear anything when i pludg teh headphones in.
:(

Is it a quick and simple fix or am I looking at lots of $$$$ ?

Thanks

Send it to Canon factory service (in London, I believe). There will be a repair charge, but it's not going to break you.

Yes, it's just outside London. It will take a couple of weeks for them to turn it round. I hope you don't need it in a hurry.

If you actually front up to Canon Service in North London and throw yourself on the mercy of the receptionist, you'd be suprised at what might happen - worked for me on a couple of occasions.

Bugger of a place to get to on public transport tho' (luckily, I drove).


CS

Presumably you should call them first to log it in and get a reference number. My XH should arrive in London on Tuesday to have its firewire port repaired.

It would be interesting to find out which of our 2 cameras come back first!

Ian
www.festivalpreviews.com

Had the same issue one year ago. Canon (Germany) fixed it for free (warranty), but they told me, I would have cost about 140€. After that experience I made myself a short adapter cable, fixed on the camera's handheld. Never happened again, just had to fix the cable a couple of times.

I did the same thing (a year ago) when my camera was only a month old. They charged me $250 to fix it. They knew it was not a warranty issue. This was at the Irvine, California repair center.

I now use a double connector with an angled input so if I do it again, just the connector will separate from the angled one.

Howard
Is there any chance that you could link to one of these connectors somewhere on the web or provide a photo.
I can't visualise it.

Here is a picture, I got it at a local electronics store.

Thanks for the info everyone.

Dropped it off at the North london branch yesterday morning. Hopefully will ahve it back early next week. No idea as to cost yet.

I'll look into the adaper as well.

I think I got my elbow joint from a small electronics shop in Cardigan, but you can probably get them from www.keene.co.uk, and Maplin. I had one for the lanc too, though 2.5mm joints are more difficult to come by.

The camera was ready on thursday and I picked it up yesterday afternoon.

Cost.... £151.

That'll teach me to look where I walk in future!!!

Sure taught me a lesson too. This is why I got the angle adapter. I figure if I did do it again, there would be little or no damage if it worked correctly as I planned.

I'm getting mine back from London, firewire repair, tomorrow - 9 business days. Apparently the Grand Prix meant that a lot of their technicians were there, presumably working, delaying my repair.

Ian
http://www.festivalpreviews.com

Is this weakness unique to the XH-A1? Is it because the green plastic insulator is too small? It is questionable that it is an owner fault or a design flaw considering the number of people that have had this part break.
I have one of the right angle adapters but I am not quite sure how it helps prevent the breakage (since it has not happened to me YET!

Today we broke the audio-video adapter on my camera when moving it a bit (I had a field monitor plugged in). Seems as if always to unplug when doing any kind of movement is a golden rule even though the distance is almost zero. To me it looks like a designflaw since those connections seems to be only loosely connected. If I compare it with a mp3-player or the phone output on my computer the XH-A1 sockets seems way cheaper implemented. It would strike me as odd since the camera costs way more than my mp3-player or phone output. Well, I will see if I can manage to be without it for a short while when it's getting fixed.

If you step on a cable, you can break almost any jack. I've had the BNC jack on a DSR500 ripped loose when somebody stepped on the monitor cable. The elbow connector is a pretty good idea; in theory the cable would pull out of the downward facing connector before trashing the one in the camera back.

What I do with monitor cables, and it would be fine for other cables too, is use long rubber bands. I got a bag of rubber bands from an office supply store that are heavy duty and about 6 or 8" long. I loop one around the cable a couple of feet down from the connector, then hook it over the handle or hotshoe, whereever is convenient. This makes a loop in the cable, and if somebody trips or steps on it, it would have to pull out a foot or more to put force on the socket. The rubber band just holds the loop up. Sort of a shock absorber.

I am quite sure it wasn't stepped on but anyway it has happened so it's just a matter of moving on... I like your idea about using rubberbands to have connected to the cables. It sounds like a cheap safety. The elbow connector seems like a good idea to but the s-video-audio seems to be a special connector to me...

I just found another solution to the problem.
ThinkGeek :: Replug Breakaway Audio Jack (http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/portable-audio-video/9d89/)