View Full Version : canon XL1 alignment problem


Scott Weiss
May 20th, 2004, 05:56 PM
tape records and plays back ok in my camera, but when i put the tape in another deck there are glitches in the sound and sometimes in the picture, like dropped frames.

i hate to think i have to duplicate all of my tapes from my camera to a deck.....so far that seems to be the only solution.

a few people i disc'd this with indicated they had seen this with Canon.

any thoughts & suggestions?

Gary Walter
May 20th, 2004, 06:29 PM
Try cleaning the heads in your deck a few times and see if that helps.

Good luck.

Ken Tanaka
May 20th, 2004, 06:57 PM
Scott,
a. Are all of the tapes recorded in SP mode?

b. What deck are you using? Is it your deck or a rental? (Gary's suggestion applies particularly if the latter.)

c. Have you tried to replay the tapes in anything other than that deck?

There is no reason that I know of to assume that Canon's transports and heads are somehow inferior. I currently own, or have owned, every high-end Canon miniDV ever made and have never encountered anything I would consider an intrinsic design or engineering flaw in this regard.

Still, it is not uncommon for a video camera's heads to lose alignment. With respect to the XL1S, Canon actually encourages an annual cleaning and check-up for cameras used frequently.

Lorinda Norton
May 21st, 2004, 12:22 AM
Hi Scott,

By any chance, are you using Sony tapes and/or a JVC deck?

If so, from what I've observed, there may be a problem with the combination (XL1s, Sony, JVC), but no one knows. Last I heard from guys on this forum, JVC was still looking into it.

We gave up last summer and returned the deck. We've also just switched to Fuji tapes because one of the cameras was still having trouble with Sonys, even after Canon replaced some assemblies (transports and heads must have checked out). So far, so good.

Hope you find a solution soon!

Scott Weiss
May 24th, 2004, 01:23 PM
<<<-- Originally posted by Gary Walter : Try cleaning the heads in your deck a few times and see if that helps.

Good luck. -->>>


Thanks,

Cleaning the heads might help, but tapes recorded on 2 other XL-1's and a GL-2 play ok in my deck. It is definitely a problem with my camera.

Scott Weiss
May 24th, 2004, 01:25 PM
<<<-- Originally posted by Lorinda Norton : Hi Scott,

By any chance, are you using Sony tapes and/or a JVC deck?

If so, from what I've observed, there may be a problem with the combination (XL1s, Sony, JVC), but no one knows. Last I heard from guys on this forum, JVC was still looking into it.

We gave up last summer and returned the deck. We've also just switched to Fuji tapes because one of the cameras was still having trouble with Sonys, even after Canon replaced some assemblies (transports and heads must have checked out). So far, so good.

Hope you find a solution soon! -->>>

thanks, it's not the tape.....same tape recored in other cameras, plays ok on my deck.