We have 2 Xl2s's and the other week I had a call from our other young cameraman about how he could not seem to capture from the camera to the computer.
I went over all the usual troubleshooting sugestions and still no success. Then I remembered that this xl2 had a very worn dv conector in the camera. I thought that it may have failed so I suggested to get the other xl2 and put his tape in and try again.

He phoned me back and said he still had no success. The next day I came in to try and capture some of my own footage and had no luck. I really thought the computer was the problem. I went to take the firewire cable out of the front of the computer and noticed that it was upside down! Unbelievable, who does that.

Interestingly the plug was a nice fit and when you put it in the correct way up it is quite a sloppy fit. I didnt think you could put a 6 pin firewire upside down.

My suspicians kicked in and I relized that by puting in the cable upside down he probably fried the dv board on the camera. I checked the computer and it seemed fine and we have since captured onto it with another consumer camera. We sent one camera off to Canon Australia for a quotation and we have recieved a quote back for AU$1050. The qoute read

Upon inspection, unit found to have damaged DV jack and damged firewire interface I.C. on main PCB assembly.Quote to; Dismantle unit, supply and fit listed parts. Adjust as required. Confirm video tape path alignment. Clean video head and tape path. Confirm firewire operation. Reassemble, clean, check and test.

DY1-8731-000 PCB ASS'Y MAIN $586.57
DG3-0618-000 PCB ASS'Y JACK $22.42
DH2-5223-010 FFC, MAIN-JACK $2.68
LABOUR $337.00
FREIGHT $13.00
SUBTOTAL $961.67
GST $96.16
TOTAL $1057.83



Simply unbelievable!
And you guessed it the other xl2 has to go down to have the same repair! over $2100 total!

On a happier note I dont have to pay for it, our young gun cameraman will!
What a lesson to learn.

P.S dont put your 6 pin firewire plug upside down! Yeah I know,like you really would.

When I was finishing my film degree at UT-Austin, I took an upper-level course in field video production that included a segment on the then-brand-new Hi-8 tape format. Our instructor, a seasoned, grizzled Emmy award winning NOVA producer, very slowly took his time spelling out in great detail the serious consequences to be suffered by anyone who did not pay attention to the vertical alignment pin adorning the then-quite-unfamiliar S-video jack.

We were just beginning the transition from a BNC-dominated world down into high-end consumer gear, which drew equal amounts of praise (for its low cost) and damnation (for the delicacy of the S-video jack, among other things). The formats change, but the connectors are still feeble.

I've got a small Canon ZR series minidv camcorder that I use as a deck. I still record on my camera, but I never use it for capture or playback. It was only like a hundred bucks.

Maybe try that as opposed to the repair quote?

As stupid as it was, I can't believe you're making the camera person pay for that repair, and I also can't believe he agreed to do it.

Seems like a fair way would be to split it, since you suggested he try using the other camera after the first one fried. But hey, if you can get the guy to cough up 2100 like that, you better keep him around.

I also make sure to always capture on a cheap little ZR camcorder. Mine actually just stopped functioning after a friend was using it. But I'm only out about $200 instead of a grand.

The senior Pastor of our church came in and found out about what our cameraman had done and told us not to make him pay anything. The church claimed on insurance and he didnt even have to pay the excess. He was very relieved.