I'm not talking about lubricant,
I need to know...
A client has given me a miniDV cassett that was flooded. It contains the only footage of his son's wedding.
Does anyone here know if recovery of the footage is possible, and if so, how, without ruining my camcorder.

Google is faster than posting.

http://www.dvdinfinity.com.au/video_restoration.htm

Google is faster than posting.

http://www.dvdinfinity.com.au/video_restoration.htm

I was hoping for advice on an in-house solution,
or at least on this continent. (North America)

Lee,

Here's another (http://www.sonymediaservices.com/TapeRepairRecovery.htm) repair service; Google 'mini DV tape repair' and come up with many more.

And when you decide on one, perform this as a value-added pass-through to your customer. You accept the tape from them. Then you send it to the repair/restore facility and have the repaired/restored tape sent back to you. Then you mark up the repair/restore facility cost slightly when delivering the product back to the customer. Then you get to claim 'repair/restore' on your business shingle. New profit center! Cha-ching.

http://www.videointerchange.com/


These guys specifically mention that they specialize in flood repair...among MANY other things.