Hi I had a 4 mounths old xl1s it started eating tapes when rewinding tapes, service here in europe told me that mechanical band way has to be changed it cost 800$(my warranty is valid only in usa)...Ýs it normal or if i will try to change the tape brand can i solve it?

Thanks...

Same here with my XL1S. I have been using only TDK DV Digital Standard -tapes, and now - after about 30 tapes - it did this marvelous thing. Destroyed my shooting by eating the tape when rewinding.

If I pay this much of my camera I do expect that this kind of crap does NOT happen! None of my cheap Sonys have never done this to me.

Any solutions or ideas?

All cameras eat tapes from time to time. There is nothing new to cameras eating tapes. I had a Sony Betacam SP camera ($50,000 USD) that ate 3 or 4 SP tapes at about $50 USD each. It just happens, cost of camera has nothing to do with it. All things mechanical can break or get out of adjustment. Get the camera fixed and get back to shooting.

(1) Buy a miniDV tape rewinder. They're like $20. We bought 2 of them last year and use them constantly. It'll save wear and tear on your camera.

(2) My GL1 started eating tapes after owning it for over 2 years. Sent it into Canon for repair, had to replace several components because they were worn out... ended up costing close to $400 if I remember correctly, this was just a couple months ago.

Thanks Jeff & Kyle. Found another thread here, too, where people told they had this same problem also with new XL1S cameras. Some parts had been changed and the problem was gone. Well, have to go to the local Canon service on monday and hear what they say about it.

Btw Jeff, very nice wildlife photos in your gallery! A little different here in Northern Finland (I guess most of you don't even know where on earth this little country called Finland even is located) ;-)

Beware of cheap tape rewinders, they are as or more likely to eat or damage a tape than a camcorder.

Thanks Don, You're propably right.

But hey, in my last posting I mentioned how small and unknown Finland is and the next answer's surname is a Finnish name! :-)

Hi again! Got my xl1s back from the local Canon service today. They had changed the mechanical band way and cleaned the whole thing. The camera is not under warranty anymore but they had talked about it with the Canon distributor. I also told them that several people in this list had had the same problem even in new cameras (another thread here, too) and emailed them the URL. Charge 0 euros.

I appreciate Canon for this kind of fair play, and thanks for this list, too. Nice team here :-)

Good to hear you got the cam back and that they hooked you up. The few times we've had to deal with Canon Service, they've always been helpful.

Kyle

hey i got my xl1s in august of 2003....

will it have this rewinding problem? (aside from time--wear&tear--)

I had the XL1 for 13 monthes. I loved it, then it started messing up my tapes. As suggested on this forum, I took it to a shop and for $300.00 thy fixed it.

When I think of it, I could have bought 2 or 3 other brand for the price I paid to do the same job.


Wayne